How to sell sample packs
How to sell sample packs
Sell your samples online
Create a store or sell samples from your own website
Don’t have a website?
Already have a website?
Sell from your own website if you have one.
Use Sellfy to embed your products, the whole store or just a «buy» button.
A pop up with a checkout will appear and your customers will be able to buy your samples without leaving your site.
With Sellfy, you get everything you need from an eCommerce platform—automated file delivery, top-notch sample security, premium support, and so much more.
Sellfy stores are fully customizable and come with many features, app integrations, and marketing tools. File delivery is automatic and payments are instant. No need to manually send samples to your customers! Sellfy also stands out for its ease of use as well as industry-standard secure cloud hosting.
Should you ever have any issues or concerns, feel free to reach out to our excellent support team or browse Sellfy’s Help Center for answers. We’re always here to help!
For world class producers and upcoming stars
Sellfy is great for beginners and is a go-to choice for even world class producers.
No matter where you start with Sellfy you can spend less time worrying about technical hassles and more time on your music.
Make passive income from your own unique samples and your own unique style. Sell on SoundCloud, Instagram, Facebook or your own website.
How to start selling samples?
To start all you need are few dedicated fans and a good product. We’ll take care of all the techy stuff.
Here’s what you need to do:
1. Create your Sellfy account.
2. Upload your samples or drum kits and write product descriptions for each product.
3. Add information on payments so you get paid whenever you sell a product.
4. Share your store and products on social media and your website.
Where To Sell Samples: Top 10 Sample Pack Labels In 2021
Looking for places to sell your samples? In this list you’ll find 10 of the best sample pack companies.
1. Production Music Live
As PML we offer premium samples, MIDI packs and synth presets for various genres. Some of our best sellers include the Deep Premium Drums series, Serum presets, as well as Melodic Techno and Trap sample packs. We’ve collaborated with artists like Ben Böhmer, Weska, Tim Engelhardt and more.
2. Splice
Splice is a cloud-based samples and presets distributor. It’s a subscription-based service which allows users to purchase sounds individually instead of buying entire packs.
3. Sounds
Sounds by Native Instruments is another subscription service that provides members with access to royalty-free audio files.
4. Loopcloud
Loopcloud by Beatport is a subscription service with sample packs, which provides unique software for sample organization and manipulation.
5. Loopmasters
Loopmasters (previously Beatport Sounds) is a popular sample pack store which provides sounds for multiple genres. Unlike the previous distributors, it is not a subscription service.
6. ADSR
ADSR is the online store of the popular YouTube channel “ADSR Production Tutorials”. It distributes samples and presets from popular developers.
7. Prime Loops
Prime Loops is a sample pack label known for developing Hip Hop, Soul, Trap, R&B, Lofi, Orchestral, Retro and Vintage sounds.
8. Capsun Pro Audio
This is a sample pack label by Jay Pulman aka Capsun. They develop sample packs for Hip Hop, Trap, R&B and other genres.
9. Sample Magic
Sample Magic is a Splice-exclusive provider of loops and samples across various genres, from house and techno to underground and indie.
10. Samplephonics
Samplephonics is a popular label with sample packs for a wide variety of music genres created by many artists and sound designers.
Learn How To Make High Quality Sample Packs Today
Step by Step Instructions For Creating Original Sound Packs You Can Sell Online
About this Course
You’ll learn everything you need to know about making a professional sample pack: From making a plan, learning about copyright, making drum and melody samples to exporting and renaming samples properly and more!
What You Get
Who is this course for?
If you’re serious about building up an income stream in the music business, this course is an absolute no brainer.
You will learn everything you need to produce and market a sample pack and you’ll break even with the cost of this course in no time after selling roughly 4-6 sample pack copies.
Sonoiz Blog
How To Create And Sell Your First Sample Packs
Sample packs are a collection of audio loops and one-shot samples bundled for producers to download and use as building blocks for their music productions.
Here’s everything you need to know to create a solid sample pack and a checklist you should stick to before you release it on the SONOIZ marketplace.
