From 13 to 1 Million Streams: Rogue Beats

Rogue Beats (00:00.024) can hear me just fine?

Esteban Candelario (00:01.995) Yeah, I can hear you. All right, so here's another episode. Actually, let me start over.

Rogue Beats (00:03.214) That's cool.

Rogue Beats (00:08.013) Are you finna edit this? Yeah.

Esteban Candelario (00:10.347) Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm throwing off a little bit of fuck. all right guys, another episode of the Producer Fury podcast. I don't know what episode four, five, six, I don't know, we're just going crazy right now. My name is Esteban, if you don't know who I am, I'm a mentor, I help producers find clients and reach out to artists. Today, I'm speaking with Yaya, AKA Rorogue Beats. I'll let him introduce himself. Introduce yourself, bro, take it away and tell them a little bit about yourself as well.

Rogue Beats (00:31.502) Yeah, it was good. My name is Rogue Beats. I'm from Washington State. Producer. I've been doing this for about, you know, three, four years. Happy to be here, of course. Just hit one million streams, so that's pretty nice. So yeah.

Esteban Candelario (00:47.603) Nice. Okay, well, let's just start from there, bro. Talk about your journey. You said a million streams, but let's start from the beginning. When did you like officially start producing?

Rogue Beats (00:56.216) So around like 2020, I actually wanted to be a rapper when I first started and I was like, okay, let me just make my own beats. know, like I'm 13. I don't have any money to buy beats. So I'm like, let me just make my own. I wasn't that good, but I, the time I fell in love with just making beats and I enjoyed it a lot. So I just kept doing that. And then eventually I was like, what if I just made beats and just didn't rap? And then that was like, okay, let me just keep making beats. And maybe for around two, three years or so, I kept, you know, just grinding.

Esteban Candelario (01:03.787) You

Yeah.

Rogue Beats (01:25.774) I'll keep it a buck, I was really bad for a long time. It took me a while for my music to be listenable or usable for an artist to use. And then yeah, now for past two years, I've good. I've seen people get good so quick. I've been bad for so long and then I see someone get good in like six months. I'm like, yo, like what? I've been at this for three years and I wish I was making music like you.

Esteban Candelario (01:29.151) Dude.

Esteban Candelario (01:35.775) Yeah man, mean shit bro, everybody's bad at first. Got you. I mean yeah, for sure.

Esteban Candelario (01:55.165) Easy to say though, I mean, you think about it, maybe those people that got good in six months didn't hit a million strings by the time you hit it. Like, you know what I'm saying? So it's kind of like a, a, yeah, yeah, yeah. But like, it's like a give and take. Like you can get extremely good fast, but that doesn't guarantee your journey and where it's going to be. You know what I'm saying?

Rogue Beats (02:01.622) Yeah, yeah. I mean, I'm not trying to compare anything, but I see your point.

Rogue Beats (02:07.779) Yeah.

I was never like jealous. I was just like damn like this guy got really good fast and I'm still here trying to figure out how to like make a drill beat like

Esteban Candelario (02:14.475) 100 %

Esteban Candelario (02:18.439) Yeah. So talk about the journey starting from 13. You said it took you a while to get good. How long would you say it officially? How many years do you think officially took you?

Rogue Beats (02:27.598) I would say maybe like four years. Okay, of course we always feel like we're bad. Like we looked the year before like, I was a garbage last year. But like, I would say really like three or four years. So 2024, then people would actually use my stuff. People would would pay me for my beats. Like would be okay with giving the money that they worked for, for the music I made. Before I would send someone beats, they would never text me again. Which makes sense, the beat was not good. So I probably lost some good opportunities because of that. But yeah, so maybe around 2024.

Esteban Candelario (02:52.437) Yeah.

Rogue Beats (02:57.71) I had people actually want to work with.

Esteban Candelario (03:00.447) Got you. I mean, talk about that process. Like when you actually started selling beats, how does it work? Do artists usually reach out to you or do you reach out to artists and like, what is that process like for you?

Rogue Beats (03:08.878) I would say more recently I've had people reach out to me. I was kind of surprised at first. I'm like, wait, why are they reaching out to me? Like I've been reaching out. I've been the one reaching out forever. Like, and I think it just comes as, you know, as you build your page more, then you can start getting artists reaching to you and you get a higher like a percentage chance of artists replying to you. So when I started actually posting on my page and really it's good if you can post yourself and what you're doing. I don't do that.

Esteban Candelario (03:16.725) you

Esteban Candelario (03:22.869) Mm-hmm.

Rogue Beats (03:36.346) I want to start doing that, I know that's amazing thing to do. You want to show personality on your beats page. But once I started getting some sort of like decent placements of artists who had some sort of like, you know, impact on like some sort of music scene, then people would, they'd see that I produce it. So they'd come DM me like, yo, let's work. I've gotten some good relationships through doing that.

Esteban Candelario (03:41.269) Mm.

Esteban Candelario (03:56.957) Yeah, so you highlighted like so many important things and I want you to talk about the process When you actually started working out with some people and you got like decent placements What was that like for you? Were you just like negotiating your splits or getting paid up front or are we just doing everything for free?

