Have you ever gone to a car dealership and purchased a car without test driving? Of course you haven’t. The vast majority of beat leasing music producers treat their product in a very similar way when it comes to offering free beat downloads to their customers. The main excuse I hear is that “why would an artist pay for a lease if they already have a free download?” While that is a valid concern it should never discourage you from offering as much value to your customer experience as possible, and that is exactly what a free beat download can do, it’s main purpose being to incentive the customer to return through trying before they buy. But why is it so important to your success? Let me explain it to you as simply as possible. Buying Beats Is Just Like Buying A Car When you it is no different to buying a car in a dealership, before you buy, you need to see if you like the feel of the drive, when an artist is searching for beats it’s far more likely they will become a customer if they are given the TIME to decide if they can do anything with the product! Offering a free download can give the customer exactly that. Songwriters need to see if a beat fits their writing style and if they can be inspired to write to it, when you buy a car mentally you’re following the same process. If an artist likes your instrumental it doesn't always mean that they can write to it straightaway, understand that there is a time period and a process with multiple interactions behind buying anything, think of the last time you bought something either online or offline, you put thought into it didn’t you? You need to treat your beat store just like any other eCommerce website, using Google Analytics is the easiest way to understand how a visitor interacts with your website and can tell you the time period it takes for a customer to convert. After you’ve taken your potential new ride for a test drive, then comes the process of deciding if it’s right for you, did you like it? Is the price within my budget? Are there any extra benefits that come with buying the car? Buying a beat is exactly the same. If the artist is then 100% happy with the product, they will come back and purchase a lease, and why will they do it? Because your tagg is all over it! What If They Still Don’t Buy The Beat? There is always the chance that a customer might not come back, your chances of a 100% conversion rate are basically impossible, that’s just how business works, so even if they don't buy a lease how do you ensure that your material is protected and that you don’t lose out on anymore money. The answer is, The YouTube Content ID System! The content id system was built to ensure that copyright owners can protect their material from theft when used unlawfully i.e. the user has not purchased an appropriate license to commercially use your content, if a video is uploaded to Youtube and it uses your instrumental in the background the video is scanned against a database of files that have been submitted by the copyright owners. If a match is then found Youtube will flagg the video and disable the right to monetization for user and give all ad revenue to you the copyright owner. Great Customer Service WIll Increase Your Sales If you do Music, I could almost guarantee that its very close to your heart and that you hope to do it as your full time job and offering free beat downloads sounds like it can hurt your chances of making money. All of this is just in your head. When you start to develop an income from your music you have to start adjusting and think of your music as a legitimate business, this means that emotion sometimes has to take a back seat if you end goal is to make money, free beat downloads gives your customers the incentive to return at a later date as you offer a great customer service and a custom