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Desiigner’s “Panda” Hits #1 on Billboard & Beat Only Cost $200 – Lesson for Music Producers

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The smash hit โ€œPandaโ€ by G.O.O.D Music artist Desiigner is blazing up the charts sitting pretty at the #1 spot on Billboardโ€™s Hot 100 right now. (Week of May 6, 2016).

And we love the song at Deviant Noise.

But thereโ€™s a big lesson for Music Producers and Beat Makers in this story of massive success.

Read on to find out what…

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Vocals: Free.

Beat: $200.

A #1 Hit: Priceless

DJBooth.net reported at the end of March that hip-hop producer Menace (@MenaceOfficialB) sold the beat to Desiigner back in 2014 for only $200.

And now the song is a smash.

The Lesson Producers Think They Should Learn

Now a lot of people on the internet are screaminโ€™ that producers need to know their worth and charge more for their beats.

We disagree. Thereโ€™s no telling whatโ€™s gonna turn into a smash. And as a producer you may have something else in mind for a beat, but the artist that buys takes it in another direction.

This happened to Menace in the case of Panda. He said:

When I posted on YouTube, I wrote: โ€œMeek Millโ€”Ace Hood Type Beat.โ€ So it came out totally different than [I thought].

So youโ€™ll never know what might happen to a song you produced. And since so many songs donโ€™t make it to the Billboard Hot 100, you canโ€™t be charging regular artists $5000 for a beat!

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The Real Lesson for Producers

The real lessons people need to take from this story is to get their BUSINESS game tight. You need to have your shit together โ€“ publishing and paperwork.

Money in Music Production

Panda is being played NON-STOP right now โ€“ and royalty payments may be shit in most cases, but theyโ€™re not when you have a #1 hit song on the Billboard charts.

Thatโ€™s why you need to:

1) have your music copyright protected,

2) join a Performance Rights Organization (PRO) and

3) get your licensing terms right.

Right now Desiigner is sittin pretty and reaping the benefits of his talent. And itโ€™s very likely that Menace is getting a piece of that publishing (i.e. royalty) money too.

Letโ€™s break this stuff down.

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Sweetwater

Copyright

This one can be tricky, depending on which country youโ€™re in. Technically, as soon as you publish a creative work (which could mean uploading a beat publicly on YouTube) you should be able to prove ownership and copyright.

But if you want to be sure, spend some money sending a CD full of your beats to your countryโ€™s copyright office and register the copyright with them.

Youโ€™ll usually get a certificate that proves you own the creative work and all rights to reproduce it. But this isnโ€™t legal advice, so go talk to a lawyer to be sure.

PROs

Joining a Performance Rights Organization (learn more) is VERY important. These are the companies that collect royalties for public performances of your music and distribute them.

Iโ€™m a member of SOCAN (the main Canadian PRO), and in the USA there are a couple of options โ€“ ASCAP and BMI. In Europe you have SESAC.

Join a company and submit your beats & any songs that use your beats to them.

You can also join SoundExchange, which is a company that deals with online streaming royalties.

This way, if a song you produced blows up, or even gets MILD radio play, youโ€™ll get your piece.

Granted, this shit usually only amounts to a few dollars (or few hundred dollars if youโ€™re lucky) every few months, but if you end up making a surprise hit โ€“ like Menace did with Panda โ€“ youโ€™ll get a nice chunk of change.

Licensing Terms

These are your โ€œrulesโ€ for anybody using your beats in their song or video/audio/live production

This has to do with your โ€œcontractโ€ when selling beats. A lot of beat marketplaces offer basic licensing terms if you sell through them.

But if youโ€™re selling privately through YouTube like Menace did, itโ€™s a good idea to set some basic licensing terms. Are you selling the beat exclusively or non-exclusively (i.e. a โ€œleaseโ€ beat). How much is the publishing split between artist and producer? Is there a limit to the number of downloads/streams/etc that the artist can get before having to re-negotiate the terms?

Publishing and licensing terms are pretty heavy subjects so make sure you learn all you can about them to protect your art. Hereโ€™s some free templates of different contracts music producers may find useful from HipHopMakers.com.


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Protect Your Art

It looks like Menace is going to be alright as far as publishing and getting paid and credited for his beat. Heโ€™s getting the shine and his placements are definitely going to go up.

Most starting and intermediate producers donโ€™t really think about this side of the business. But the story about Desiignerโ€™s Panda hitting #1 on the BIllboard Hot 100 Chart (two years after the song was released!) should prove you never know when you may have a hit on your hands.

And itโ€™s best to be protected BEFORE that happens.

If you have music that’s ready to be released, I highly recommend you use TuneCore to do it – they’re an affordable way to release unlimited music to Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal and more!

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    About The Author:

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    Omar Zulfi

    Omar Zulfi is a music producer, rapper, singer, songwriter and digital entrepreneur. He is the founder and head writer at Deviant Noise. Learn more about what he's doing by clicking here.