Rogue Beats (04:07.363) Mm-hmm.

Rogue Beats (04:15.092) Usually it's all at the end. So once they release it, you go and you handle it. I've had situations where I've had to do takedowns and it's a little bit unfortunate. I'm not even like strict when it comes to like payment. I'm like very lenient. I'm like, I always say all my prices are negotiable. So if they want to negotiate down, that's fine. If they can't give up splits as much or if they like, hey, I'll pay you in another month or give me two months. Like I'm fine with that. I'm not going to press them for it. But I've had people just straight up ignore me. Like they just been like,

Yo, I'll pay you next week. Never get a message again. I'll I'll just hit the takedown. usually it takes me a while to get to that point. but yeah, I have still stuff pending now, payments that I'm waiting for. Yeah.

Esteban Candelario (04:50.697) Yeah.

Really? wow. So like what is that process like? Like is it completely out of your control? Or besides, besides I guess taking the song down? like you know, yeah.

Rogue Beats (05:03.372) It's like somewhat in my control. Yeah. Most, most of the time I can get good business done, but I'm not really too stressed about it. Cause if they use my work without my permission, I can, I can just take it down. But usually by then they receive a notification from Spotify and then they reach out to me like, yo man, sorry. They'll like probably say I didn't see your message, even though they probably saw it. And then they'll pay me then it's like, it's all good. But so I'm not really stressed about it.

Esteban Candelario (05:19.707) Mmm. Yeah Okay, cool Yeah, no, and I feel like a lot of a lot of producers really forget how important that is, especially when like artists use your work but Talk about like how the pricing has changed compared to like when you started to like where you at now and like how it increased and why like, you What were the reasons why if somebody had to ask you?

Rogue Beats (05:38.072) Yeah.

Rogue Beats (05:43.79) Yeah, so when I first started, I mean, I was hungry for like anyone to just use my beats in the first place. Like I was like for free at that point. And so my first actually my first sale actually, and this is like pretty diabolical, was an exclusive beat for seven dollars. I was like, yo, that's like I like sold my soul, Like he didn't even use the beat. That's a crazy thing. He didn't even use the beat. It was two beats, by the way, is one exclusive and then another beat that he actually used paired into a 799 payment. I was just I just said yes instantly.

Esteban Candelario (05:48.072) Mm-hmm

Esteban Candelario (05:54.764) No way

Esteban Candelario (06:11.059) Yeah, I mean that's basically free. Like you know what I'm saying at that point. No, so, that's not even, that's like below minimum wage.

Rogue Beats (06:14.413) That's basically free bro. That's not even one hour of work.

Like that's like 30 minutes flipping burgers and then get an exclusive beat and a half. And yeah, that was pretty bad. Then I started charging $15 for like my lowest one, my lowest option. And then this is actually the biggest thing I learned in music is you can't really figure everything out yourself. Like you can try to learn a new genre by yourself. You can try to learn pricing by yourself, but...

Esteban Candelario (06:33.759) Mm-hmm.

Rogue Beats (06:45.643) You're not going to get what you want because you always have a vision in your head of what you want, right? Which is built off of the creations of other people, right? So you need to go and copy someone else and then from there build your own stuff. So when I went to pricing, went on like I was started with drilled music. That's the first thing I did. I went to like cost fingers page or there was another drill put your I don't remember his name like Elvis beats or like Elias beats these three guys and I would just go through I was like stock and their beat stars and like how much are they charging per beat? Okay, I'm going to do what they're doing.

Esteban Candelario (06:50.443) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Rogue Beats (07:15.149) But of course, I'm not as big as them, so I'm going to charge a little bit less. as I, as I, as I progressively got better, I understood, hey, sometimes having charging more for beats makes people buy more because if you charge so low, they think it's garbage. So as I kind of got better, yeah, I just moved my prices up a little bit, made them more reasonable so that they can match, you know, all budgets. So I have a kind of asset lease for every type of budget.

Esteban Candelario (07:18.356) Yeah.

Esteban Candelario (07:27.953) Mm-hmm. No, I agree.

Esteban Candelario (07:41.035) No, yeah, that's smart. Basically, like in like a nutshell, like in sales terms, like you just looked at the market and compared and just like went with that. You know what I'm saying?

Rogue Beats (07:48.076) Yeah, I do that even with beats. When I learn a new genre, just like copy, I literally just copy a beat and then, okay, once I've got it, then I then I'm able to like make my own version of the style and like, like, I don't know. I don't know how explain it. Like figure out how the genre works. And then now I can do it myself and without copying with just through my head.

Esteban Candelario (08:06.291) Yeah.

Esteban Candelario (08:11.573) So how long would you say you grinded it out and was giving music out for free until you got to the point where you were bringing a stable amount of income in for yourself? Like how long was that grind for?

Rogue Beats (08:22.637) But it's still the grind now, like even now I could still be doing more to bring a stable income. I'd say I'm able to bring stable placements and able to get work done. like even then, bro, like getting paid takes a while. So I think to make a good income for me was still going to take me a little bit of time to figure that out. I think there's definitely more I could do. I have so much stuff I'm trying to get done at the same time, but it's definitely doable. You could do it in a year if you really want to. You could make

Esteban Candelario (08:24.944) Mm. Mm.

