Taking action – put yourself in the right place at the 
right time

Placing records is tricky in the beginning because you haven’t done it yet—there is a huge learning curve, from finding artists or companies to solicit, to negotiating and signing agreements you have never seen before, to registering and collecting royalties, to getting paid. If you don’t have any connections to the artists, the media company, an artist’s team, a label, or someone in the inner circle of the business, it is extremely hard to get people to pay attention. All of these stakeholders are constantly being solicited for beats, and they tend to only listen to beats that come through very specific channels. This doesn’t mean you can’t get a placement if you don’t know anyone in the business; it just means it’s a longer game that takes patience. Now, here is the thing—you hear this from all of the gurus—you need to be at the right...