Topic / Genre / Style
Before you even start creating your samples, think about a topic for your pack. What’s the title of your sample pack? What type of sounds would you like to provide?
Obviously, If you are going to provide loFi boom-bap drum loops, melodies, and chord progressions, don’t include synth samples for house and techno.
Also, stick to your formula when creating your samples and make sure your pack has a topic in terms of texture and sound.
Instrumentation
It’s totally okay to release a pack that includes drum loops and melodies if you are going to release a bigger pack but makes sure your drum samples harmonize with your melodies and chord progressions.
For smaller packs (less than 50 samples) I’d recommend making a pack with just one instrument, i.e. a drum kit or a loop kit that consists of one instrument.
Audio Quality
Loops must loop perfectly and loops with clicks or pops won’t be accepted.
In case some of your samples have clicks at the start or end, apply small fades to get rid of them.
Volume
Labeling
Your samples should be labeled the following way:
Ie. a 140 bpm piano loop in G major by Loop Goonz could be named:
It is recommended to use underscores between words and numbers.
Artwork
The artwork is just as important as your samples and should complement the sound of your pack, I personally like to create my art before I even start creating the samples because it sets a mood and gives me a clearer vision of what I’d like to create.
Flat artwork is always preferred over 3d product boxes.
We at SONOIZ often run marketing campaigns on Facebook and Instagram and if you release great artwork you have a better chance to be included in these campaigns.
Consider hiring a graphic designer if you are not an experienced photoshop user.
Final Words
How to Sell Sample Packs in 11 Steps
Make money selling sample packs! This article will show you how to build a business to sell sample packs and drum sample packs online.
You can follow these steps to sell music sample packs, audio presets, and music software templates.
If you’re a musician or music producer, you may have a great ear for sound design.
You can package up your own sample packs and sell them to fellow music creators.
There are tons of producers looking for unique music samples to help with music production.
So here are eleven steps to help get started.
How to Sell Sample Packs in 11 Steps
Step 1: Start Small
It can be very tempting to attempt to create a 500 loops sample pack.
But the process can quickly become too overwhelming if you’re not used to it.
Instead of going all in, start small with a sample pack of 20 to 50 music samples or loops.
This will make the process less overwhelming, and you will get an idea of what works, and what doesn’t.
So start small and experiment before investing weeks or even months into creating a single sample pack.
Step 2: Package Up Your Samples
Once you build a collection of your best samples, you need to package them up to sell online.
Best Audio Format
WAV is the most popular audio format for samples.
WAV files provide high-quality uncompressed audio which is popular with most music software programs.
Create Subfolders
If you have a lot of samples in your sample pack, consider creating a subfolder to sort and organize the samples.
You can sort by instruments, BPM, genre, and more.
Compress Into a Zip File
Next compress the sample pack folder into a Zip File.
Putting the audio in a Zip file will compress the folder size and package the file to make it easier to share online.
Both Windows and Mac support Zip files.
Step 3: Create Sample Pack Artwork
To make your sample pack stand out you need to create exciting artwork.
You will see a lot of sample packs with a 3D box graphic.
Here is a link to download a free 3D box graphic.
You will need Adobe Photoshop to edit the graphic design file.
By following these steps, you can create a graphic for your sample pack without spending a lot of time and money.
Step 4: Create a Sample Pack Audio Preview
Creating a good audio preview is one of the most important aspects when selling a sample pack.
This will be the first impression a customer will get about your sound pack.
So you want to make sure it sounds great.
Tips for Creating an Audio Preview
Step 5: Create a License Agreement
It is important to include a license agreement or terms and conditions with each sample pack.
By including a license agreement customers will better understand what they can and cannot do with your samples.
Your license agreement doesn’t have to be complex.
The simpler it is to understand, the better.
What your license agreement should include:
Step 6: Create an Online Store to Sell Digital Products
Building your own website is the best option for running your sample pack business.
With your own store, you will keep 100% of your sales and have much more freedom to decide about your content.
Building a website may sound complex.