Esteban Candelario (08:36.394) Mm.

Esteban Candelario (08:43.659) That's... Yeah.

No, no, and like, I agree.

Rogue Beats (08:51.853) lot of good money grinded out for a year. I mean, I'm still what, like 19? I've been on and off music sometimes, like make music locked in for a month and then stop and then go back in.

Esteban Candelario (09:03.381) So then talk about that reality. Like you mentioned you had like a million streams and then you're still trying to like figure the game out for yourself. I mean, how does that feel? Cause I feel like that feels like being a famous actor. Like let's say you're an A-list actor and you're still broke. Like you're in a famous movie and everyone knows you.

Rogue Beats (09:07.713) Yeah.

Rogue Beats (09:16.331) Yeah. I mean, I didn't even think I just saw it like, I don't know. kind of had more fun. I was more happy when I sold the $7.99 exclusive than when I got mainstream. So was like, that's cool. I'm mainstream. I don't know what it is. It just like, I just like, I kind of knew putting in this much time and effort would get me there eventually. And I had envisioned it so many times getting on streams. I don't think you even know, bro. when I'm showering as I'm getting dressed for school, I'm like, I will get in mainstream. So then I already believed that it would just happen. I was like,

Esteban Candelario (09:28.083) No.

Rogue Beats (09:44.744) If I keep doing it over and over, it's going to happen. Like it can't not happen. Like I have to keep working so that it's unreasonable for it to like not happen. So when I got it, I was like, okay, this makes sense. But what else more can I keep doing? Like I haven't gotten my goals yet. Yeah.

Esteban Candelario (10:01.705) So how did you get the million? Was it from one single or multiple singles or a project? okay.

Rogue Beats (10:05.837) So everything I've ever worked on. So I've done cover art, I do cover art streams for those. You don't really have to count those. That's still, I think 700,000 for me still. So my own music and beats I produced and then I have my own releases on Spotify, which those did the best for me, which is kind of funny. So my own music that I released did the best for me than music that I got placements for. So that's probably totaling. Actually, no, it's probably a million by now if you count it.

Esteban Candelario (10:15.467) still super amazing.

Esteban Candelario (10:25.193) Wow.

Esteban Candelario (10:28.832) Yeah.

Rogue Beats (10:34.733) Wait, I think so. So I think including cover art, maybe 1.3 mil without the cover art that I've done, maybe like 900,000 on a million. Yeah.

Esteban Candelario (10:40.403) Okay. Interesting.

You touched on two good topics and I want to talk about both of them. So I'll save one of those questions for later. But the easiest question was cover art. How important? And every time I talk to producers, like when I teach them how to sell, I always tell them you're just, you're going to sell more than beats. Like you have to stack your offers, like beats, mixing master, cover art. If you can do, you know, edit lyric videos, vocal chains. So talk about that. Like talk about having multiple skillsets and offering that with your beats and talk about how that's helped you.

Rogue Beats (10:48.012) Yeah.

Rogue Beats (10:59.735) Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Rogue Beats (11:10.773) You can offer it with your beats for sure. That's a really good idea. I never pair them together very often. But what I do is I use that idea of building cover art to get artists contact information and send them beats. So a lot of times I'll be like, hey, they'll post on the story. Hey, I need cover art quickly. Not a lot of people can make decent cover art. think I'm not trying to flex, but I feel like I can make pretty good cover art. And I've had people pay me for it. So I feel pretty confident in my skills in doing it. And you'd be like, hey, I got you. They'll be like,

Esteban Candelario (11:14.111) Yeah. Wow. Okay.

Esteban Candelario (11:29.183) Yeah.

Rogue Beats (11:40.043) Okay, perfect, you send them, they like it. Then you get their number, then from there you can send them beats. I think it's one of the best ways to get contact information of any artist you want. At least as long as they're not like huge, then they have their own designer, but as long as they're not decently sized. Actually, I did that part out, I was looking gay. Decently sized is crazy. Yo, yo, no homo bro, no homo. That's a good blooper, that's a good blooper. That's a good blooper.

Esteban Candelario (11:58.86) Okay Okay, it might it say it might say we might have the bloopers bro, we might have the bloopers but Yo So so talk so talk to me about like cuz you've basically said you don't pair like your your features together like what you offer That's but that's like your leverage of like getting your foot in the door Yeah

Rogue Beats (12:08.904) Yo, make sure they know it's a blooper.

Rogue Beats (12:20.416) That would be good idea. I need to start doing that. But there's a lot of more work I could be doing with music. I think the reason it took me a while is because I kind of like didn't take it so serious for a long time. And I kind of just did it here and there.

Esteban Candelario (12:27.691) Well

Did you start taking it serious when you hit 700,000 streams? when would...

Rogue Beats (12:37.726) It wasn't even this change, just maybe like a year ago when people actually wanted to work with me. I was like, okay, maybe like, let me, let me start actually doing a little bit more. even now there's, there's definitely more I could be doing.

Esteban Candelario (12:42.098) okay.

