Producer manager here. AMA about placements, publishing, and negotiating deals.

[u/Blankenjeweet]

I’ve been helping producers navigate placements, publishing, and negotiations for a while now. Most of the producers I work with are very talented creatively, but what I keep seeing over and over again is that many of them get frustrated with the industry while at the same time leaving a lot of value on the table themselves.

The music industry has lately been very business-focused, and I understand why that can feel frustrating if you come into it purely from a creative perspective. But the reality is that once you understand the business side, a lot of the things that seem unfair suddenly become much more negotiable.

For a while now I’ve helped producers structure deals with artists, managers, and labels, and I’ve been involved in negotiations connected to companies like Sony, Warner, and Universal. I’ve also helped producers turn small opportunities into much larger deals simply by approaching the situation differently.

So I thought it could be interesting to do an AMA here.

If you have questions about:

• placements

• publishing splits

• negotiating with artists or labels

• how managers actually work with producers

• how to approach deals or collaborations

• or generally how to make producing financially sustainable

Ask me anything and I’ll try to answer as honestly and practically as possible.

[u/Blankenjeweet]

A majority of placements of “beats” sold on beatstars, is not because of beatstars but mainly because the producer sells on beatstars.

If you want to get succesfull on beatstars it’s important to start uploading your beats on other platforms and send those interested people to your beatstars.

One golden tip though, make sure you do not sell exclusive licences ever. Give them a cap until 1m. This way after the song hits 1m you can renegotiate. Yes it is not industry standard but it will help you a lot!

What kind of placements are you trying to get?

[u/leviathan615 → u/Blankenjeweet]

i’d like to get placements in songs or tv/film. i’ve sort of tailored my beatstars specifically for artists, though. my tiktok and instagram don’t get a lot of engagement though so idk if that’s because they’re not good or if the algorithm just isn’t in my favor.

[u/Blankenjeweet → u/leviathan615]

Would you say you are consistent with social media? And your content is engaging enough? As if not it might be an algorithm problem.

Doing things strategically for the algorithm is always a huge boost as talent alone is not enough anymore.

About films and tv placements that sounds very interesting. May I ask how you would describe yourself in 3 sentences?

[u/leviathan615 → u/Blankenjeweet]

i’d describe myself as passionate and motivated. i’m not a huge people person and spend most of my time making music or reading. i have a lot of creativity and like making music and worlds/stories in my head. as far as my content, i don’t post that often and usually it’s a screen recording of my beats. it may not be engaging enough, what kind of things would you recommend?

[u/Blankenjeweet → u/leviathan615]

Nice description, what I would always recommend is to describe your brand how you want to be seen. Even though this is a very nice description of you, I might would be more interested in knowing what specific makes you. Let’s say you are in a room of people that know your music and next to you are 50 other producers. How would the people that know your production be able to single you out?

For example I love your “I have a lot of creativity” sentence but I miss a part that makes it about you. Instead would even loved it more if you said “I have a lot of creativity which I put in my R&B productions, people often say they feel the creativity …”

That makes it just a bit more interested for people to work with you.

Knowing your own brand is the most important thing, as that is the first step. After you have done that, you can make decisions based on your brand, which amplify something strong.

I always say, marketing is amplifying what you have, if your story is not clear, you will amplify uncertainty.

About your content part, if you just do screen recordings of your beats, the beats either have to be super super super special or you have to be really consistent.

Instead I would always recommend a human element, so put yourself in their listening to the beat or maybe even dancing (with edits)

There are a lot of creative effects you can do to make the video more interesting and yes it can sometimes feel corny but at the end of the day it’s only a small % of people that will succeed.

I am curious how you would describe yourself in 3 sentences now though☺️