Luckily it doesn’t have to be with the Music Maker WordPress Theme.
After purchasing the Music Maker WordPress Theme, you need a website host.
By selling 1 sample pack sale per month the hosting will pay for itself.
Step 7: Set Your Sample Pack Prices
Pricing a sample pack can be a hard part of the process.
Many variables should be taken into consideration.
Thousands of producers and businesses price their sample packs differently from each other.
Except for the Minimal Swing sample pack. Which is a smaller pack and therefore priced lower.
Another exception on the list is the Techno Megapack Bundle 2.
That is a great example of how offering big discounts and bundles from time to time can give you a lot of sales.
Overall, the price of the sample pack will depend on its size, how many samples it has if it includes presets too, etc.
Test your prices from time to time and offer discounts and sales.
Step 8: Promote on Social Media
Use social media and YouTube to promote your sample packs.
Create YouTube videos showcasing your custom samples.
Here is an example video of a free synth sample pack we created.
Then repurpose the video for Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and other social sites.
Don’t just create ads telling people to buy your sample packs.
Create helpful and entertaining content showing how your samples can help fellow music producers.
Then create content such as video tutorials, tips & tricks, and behind-the-scenes to help build your brand.
Search Instagram for how other marketers do this effectively.
Step 9: Offer Sample Pack Samplers
Create free sample pack previews for potential customers to download.
These can be sample packs of 5 to 10 loops from your main sample pack to give the customer an idea of what they will get.
This is a great practice to allow potential customers to try before they buy.
This will make people feel more comfortable spending money if they like the sample pack preview.
Step 10: Upload to Online Marketplaces
By selling your sample packs on other marketplaces, you can earn more and spread the word about your brand better.
The biggest marketplace for samples is Loopmasters.
Sample subscription websites are all the rage nowadays.
They make it easier for producers to buy and download only what they need instead of a larger pack.
You should try contacting these companies once you have a big catalog and build a name for yourself.
Currently, the biggest sample subscription websites are Splice Sounds and Noiiz.
Here are the links to submit your samples to Splice Sounds or Noiiz.
Step 11: Ask Music Producers for Endorsements
You can give your sample packs away for free to music producers with a big following online in exchange for a positive endorsement.
These producers can create videos showcasing your packs and even use them in their work.
This will make potential customers feel like they’re getting much more value for their money. Since your product is being endorsed by someone they trust.
Bonus Tips
Offer Freebies to Generate Traffic
Offering freebies and gifts means you care for your customers and is a great way to attract people in the beginning.
Producers are looking for free samples all the time and they will certainly remember your brand later if you offer them value.
Sell Presets & Software Templates
If you’re good at sound design, selling presets and pre-made software templates can be very profitable too.
Producers are always looking for presets for plugins like Serum and templates to speed up their workflows.
Offer Promotional Discounts
Giveaway Discount Codes and Create Sales from Time to Time
All the big names in the sample pack industry are doing this frequently and you should too.
Giveaway a first-time discount code for your followers and potential customers.
Also, creating sales with big discounts from time to time is a great strategy.
How to Make a Sample Pack to Sell
Follow these tips to ensure your sample pack is high-quality.
Here is a video showcasing the process of creating a sample from start to finish.
7 Workflow Tips for Making Sample Packs
So far we’ve talked about how to create a website and promote your sample packs. But not much about the production part of it.
Having a workflow when creating your sample packs is important so you don’t get overwhelmed and burn out.
Creating sample packs can quickly become a repetitive task.
Videos & Tutorials for Creating Custom Sample Packs
How to Make a Sample Pack
How to Make Sample Packs ( Music Producers )
How to Create Sample Packs: Batch Processing Tricks
How to Sell Beats Online
by Anders Johanson July 14, 2020 9 min read
Is Selling Beats Online Profitable?