Esteban Candelario (12:48.873) Got you. So talk about what are your plans now? You were talking about being in the shower, envisioning getting a million streams. So what are you trying to envision now for the future and what's your goals really?

Rogue Beats (12:59.02) I think just being able to...

Rogue Beats (13:04.615) Hmm. think the goal is to be able to make some sort of stable income from it. Like I'm still in school and everything and I hope to get a job with my degree and all that. But if I can have that as also a side income, that would be great. know, to a college student, know, $3,000 a lot without going to a job is pretty good, you know. So if you're able to make an extra $3,000 a month on something you're already good at that you like. I mean, that's amazing if you think about it, especially in this economy.

Esteban Candelario (13:08.043) Mm-hmm.

Esteban Candelario (13:17.278) Yeah.

Esteban Candelario (13:23.732) Yeah.

Rogue Beats (13:33.324) and you have a job on top of that, that can help a lot. And also it's something that's very scalable. So let's say you're like, okay, my goal is to make 3,000 month. Okay, you hit that, great. Now you can just keep pushing for more. You're like, okay, I've saw that I've able to do this once. Can I make 6,000? How can I make 10,000? How can I put myself in better spaces, in better rooms to get more opportunities? So not only it's something that can be a side hustle and it can be a full-time job too. That's what I really love about this.

Esteban Candelario (13:58.59) Yeah, so that's crazy. like, I kind of already know where you're going to school for, but like, let the people know like, what are you going to school for? And then at the same time, like what you're doing on the side, which is making beats.

Rogue Beats (14:09.598) Yes, I go to the University of Washington for political science. So I'm hoping to maybe go into law or go into some other sort of profession regarding policy and politics.

Esteban Candelario (14:13.076) Nice.

Esteban Candelario (14:20.639) nice. So I was actually flabbergasted when you told me that because I just felt like they're so different. Like one is so creative and the other is so like strict, I think discipline like serious basically. So like I guess like, is it hard to balance balance both of those for you? Or how does that work?

Rogue Beats (14:24.46) Yeah.

Rogue Beats (14:31.006) Yes, yes. Yeah, yeah.

Rogue Beats (14:37.74) I think with politics, you can be really creative. I think it's all about thinking, hey, what is my opinion on this? how can I, especially when it comes to law, can I convince the other side or the people judging to believe what I'm saying? So whether you want to, like, I'm not sure whether I want to go specifically into law or not, but either way, there's a lot of debate and opinion based discussion. And I think that you have to be creative when it comes to that. You can't know all the numbers and all the stats on top of your head.

Esteban Candelario (14:40.863) Hmm.

Rogue Beats (15:05.004) I think I'm more of a creative minded person. I hate numbers and I did all my math right away. As soon as could do it, I said, don't have to do it again. I'm like, I'm not doing this again for the rest of my life. Get this out of here. So yeah, I think it's, what was your question again? I was looking at how I bounce was.

Esteban Candelario (15:12.03) You

Esteban Candelario (15:20.203) Just how you balance both like being a producer and then wanting to be in the law. Yeah

Rogue Beats (15:25.036) I think they just both make sense to me and I'm both interested in them. So I think it's really important to get involved in something you're interested in. I'm interested in politics, so I'm able to do it and enjoy it. Of course, there's parts I don't like and I'm interested in making... I I wouldn't have done beats for five years if I didn't like it. I generally just do it because I like it. So yeah, I think you need to be able to enjoy it. Or if you don't enjoy it, you're going to have to learn to enjoy it if you really want to be successful at it.

Esteban Candelario (15:27.869) Hmm, yeah.

Esteban Candelario (15:39.785) Yeah.

Esteban Candelario (15:50.123) Yeah.

Rogue Beats (15:52.382) you need to able to have good time management. And my time management is kind of garbage. It's kind of shit, we're still trying to get it to a better spot. Cause you know, if you're able to manage your time while you, you can get a lot more work done and provide yourself with a lot more opportunities.

Esteban Candelario (15:57.055) Yeah, you and me both.

Esteban Candelario (16:08.245) thousand percent. So, and I kind of want to ask a personal question here. Like we mentioned like, yeah, if I can get the beats to like $3,000 and you know, after I graduate with my political science degree, then obviously I'll take a full-time job doing that and do the beats on the side. I mean, I think most producers, they just want to do producing full-time. So I'm just curious, like what would, is it just like, do you have that much passion for the political science degree?

Rogue Beats (16:17.516) It's definitely doable, yeah.

Rogue Beats (16:26.038) Mm-hmm.

Rogue Beats (16:34.604) It's not that much passion is that I see as more of a, hey, if I, there's already a layout for that job, right? Of course you have to put in the work. It's not easy, but there's already a layout. Now I'm not opposed to working hard on, I think you can do two things at once. Everyone's always saying, no, you have to keep this as a side hustle. But why can I work? Like I can't be like a, how do I say this? Like you can't be a bum living in your parents' house forever. Like saying, no, I'm just making beats. Like one up most people who become very successful in one way or another.

Esteban Candelario (16:42.366) Yeah.

