Beat battles have become increasingly popular amongst music producers in recent years. These music competitions are a great way for artists to showcase their abilities and make their voices heard by the beat-making community. Additionally, it also offers the opportunity to network with great talents from all around the world and build long-lasting creative relationships. If you are a passionate beat maker who is eager to join the beat battle scene, here is everything you need to know to help you kickstart your journey.
What Is A Beat Battle?
Let’s start by revisiting the basics. A beat battle is a competitive event where two music producers perform their best beats in front of an online audience. Beat battles are the perfect opportunity for music producers to show their creativity and their performance skills. To take part in these events, they need to have some technical knowledge and a set of beats available to show the crowd. Artists also need to be able to take criticism from judges and, most of all, to be passionate about their craft.
What Is the Structure of a Beat Battle?
Beat battles usually follow a precise structure and set of rules. To participate in these friendly competitions, music producers typically need to follow the next steps.
1. Registration
Once artists have heard about an upcoming beat battle, they need to register properly before the end date to secure their spot in the event. While the requirements may vary from one event to another, beat battle organizers often ask for the artist’s personal information, for a music sample, a registration fee, and an agreement to the event’s rules and regulations.
2. First Round
Also called the preliminary round, the first round aims to showcase the talent of every participant. Each person normally gets a specific amount of time to play their best beats to the audience and judges.
3. First Elimination
Once the first round is over and all participants were able to showcase their talents, the judges select the artists that make it to the next round, following a set list of criteria that can range from originality to technical skills. The goal is to start narrowing down the list of participants.
4. Subsequent Rounds
In the next rounds, the judges typically organize match-ups between the remaining participants. The winners then progressively compete against each other, until there are only a few participants left.
5. The Final Round
The finalists have one last chance to showcase their talent by playing their best beats to the audience. After the final round, the judges choose the winner of the competition.
6 Winner Announcement and Prize
The judges announce the winner of the beat battle and award them a prize. The type of reward can vary depending on the event. It can be a cash prize, technical equipment, or even collaboration opportunities with renowned artists.
The Rise of Beat Battles on Online Music Platforms
While beat battles were mainly popular in the live hip-hop culture, these competitions slowly started migrating to the internet in recent years. Learn why beat battles have become extremely popular.
Social Media
With the rise of social media platforms such as Instagram, YouTube, Twitch, and SoundCloud, it became more simple for beat-makers to showcase their skills. The increasing organization of friendly competitions contributed to fostering a sense of community within the music industry, which in turn played a part in making beat battles even more popular.
The Covid-19 Pandemic
With audiences being kept away from show venues due to the Covid-19 pandemic, online beat battles started happening regularly on platforms such as Instagram Live. These friendly competitions provided a much-needed source of entertainment to millions of listeners worldwide who were self-isolating and contributed to normalizing remote beat making.
Influential Figures
From Timbaland to T-Pain and RZA, many influential figures of the music industry participated in beat battles at one point or another. Their collaborations contributed to sensitizing their millions of fans to this type of event, encouraging many artists to host their own beat battles.
Online Music Collaboration Platforms
By providing convenient and accessible interfaces to producers worldwide, online music collaboration platforms helped create a vibrant community, united by one common passion: beat making. BeatConnect’s very own enhanced BeatBattle system simplifies the process for beat makers who are searching for potential collaborators, as well as Beat Battle events to participate in.
Why Beat Battles Are the Next Big Thing
Based on how popular beat battles are nowadays, there is no doubt that they are bound to become progressively more prominent in the music industry. These are some of the potential outcomes that the beat-making community might see in the upcoming years.
- Discovery and hiring of new talents.
- Enhanced experience through virtual or augmented reality.
- Normalization of beat battles in streaming platforms.
- Increased monetization opportunities thanks to brand partnerships and streaming revenue.
If you are interested in showcasing your beat-making talents in upcoming competitions, just make sure to prepare your best beats, learn from constructive criticism, and keep honing your skills with every beat battle. By slowly building an online presence and networking with other music producers, you will be able to gain exposure in the industry, and maybe even get some revenue from your passion.
One thing is for sure: online beat battles are here to stay. By showing the work that goes into music production, these competitions are an important source of innovation, musical diversification, and even career growth that will keep driving the music industry.
Learn more about BeatConnect and sign up for your first Beat Battle!