Selling beats online will always be a profitable business because it costs almost nothing to get started. If you’re a beat maker that has a hard drive full of unreleased beats, you’re basically sitting on a pile of gold. There’s a huge demand for beats online, and producers generate revenues in tens of millions every year. It’s not going to be easy to enter the market because there’s a lot of competition, but if you’re consistent in your efforts, you can succeed. Your biggest challenge, in the beginning, will be making artists aware of your music. Just being a producer isn’t enough; you also have to be a great marketer. However, once the hard work is done and your brand starts blowing up, you’ll make money hand over fist.
The amount of time it’ll take you to get to a point where your beats begin to sound like they’re worth selling will depend on your experience as a producer. If you’re coming from another genre like EDM, know some music theory, or play an instrument, getting into beat-making will be easy. If you’re a complete beginner, however, it’ll take a while to figure things out. Chances are your early beats won’t sound anywhere close to the commercial tracks you hear on Spotify, but don’t despair. Getting to that level simply takes time and practice. All successful producers went through a phase where they hated most of the stuff they made. You just need to persevere and push through it.
Once you have a catalog of 10, 20, or 30 beats that sound half-decent, you can start selling them. At that point, only your marketing skills will limit the profits you’ll generate from those beats. Remember that you can sell the same beat to an unlimited number of artists by offering non-exclusive licenses. That’s the crux of selling beats online, and the number one reason this business model is so profitable. And all it takes to get started is 200 bucks for a DAW and some free time, which shouldn’t be an issue if you’re passionate about making music.
How Much Money Can You Make From Selling Beats?
The story of Taz Taylor will resonate with many. After dropping out of school, with no real prospect of getting a job, he tried to make his first dollar on the internet by offering graphic design services. Because the business was slow and he had a lot of downtime, he picked up FL Studio and started making beats. He produced his first beat when he was 17, and by his own account, it was terrible. Nevertheless, he stuck with it, got a lot better over time, and eventually landed his first major placement with Desiigner and Gucci Mane, which later led to a publishing deal with Atlantic.
Admittedly, to some people, the rise of Taz Taylor will sound like a rare outlier. Taz had a well-connected manager who believed in him and put him in touch with influential figures from the music industry. Not every producer has that kind of support behind him. The reality is that thousands of producers are competing for every single placement opportunity, and artists’ email inboxes are bursting with unsolicited beat packs. At times, it may seem like the beat market is oversaturated.
It’s natural and even recommended to look for inspiration in other producers’ beats initially. Your long-term goal, however, should always be to make your beats recognizable and distinct from others. That’s only possible if you work hard and invest many hours of practice into your beat-making skills.
Where Can I Sell My Beats?
YouTube
YouTube is a great place to start selling your beats. You can create a channel for free and begin uploading your music immediately. It’s a good idea to verify your account because it’ll allow you to add custom thumbnails and upload longer videos. Remember that YouTube is a video platform, so you won’t be able to upload MP3 or WAV files directly. You’ll need a simple video editing software like Movie Maker 10 to combine your audio files with a background image of your choice into a video. Make sure that for every beat you upload, you provide some contact information in the video description. Artists who find your beats should be able to reach out to you easily. Including your email address is the bare minimum, but you can also link to your beat store, social media, and website.
Beat Store
Having a dedicated beat store makes the process of selling beats a lot easier. First and foremost, a beat store will allow artists interested in your music to pay for and download your beats within minutes. They won’t have to email you about the prices and different licensing options, and you won’t have to micromanage every sale. Your beat store will have all of the important information laid out, the payment processing will be taken care of for you, and every beat you sell will be easily downloadable from the platform. There are many beat store providers, but the two most popular ones are BeatStars and Airbit. We’ll take a closer look at both of them later in this article.
Social media can be a great way to get in touch with artists directly. In the early days of beat selling, producers would email rappers who asked for beats on Twitter. It used to work quite well because the market wasn’t as saturated as it is today. Although this practice is still going on, the amount of competition you’ll face following this method will be immense. Even if you send your beats to hundreds of artists every week, it’s unlikely that you’ll receive a reply because artists’ email addresses get bombarded with submissions within minutes.