Esteban Candelario (16:57.963) you

Rogue Beats (17:04.428) They have to work and do their passion at once. I feel like almost every entrepreneur we see, they're like, yeah, I'll go to my day job and I need to come home and work on that. So that's kind of how I see it. And I was like, hey, let me at least pick a day job that I'm going to enjoy. So if this doesn't work out, I can still make beats because I like making beats in general, right? So I'll find a way to do it. And I almost know for a fact if I really put my heart into it, I can make it work.

Esteban Candelario (17:22.72) Yeah.

Esteban Candelario (17:30.249) Yeah, no, yeah, dude, I agree like I 100 agree and I don't even I don't even necessarily see what you're saying as like a plan b like you know what i'm saying you just see it you just see it as like this is something that I have to do, know what i'm saying because it's just part of like what I want and that's interesting so I kind of want to like switch gears back to you talking about people reaching out to you how how long

Rogue Beats (17:38.688) Yeah.

Esteban Candelario (17:55.87) Or actually, do you still reach out to people now, even though people reach out to you? OK, so break down that process. Like, how are you reaching out to them? You know, like, what are you saying? How are you getting your foot in the door?

Rogue Beats (18:07.179) Yeah, so I always, you always got to go on these like pages. Like if you're trying to make like West coast beats, you're on like, what's it called? Like, Thizzler, I forgot the name of it. There's like these pages. They have like NYC drill official, Queens drill official, or like some UK rap pages, whatever you're going for. And you just got to, you look, you got to stock those pages, find the artists, DM them. That's how, you want to go for like more like lower range artists, so maybe under, under a hundred K.

Esteban Candelario (18:13.322) Yeah.

Rogue Beats (18:34.515) That's the way to go. You want to comment on their video and send them a DM. Keep a short DM, like two sentences max. Like don't go to three. Like, yo, I like your music. Let's work. That usually does the job for me. I know this sounds basic and generic, but like usually it gets me some good opportunities. You can go more in depth and make it more personal. That's also great. Leaving two comments, like put some fire emojis, be like, hey, since you're a D.I. let's lock in. Usually they'll see that too. That's opened up some good opportunities.

And the last way is you tag them in your stories. A lot of times they'll view stories that they're tagged in. And some of my biggest upcoming placements, hopefully they get released soon, but that would like add another 500,000 streams if they release it. That'd be good. Yeah. cause we have one thing that's not even released yet. And there's a few people DMing me about it. Like about like the beat, like, yo, I need to just listen to just the beat. Like I really want to listen to this. So I was like, okay, yeah, like I need him to release this soon. And I actually got in contact with this artist to like just mentioning him in my story.

Esteban Candelario (19:14.059) Really.

Esteban Candelario (19:21.28) Yeah.

Yeah.

Rogue Beats (19:31.359) Like just put like a blank story, but texting like, yo, I know the artist's name. Let's lock in send me your number. I got beats for you. Yeah.

Esteban Candelario (19:37.364) what so you didn't even like put like a beat in the background or nothing like that like i i can hear you on this yeah yeah okay that makes sense yeah yeah

Rogue Beats (19:42.187) No, I think I have stuff on my page I'm pretty confident in, so I feel like, yeah, you can always check it out. Maybe being the back one would have been smart, but it is what it is.

Esteban Candelario (19:49.812) Yeah, it is what it is. But no, it's more like I tell people I tell people this especially when I work with producers like reaching out is so important But if like your content if like your page isn't up to par with like the quality of either the content or the beats People are not going to answer you as much you know, you get way more replies if your content is it's good like you know what i'm saying? so I mean in your opinion, what's more important the content or the outreach?

Rogue Beats (20:05.855) Yep, exactly as much.

Rogue Beats (20:16.139) I really haven't done too much content, but I the only reason I'm looking to get started into it, I'm not thinking of making like beat videos and tutorials and stuff like that, or like just any sort of video to show who I am and the process of me making beats. I think that will actually get me more opportunities. Every producer I've ever looked up to says that. So I mean, I pretty much believe it then. And, well, I mean, when I do post more, I get more opportunities when I'm posting, even myself, just plain beats and like videos of a rap video.

That's giving me some like, you know, more people. It makes me look more trustworthy. Just kidding. You're asking with someone's number. They're like, okay, wait, wait a second. Like it's normal to me now. But when I first started a rapper said, send me your number. I'm like, yo, what? Like it's my personal number. Like I don't send this to everyone. But then that's also rappers. Artists are also, you gotta think they're also. Damn, I said also like three times, but you're gonna have so many bloopers. They're gonna have, they're also people.

Esteban Candelario (20:50.922) Yeah.

Esteban Candelario (20:54.453) Right.

Esteban Candelario (21:09.841) Thank you.

Rogue Beats (21:12.715) So when you ask them for this personal information, you gotta ask for a number. They're like, send me your number. gonna send you these. You gotta be a normal person, show stuff on your page. If you go to them with no profile picture, ask them for their number, they're gonna think you're a fed or something. yo, like, what are we doing? You're a producer, show that you're a producer. I wanna know who's gonna take my number and text me.

Esteban Candelario (21:17.866) Yeah.

Esteban Candelario (21:24.628) Yo.

