I’m sure you came across a beat on YouTube labeled as “Type Beat” by now. It’s probably the most popular video marketing strategy by producers at the moment and it caused a huge controversy between established industry producers and independent producers within the online beat selling industry.

What Exactly is a Type Beat?

There is no such thing as a “Type Beat”, it’s simply a marketing strategy producers use to label and categorize their music productions on YouTube.

I’m using the strategy myself, and I never made a beat with an artist in mind, I make the music I like, and when I’m done with the production, I think of which artist would sound great on the beat.

This gives artists more detailed options in terms of search results and unknown producers the option to effectively market their music to rappers and songwriters, even when the strategy no longer works as effectively as it used to.

Why Producers Label Their Beats as Type Beats?

We all know the music industry is not a fair playground, mainstream artists generate 95% of all money and success involved in this industry and independent artists and producers are left way behind, simply caused by the fact that individuals don’t have the money and resources to compete with big record labels in terms of marketing and promotion.

Therefore the “Type Beat” marketing strategy was a way for producers to get a bigger piece of the cake by using the names of famous artists within their video titles, which resulted in more plays, exposure, and revenue for the individual producer.

This used to work years ago (at least I assume it did) but I can see in my own case, there’s no difference in terms of plays and comments on my YouTube videos labeled as “Type Beat” compared to videos which are not labeled that way.

For me personally, it’s just a way to categorize my beats now and maybe it also leads to more plays, who knows. As a creator you are a slave of the YouTube algorithm anyways and your video title is important but there are hundreds of other metrics which dictate your success on the platform.

The Controversial

There are a few opinions which cause controversy regarding this marketing strategy and none are actually false.

On one hand, industry artists and producers claim that independent producers that label their beats as type beats, lack in terms of creativity and don’t have their own sound, which is false as explained above.

What’s true is, labeling your music that way, results in less exposure for your own personal brand, since you are using other peoples names to generate traffic, plays, and sales but this is just a consequence and result of the fact that there is no balance in this shady industry and the main point why i support the initiative.

On the other hand, some people claim that labeling your music that way is cheap and results in less exposure for your brand, which is true as explained above but again also the result of an industry which lacks in terms of balance and fairness.

Conclusion

It is a personal decision how you label your beats and instrumentals on YouTube and no matter how you do it, all marketing strategies have their positive and negative effects.

No one should knock the initiative by downplaying the efforts of young independent entrepreneurs inside an industry that lacks in terms of balance and fairness, instead, there should be understanding and appreciation for the art, no matter how it’s labeled.

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