Scammed in Buying Instrumental Beats!!

One thing artists today must be aware of is being scammed by beat producers.  I can tell of my personal experience and how I prepared myself to protect my investments in the future.  I would first like to inform you on some tips to consider and strategies that con-artists pull when selling beats.  I read an article written by Timothy R. Adamek, from ezinearticles.com and he enlisted some very important pointers about purchasing beats online and what I found to be personally effective.

It is imperative to know the difference between exclusive and non-exclusive rights to beats you're attempting to purchase.  If you purchase beats with exclusive rights, this grants you total ownership of the beats and their copyrights.  Non-exclusive rights means the producer leased the beat to you and has the privilege to license the beat to other interested artists.  I believe an instance of this sort happened to me, but not as an online purchase.  I bought a few beats from a beat maker in my hometown, with .wav files included, and while I was performing at one of my shows, another artist asked me about one of the beats to my song and professed a fellow artist has the same beat from the same producer.  Now you know that put me in a frenzy because I thought I did a lawful and justified transaction with the producer.  Let's just say that producer will not be used again. 

Before purchasing a beat, you should make sure the mix sounds good and clean.  Contacting the producer in advance is a good tactic, especially for any questions of uncertainty.  Producers who provide contact information and professionalism in conducting business are people you should feel comfortable in doing business with.  Keep your antennas up for those producers who sell stolen beats and sell beats to artists without completing the transaction where the artists never receives their purchase.  Those scammers are out there!

The website in which you are buying the beat from should have a very good sound quality when previewing the beat.  It gives a clear vision of how the beat will sound after you buy it, record on it, and get it mixed and mastered.  Always search for quality.  Buying beats in a bulk is always a good look and a good business move when developing a relationship with a producer.  Usually, the producer will work out a deal when you purchase beats in quantities, so make sure you ask of this if it is not offered.  To give insight on another situation that occurred to me is when I was ready to purchase three beats from a producer online.  The beat maker was ready and eager to lease and sell me the beats of my interest.  I kept reiterating that I want exclusive rights to the beats and how I was getting my contract looked over by my attorney so the beats can be released to me exclusively with full ownership of the copyrights.  Well, I told the beat producer I'm finalizing the contract and I need his contact information and copyright dates if applicable, and the producer never got in contact with me again.  It seems as if the contract and my lawyer were my secret weapon for preventing any unlawful scam or unjustified purchase of the beats that I desired.  Now that's the way to weed out any producer who's strategy is to get over on ambitious artists.  So I encourage you to be very wise when purchasing beats (online) and make sure every transaction is in writing because it protects you from scams and infringement.   

Adamek, T. R. (n.d.). Buying instrumental hip hop beats online. Retrieved June 18, 2011, from http://ezinearticles.com/?Buying-Instrumental-Hip-Hop-Beats-Online&id=1902460.