Esteban Candelario (21:30.301) Right. Yeah, you know what? And you know, it's funny, like a lot of producers put their logo on their profile picture and I'm like, bro, put your face, people trust a face when they do a logo. you're really? Do you have a logo? Okay, yeah, I'm talking about you, bro. Put your face, bro. You'd be surprised. You'd be really surprised. Like you might have like, or more people might respond or more people might be, yeah, you know what I mean? Like, yeah.

Rogue Beats (21:38.144) Bro was talking about me? Yes, no I'll... No No, you're right, you're actually really right I agree with you I was thinking about it, like, I need to get a new picture for like... You're right bro No, you're good, you're good, it's funny Bro, you're gonna have some good bloopers bro, just... clip farming

Esteban Candelario (21:55.628) Nah, you're funny. You're funny. I didn't mean to accidentally call you out like that, my bad. Yeah. Yo. So talk to me just about, I mean, I don't know if you can. Can you talk about your future placements or who those placements are gonna be with?

Rogue Beats (22:14.443) I so, yeah. don't... Here, let me look at my phone, actually. Everything is kind of... I have all my placements on my phone. I think the bigger opportunities right now I have are... I'm looking all over the place with placements. Like, have a new placement in the UK coming up. It's a good news, you know, it's called UK Detroit. I think the artist's name is A100. So he's pretty decent. The scene's still pretty small. It's kind of within only the UK.

Esteban Candelario (22:18.324) Not gonna do it.

Esteban Candelario (22:33.919) Mm-hmm.

Esteban Candelario (22:37.675) Bye.

Esteban Candelario (22:43.243) you

Rogue Beats (22:43.499) And then I some Philly drill placements coming up with artists. It's like a one-mir. He's doing pretty well on Spotify and all that, so I'm excited for those to come out and hopefully I get some more stuff on my catalog to show off and get some more people responding to me. The one-mir guy from his placement, I got a lot of people reaching out to me. Because he posted like a snippet of our thing and I think that got maybe like 100,000 or so views. And I just commented and I'm like, hey, this is produced by me.

Esteban Candelario (22:49.195) Mm.

Esteban Candelario (23:02.719) Nice.

Esteban Candelario (23:09.417) What?

Rogue Beats (23:10.825) So a lot of people responded and were like, hey, can I get this beat? And I've gotten like four new relationships of artists who are wanting to work with me and eventually pay for the beats that they're getting.

Esteban Candelario (23:19.882) Wow.

Esteban Candelario (23:24.989) No, okay, so let's talk about that. That's super important. So I was gonna ask like, he at you or something like that? So like, right.

Rogue Beats (23:29.611) He didn't add me, I just commented myself and then you know what did? This is like, this is the, you gotta, I'm gonna say if anyone's watching this as producer, you gotta go so far to put yourself out there. Even if it feels ridiculous, I liked my own comment where I said this is produced by me on any other account. I got my friend, my family, get one on their phone and like, hey, I'm gonna like this. Because I need my comment to be on the top. I need everyone to know how to produce this so they can come out to me. I don't care what I have to do. So once I got like six, seven, like, okay, damn. That wasn't even on purpose,

Esteban Candelario (23:44.075) You're funny.

Esteban Candelario (23:58.892) Yeah, you're good.

Rogue Beats (24:00.33) Six was crazy. And once I got like, you know, eight, nine, 10 likes, it boosted it to the top. So everyone else would automatically like it. They're like, this is the top comment. I don't know if they're like NPCs, but they just went along and liked it because it was a top comment. That moves my comment up.

Esteban Candelario (24:06.453) Hmm.

Esteban Candelario (24:11.787) Nah, well they probably thought the beat was tough, like, this is like obviously, you know? So it's like, but see, and that's the thing, like you said, I don't care what I have to do, I'll do whatever, like I go use my mom's phone, my sister's phone, my brother's phone.

Rogue Beats (24:14.634) yeah, maybe, yeah. Whatever reason.

Rogue Beats (24:22.632) I'll almost do whatever, I'll almost do whatever. I won't do anything.

Esteban Candelario (24:24.619) You know, I mean, yeah, you know what mean, know, but but it's like bro, like, know, it's crazy Like I was talking to a producer and I was I was just telling him like hey text everyone How many people how many contacts do you have in your phone? He's like I have over a hundred easily I'm like bro text everyone, know and ask if they know anybody that needs a beat you'd be so surprised You'd be so surprised like hey, I'm a producer. Do you know any artist by any chance, bro? It's gonna be somebody's cousin somebody's nephew somebody's what? Yo

Rogue Beats (24:30.078) Yeah, yeah.

Rogue Beats (24:47.562) You know what's the smartest thing to do? Text other artists. That's what I do. I just text an artist that I know. like, yo, do you know? That's how I get some my placements. I'm like, yo, can you send out some beats for me? They'll be like, yeah. And they might have a connection to a big artist that I wouldn't have gone otherwise. Those are the number one. I feel like people don't do it enough. If you know an artist, they know other artists who know other artists, who know other artists, and they keep going, right? They might know a manager or someone. Those are the people you need to take time to build a relationship with.

