Deciding where you should sell your beats seems to have become quite a challenge in 2023, with options like Airbit and Beatstars available deciding can be difficult, but to really know you have to be able to look at the two platforms side by side and compare their features as well as their pricing structures, And from there make an educated decision based on your own subjectivity.
Airbit vs Beatstars – Features Compared
As you’ll see both platforms do have very similar features, even though BeatStars is more expensive I would say it comes out on top as you do get some more valuable features for your monthly subscription.
The Advantage of using Airbit
- On all three account levels that Airbit offers, you keep 100% of the sales you generate.
- You can create your own beat-selling website with their infinity store feature.
- With Airbit you can Monetize videos that use your music with YoutTube Content ID.
The Advantage of using Beatstars
- With Beatstars you also keep 100% of your sales, whether you have a paid or free account.
- Beatstars has a unique feature that Airbit lacks, Soundcloud, and Audiomack Monetization which allows you to earn additional income through monetizing plays via both platforms.
- Beatstars can also act as your Distributor and upload your music to all major streaming platforms.
- Beatstars can take care of your publishing and collect your royalty payments thanks to their partnership with Sony Music Publishing.
- Track where your music is used across Social Media with their Beat ID feature.
Do a lot of Collaborations?
Both platforms offer a revenue-sharing feature so that you can share the revenue you make from selling your collaborative project leases with co-producers.
Mail Integration
When you build a brand as a Music Producer staying in regular contact with your customers is essential for your growth as a business, and one of the most effective ways to do exactly that is through email marketing.
Both platforms integrate with MailChimp, Aweber, and GetResponse. And all through that’s great, It still does make choosing which email provider you use a difficult one unless you’re ok with doing some to work to manually add your customers to your list (If you have their consent)
But if you go that route, ensuring that you have opt-in information will become all the more vital, because as of May 25th, 2017, you have to make sure you are GDPR compliant.
YouTube Content ID
YouTube Content ID is a tool that is essential to any beat seller, Airbit recently introduced Content ID within its system, and at the time that they did I was heavily considering switching to Beatstars (which I eventually did) but it was enough to keep my hanging around for a bit longer.
BeatStars also has a Content ID system, however, it is not as easy to use as Airbit’s system, to use Beatstar’s YouTube Content ID system you have to submit a release through their distribution service when you upload new music to streaming platforms.
The advantage of using Airbit is that YouTube Content ID is bundled into your subscription, whereas with BeatStars you will have to take out a distribution plan at $19.99 per year.
An easy alternative to bypass this is to use a platform like Identifyy which can monetize your music through Content ID for free.
Marketplace Promotion
So to run a beat-selling business you need to sell beats right? Luckily both platforms offer marketplaces to help you do exactly that, and running paid promotions on both platforms couldn’t be any more different, Beatstars uses a credit system that allows you to spend whatever you like, Whereas Airbit allows you to control a budget but limits you to running your ad for a minimum of a week, personally, I’ve run several promotions on Airbit and it never returned anything other than A LOT of plays, whereas I have also run promotions on Beatstars and I have received several negotiations for exclusives, so in the long run. my conclusion has to be that my preference is Beatstars.
What Are The Pros of Airbit Compared To Beatstars?
- Airbit has an excellent YouTube Content ID integration meaning that you can manually submit your beats one by one or all at once.
- Airbitz’s HTML player is very lightweight and doesn’t add many pages load time to your site because of loading scripts from an external service, (The Beatstars HTML Player significantly slows down your site)
- Exclusive lifetime discount codes for Modern Producers, DopeBoy Kits, and much more
What Are The Pros of Beatstars Compared To Airbit
- With Beatstars you can take advantage of monetizing your plays through multiple platforms such as SoundCloud and Audiomack
- Beatstars has managed to create a real community feeling on their platform meaning that with every beat you post, there are genuine people listening to them
- Beatstars has integrated with Printful which means that producers can sell Merch not just Beats
- HTML players are more customizable
- Beat ID Feature
- Can distribute your music to major streaming platforms
- Can act as your PRO Organization and collect streaming royalties
What Are The Cons of Airbit Compared To Beatstars
- Airbit on a yearly payment plan is more expensive then Beatstars
- Airbit promotions work out more expensive and return very little other than A LOT of plays
- Airbit has fewer features than Beatstars
What Are The Cons of Beatstars Compared to Airbit
- HTML players significantly slow down your page load time due to loading an abnormal amount of external scripts
- No YouTube Monetization
Recommended: How To Upload Your Beats To Airbit