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Best Beat Store

Updated on December 19, 2016

Best Beat Store Review

The Search For The Perfect Beat Store


Update 2017: We are nearing 2017 and have extensively tested all the platforms to evaluate all the feature-set and value for the money in December 2016. Soundgine still remains the best beat platform mainly for it's well featured and designed store. Testing within our producer set with A/B conversion testing over 2 months shows the Soundgine player consistently making more sales.

Begin article:

The other day I was thinking about my journey as a music producer and thought to myself "Damn, I have spent a ton of money figuring the perfect system selling beats online. Where am I now? I make approx 4k a month doing what I love but it was very hard learning the business side of the industry.

One of the main components I think is extremely important is using the right beat store. I used them all with different results so here it is and I'm not pulling any punches. Nobody is paying me for this article and you will fins zero affiliate links, instead learn from my downfalls and hope you make money doing what you love like myself.

In the end I chose the Soundgine Player, but I'll give you my experience with each player below.



Beat Players I Have Used

  • Myflashstore
  • Beats1
  • Zinsta
  • Beatstars
  • Soundgine

I'm rating the beat stores from Worst to Best starting at #5

#5 Zinsta

Zinsta seemed interesting and like the minimal approach so I ordered the Zinsta Link. It attracted me simply because it was a one time payment beat store meaning no monthly fees. Unfortunately the high of this option soon dissipated when I just ended up hating to "link" my beats to the system instead of simply uploading my music.

After asking around I found out that the player was actually developed back in 2012 and there have been no updates either. I sent them an email to ask whether they had plans to revamp the system but got no answer. I also tried getting my $69 dollars back but no such luck, I had to file a chargeback, no big deal. Money aside, Zinsta just wasn't enough feature-wise and I knew it wouldn't "grow" with me for years to come.

#4 BEATS1

Honestly, Beats1 was a service I wasn't feeling immediately but perhaps I was missing something and perhaps I would grow to love it, I didn't.

Beats1 is really just a bad version of Myflashstore. The actual website takes ages to load which was a huge problem when I would direct customers to my Beats1 profile. There were no problems with players working but like Beatstars the design of the players are horrible. The features were ok and definitely adequate but some features were gimmicky like the Beat Manager. Everybody is uploading via browser so there was no point installing software on a computer.

At this point I was ready to settle for the MFS system, already spending close to $100 testing beat stores I was ready to call it a day.

#3 Beatstars

Beatstars was an interesting choice. I preferred the clean look of Zinsta but Beatstars had better options like filtering moods genres and file types but the player is just a horrible piece of design and the player was down more than a few times. No problem, everybody has technical difficulties but it continued. The good news is that beatstars still had a better conversion rate than Zinsta and even Myflashstore but nowhere close to Soundgine.

The last straw wasn't yet another instance of the player being down, it was the known fact people were downloading music from the player as it had a security leak, same as Musiccentro (which is no longer available) I really wanted to like this service but had too many negatives for my taste.

At this point I knew that whatever service I would end with would have some negatives but I was on a qwest for "close to perfect"

Beatstars has gotten better by late 2016 but talk about having to pay to remove beats, them taking control over your Youtube streaming rights and other things amounted me to look elsewhere.

#2 Myflashstore

Why I didn't test Myflashstore first is because well, everybody seems to have it. I wanted something different and since they seem to not update very much I wanted a beat store that was keeping up with the newest trends and features.

Now MFS is what everybody is used to so I went with this and worked rather well. I really have nothing bad to say but nothing exciting either, it just works. Unfortunately the best way to explain it is the feeling of "falling out of love" with somebody. The reason? I didn't like the lack of updates, the server down time and quite honestly the design of the players just wasn't my taste.

Having said all that, I thought that I would stick with this system. I told myself that if I wanted a gorgeous beat player I would have to design it myself. I used to work at the design studio at EA Sports so I was fortunate to be around great UI designers.

Then one day it just happened, I stumbled upon Soundgine.com It was like the sun breaking through the trees, personally I thought to myself, "This can't be real...can it?"

Soundgine

#1 Soundgine

You know it's not everyday that you find exactly what you are looking for online so you settle. Soundgine is absolutely a work of art and function. I know I have been harping on the way players "look" and yet it's extremely important to have a sleek player on my website the features absolutely crush the competition. The new M7 Player comes with search filters that customers will appreciate like search

The new M7 Player comes with search filters that customers will appreciate like search by: Moods, Similar Artists, Instruments, BPM, Price and date. Also comes with a "Make Offer" for exclusives and a deals notification bar that is super useful for

The Youtube video integration option alone is worth the price of admission.


Smart Logical Features

Smart Features

Being able to add Youtube videos to my music has really given me a great sales boost. This is where my sales jumped to 3.2-4k a month. I actually called up a customer and thank them for the business and candidly ask why he chose me as his beat supplier. His answer surprised me, he said he liked my videos attached to my music. He also liked that I added a personal video about myself on the player in the Spotlight section.

I realized that making myself "human" to my audience propelled me to another level. Selling beats has become too impersonal in my opinion so having this option for videos is innovative which brings me to another point.

When searching for the perfect beat store I wanted to go with a company that innovated in the field and Soundgine does this time and time again. Here are some of the reasons I rate Soundgine #1 over anything else

  • Dual checkout system (Customers can pay with Paypal and debit, credit card)
  • Youtube Integration
  • Blocks music downloads from software scrappers via browser extensions
  • Highest converting beat store (I'm pretty sure it's because of the layout, there are no drill downs to confuse customers
  • Auto Mobile redirect
  • Facebook Fanpage player
  • Sell Beats, Singles & Albums (A HUGE plus for me)


Ultra Good Free Website with VUE

Soundgine Pro account comes with a website so you can actually throw that hosting bill away. It's MUCH better than any Wix website and it designed for especially for producers with built in license columns, beat store, contact form, SEO ready and much more. https://soundgine.com/VUE.php

I sound like a salesman for Soundgine I know but the truth is I don't make any money off this other than sharing my experience to fellow producers trying to find the best beat player. The things I didn't like about Soundgine was they only offered a $19.99 plan but that changed with an addition of a $7.99 plan. They have no free option so you really needed to do your homework. Not sure why they don't have a free plan, but it would benefit them.

I also wished it was a place I could sell beats to in addition to my website but they said it was definitely coming. Vic was the guy I talked to and was super cool, he said that the goal was not only to create the best beat store, but the best music store period.

Soundgine has raised the bar at a crazy level which is fine with where I'm heading. I felt like the other beat stores were just content with a working beat player and updated every blue moon. I have ideas that I have suggested to Soundgine and they even added a couple of my suggestions in the admin and player.



Soundgine Walkthrough video

Beat Store Poll

What's the Most Important Aspect of a Beat Store?

See results

In Conclusion

I guess the main goal is to use the best tools to make the most profit. Soundgine has converted more sales for me based on its layout and features. I have spent more than enough money finding the right beat player to do everything I need to do.

Truthfully, Soundgine has way more features that I'm not using now but it's very nice knowing it's there if I need it. Selling beats is tough already, don't make it tougher by settling on beat stores that don't progress into 2017. Technology is a fast paced world so align yourself properly.

Always remember that regardless of any tool or software you use, patience and hard work is required. It took me many months to gain traction and now live the way I want but hard work paved the way. Stay away from the get rich quick schemes and have belief in your talents.

Thanks for reading and hopefully I have helped you get a clear picture of the beat selling services out there.

Visit Soundgine.com

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