Esteban Candelario (24:54.667) Bro.

Esteban Candelario (25:06.079) Mm-hmm.

Exactly.

Rogue Beats (25:15.69) Just be friends with them, just be a normal person. I know a lot of just spend a lot of time by themselves in the room making beats. But you need to like, like even me, like I'm someone who does this sometimes. I like staying home sometimes. But you're to have to, you know, make friends with these artists. And most of them are, you know, it's just two people. You got to stop viewing them as just like, a customer or a client, you know? And, you know, you can help them with music. They can send out beats for you to opportunities you wouldn't have had otherwise. So, yeah, that's kind of just my main point I had.

Esteban Candelario (25:20.171) Yeah.

Esteban Candelario (25:27.019) Thank

Esteban Candelario (25:33.907) Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Esteban Candelario (25:46.024) No, you're right. And know what? You know, it's funny. Like when I speak to the producers I work with, the first thing I tell them, like the first phone call you ever have with the artist you speak to, if y'all agree to work with each other, the last, very last thing you should ask before you leave that conversation is do you have, do you know anybody you like that, you know, you want to collab with, or you know that needs beats or something like that? Because like you said, like artists know artists and like referrals, that's called referrals. Like basically somebody referring you and people don't realize like the easiest way to get the next person you're going to work with is talking to the current person you're working with.

Rogue Beats (25:53.066) Mm-hmm.

Rogue Beats (26:04.093) that's good.

Mm-hmm.

Rogue Beats (26:15.144) Yeah bro, just be a normal person and you'll find some people you generally just like as people. I've gotten some good connections with artists that I'm just generally friends now. Like we just talk about things other than music and that gets me opportunities in other spaces that are not music related that I'm interested in. And you know, I think life's all about connections. I know my mom would always tell me, you have to go and get connections. super like, bro, like I'll find the connections or it'll come to me, but like it won't. You have to just ask people for things and...

Esteban Candelario (26:15.917) Same? Yeah. True.

Rogue Beats (26:43.742) you have to keep moving forward. I think in today's world, we're always on our phone. People don't want to ask for things. like, hey, that's weird. Why would I ask for something? I don't want to seem naggy or I don't want to come up with this person randomly. But that's actually pretty normal. You've got to go and ask people for favors. these people are happy to help. And they'll ask you for something. You'll be happy to help. And just build a good relationship.

Esteban Candelario (26:55.84) Yeah.

Esteban Candelario (27:10.709) Exactly. So, all so this begs the question. Let me ask you, what's more important? The quality of your music or your beats or your network?

Rogue Beats (27:18.942) Yeah. Okay. And personally, I think it's the beats, but I've seen, I think, I don't think it's the beat. think it's the network. Like, what's the word? Like logistically, I don't know, but like I've seen horrible beats used by great artists. And I'm just like, damn, like the 808s attitude and like, yeah, what's going on, bro? Like, what are these? What is this producer doing? So, I mean, yeah, I think, I think it's the connections. I've seen a lot of horrible beats used.

Esteban Candelario (27:25.535) and

Esteban Candelario (27:32.041) Yeah.

Yeah.

Rogue Beats (27:48.99) Like I could have made three years ago better.

Esteban Candelario (27:52.179) Angry.

I agree. I agree you can have literally or like there is this like expression that you could be the best guitarist in the world But that doesn't I mean an expression but like an example you could be the best guitarist in the world But that doesn't mean you're gonna be the most listen artist and at all like you know what I'm saying You could be the best at what you are doesn't necessarily mean that everyone's gonna be in tune with you I think both are important, but networking is gonna get you the farthest like you know like a hundred percent I mean so talk about like where you're currently at like are you happy with where you currently at as far as like your

Rogue Beats (28:06.942) Yeah, exactly.

Rogue Beats (28:16.861) I agree.

Rogue Beats (28:22.57) No, no, Oh, with my sound? I was unhappy yesterday, but then I became happy in middle of the day. I was trying to make these beats, they're like NorCal type beats. It's like dark, it's not UBK, it's like some sort of like scene that's been there for a while. I was like trying to figure out, like, bro, like what's going on? Like I'm never gonna figure this out. And then eventually I figured it out, and then I was happy. I'm like, okay, I figured out this genre. Like I can make beats in this genre that I'm happy with. So I feel like now I'm feeling pretty good about myself, but I feel like...

Esteban Candelario (28:22.943) sound? No? Yeah.

Rogue Beats (28:51.368) Maybe next week, next month, there'll be a new genre that I can't do and I'm like, okay, I gotta figure this out. Like, how do I do this properly? But yeah.

Esteban Candelario (28:56.331) Mm.

How are you finding all these genres? Like you mentioned the genre in UK I never even heard of. So like, you just, are you on a page that leads you to another page that just, it's like a rabbit hole or like how does that go for you?

Rogue Beats (29:06.954) I think I've just been, I've been involved in the UK scene before. So when I first made beats, I made UK drill beats. So there was like, who's some big artists, like was like Russ Millions. There was like Diggity, you know, around that 2020 time. mean, Pop Smoke, he's not from the UK, but the beats he was using were from UK producers. Like 808 Mellow and these guys. like, wait, so now I become, I become a little bit obsessed with like the scene there. I'm like, wait, I got to figure out how to these beats. These are so fire.