Today, you’ll have a much better success rate selling beats if you reach out to smaller artists on Instagram. Make sure that you have your beats posted on your IG profile and start DMing rappers that you think we’ll be a good match for your sound. If your messages are personalized, polite, and genuine, artists will give you their email and check out your work. Once you establish a connection, selling your beats will be much easier.
BeatStars vs Airbit
BeatStars and Airbit are the two most popular platforms for selling beats online. Both websites offer very similar services, and the difference is in the details. What might not be evident at first glance is that BeatStars is way ahead of Airbit when it comes to market share. BeatStars has almost ten times as many monthly visitors as Airbit, making it the go-to marketplace for buying and selling beats worldwide. Offering your instrumentals on a platform that is so ingrained in people’s minds will increase your customers’ trust towards your brand. Moreover, if you ever decide to run a paid promotion of your profile or individual tracks, on BeatStars, you’ll be able to tap into a much larger audience.
Free Plans
Being the clear number two, Airbit tries to entice new producers to use their platform by offering a slightly better free plan. Both on BeatStars and Airbit, the free plan limits the user to 10 beat uploads. However, on BeatStars, you’ll have to pay a 30% commission on every sale you make, whereas on Airbit, you’ll keep 100% of the money. It’s apparent that with this offer, Airbit wants to gain favor with beginner producers who are looking to test the waters of the beat-selling business and don’t have a large library of beats yet. For veteran beatmakers or simply those who are ready to commit to a yearly paid plan, the price won’t be a decisive factor because both Airbit’s Platinum membership and BeatStars’ Pro Page cost almost the same.
YouTube Content ID
One useful feature that does set Airbit apart from BeatStars is the YouTube Content ID integration. Airbit allows it’s Gold and Platinum members to submit their tracks for YouTube Content ID. This way, the beats will be monetized on YouTube via Airbit’s ad network, and the producers will get paid for every video that uses their music.
When artists lease your beats and acquire the right to monetize their finished song on YouTube, you’ll have the option to whitelist their videos. Everyone else who downloaded your instrumentals for free and either re-uploaded them on a different channel or made a music video with them will be subject to a Content ID claim, and you’ll be able to earn money from it. It’s worth mentioning that Airbit will withhold 20% of the ad revenue for the service, but you’ll still keep 80%, which is a fair amount that can definitely lead to an additional source of income over time.
Although BeatStars did offer monetization on YouTube before, it’s no longer an option, and at the moment members can only monetize their tracks on Audiomack and SoundCloud. Airbit is the clear winner in this category since YouTube is a much bigger platform.
What Is the Best Website to Sell Beats?
BeatStars or Airbit, you can’t go wrong with either one because both platforms adequately fulfill the needs of producers who are looking for an easy to use beat store. But the truth is, it won’t be the store that’ll make the difference in your sales. YouTube is still king when it comes to selling beats online and is by far the best website to focus on.
The type beat phenomenon is no longer a fad; it’s an accepted form for producers to market their beats and find the right audience. It became normal for rappers to go on YouTube and search for a particular type beat. One of the recent examples is the Memphis rapper NLE Choppa who found the perfect instrumental for his breakout song «Shotta Flow» on YouTube. For the producer Midas800, it was just another beat sale; he didn’t even know the song with his beat went viral until NLE Choppa contacted him.
The mechanics of selling beats with the help of YouTube are pretty simple. You create a channel and start uploading beats of a particular type regularly. It’s super important to title your beats correctly. You should always include a popular artist in your video titles but make sure the keyword has both high search volume and low competition. If you’re just starting out, making «Drake type beats» won’t bring a lot of traffic to your channel because although there are many searches for that keyword, the competition is also fierce. You’re much better off finding slightly less mainstream artists who are on the rise.
If you’re consistent, stick to an upload schedule, and choose the right keywords, your video views will grow organically, and if you include a link to your beat store in the video description, so will your sales. Using YouTube to bring traffic to your store is a proven way to drive beat sales. The success won’t happen overnight, but if you keep uploading one beat a day for a full year, you’ll be amazed how profitable selling beats can be.