Esteban Candelario (29:10.027) Rogue Beats (29:34.792) And I was kind of bad for a while, but then I obviously figured out how to make those type of beats. And then since I already had a lot of connections there from before, even when I moved to making like Detroit or like a New York drill, Jersey drill, or even like, you know what I'm doing now? I'm doing a more West coast and Philly beats. I still have those connections with people in the UK and I still work with them and make stuff in their style. So when I hear of things like UK, Detroit, or like UK rap and like R &B.

These things still get to me, like I still get those, what's the term? I don't know to explain it. Like I still get, when a new genre is coming out of that area, I still get the, I don't know what notification, I don't know what the word is. Yeah, like I'm in tune, yeah.

Esteban Candelario (30:13.771) Mm-hmm.

Esteban Candelario (30:17.577) You're in tune. Nah, you're just in tune bro. well, yeah. So like your ears to the streets right now. So when something, yeah. Yeah.

Rogue Beats (30:22.729) Yeah, and if so if I like it, I then I start making those beats like I listen to a lot of music. So when I like a new style of music, I start making those beats.

Esteban Candelario (30:30.187) So, it's interesting because you're really expandable. As soon as you hear a new style you like, you focus on that. So, there you threw me off. Do you think it's better to always be adapting like that or having a niche and then getting really fucking good at that one niche?

Rogue Beats (30:33.993) Yo!

Yo! Yo, yo, we started the podcast, yo.

Yeah.

Rogue Beats (30:53.417) Yeah.

I think.

I know I've gone on lot of tangents, but if you're go for tight beats, you need to stick to what you're gonna do and you only post those beats on this channel and you post every day and you become obsessed with analytics. If that's your goal, if it goes just to make money, you post tight beats, you have to become obsessive over the analytics, the title, the thumbnail, everything and post that one, but you keep going, it doesn't work, then go to the next time you keep posting that same thing. For me, I like to kind of put my hands in a bunch of different like pots.

Esteban Candelario (31:08.555) No.

Rogue Beats (31:24.425) Just because I like different music scenes, know, like I like UK Detroit. I like UK rap. I like EBK type beats. I like Jersey drill. Like I like Detroit beats. I'm like, okay, let me learn to make all of this and then use producer fury. Shout out producer fury, Fabian, know, firesite. Sort out everything I have, all my artists by the genre, everything. Maybe every day make two beats in a certain style. So by the end of seven days I have

Esteban Candelario (31:41.973) Chop or disappear?

Rogue Beats (31:53.034) Maybe I've done eight genres during that week. Maybe I've done like 10 different genres and then I can send those beats out. I placements in lot of different, what's the word? Placements in a lot of different areas and genres. I think that just good for you as a producer. I just like doing that. I like learning new things when it comes to music. But even if you don't, think it's still worth doing because it just makes your page look better. makes you look, I mean, you are better if you can make more genres.

Esteban Candelario (32:17.898) Yeah.

Rogue Beats (32:22.845) then you're a better version of yourself when you can do more than when you can't. why not? I want to do more. What if a label comes to you and they want you to make a certain type of beat or an artist? I'll have an artist be like, yo, can you make this type of beat? It'd be something totally different. like, yeah, actually I know how to make this type of beat. And that will help me retain certain artist relationships that I would have had, would have have done so otherwise.

Esteban Candelario (32:28.074) I agree.

Esteban Candelario (32:47.369) Yeah, no, no, and I agree with that. I didn't even look at it from the lens of if you're going to be holding down a niche, you basically have to be a fucking content creator. You know what I'm saying? And understanding what that side looks like. So you bring up Producer Fury. Now, I want to ask you, well, first off, if you can just explain what Producer Fury is, what it does, and also how it helps you in terms of what you just mentioned, like finding new artists and things like that.

Rogue Beats (32:58.345) Mm-hmm.

Rogue Beats (33:06.185) Yeah.

Rogue Beats (33:11.165) Yeah, so producerfury, I originally found that because I wanted to upload beats to YouTube without like editing the whole video. it will like run out my hard drive if I do that. So I'm like Fabian had this comment on Reddit that he made. had some good marketing skills. I'm like, wait, this alternative to Tune to Tube, that's better. And he's like, wait, there's a contact list and can actually host your contacts on it. So I started using that. And those were my first two features that I use. I still use the YouTube uploading feature and

Esteban Candelario (33:25.353) Thank

Rogue Beats (33:39.722) the contact list, I spent some time importing all my contacts into it. And it took me a while, like I put it off forever. I'm like, I'm not trying to put 400 different contacts into Producer Fury and sort them out and put their Instagram and everything. I'm like, I'll do a little bit of everything. So I found it super useful. just select all the artists from the genre I want, I send out beats. I mean, I should probably take advantage of it more, but because most of time I just send out beats like as I make them.

Esteban Candelario (33:49.497) you

Mm-hmm.

Rogue Beats (34:08.721) I have found it useful. I've used it and it helps me not only send out beats and sort my contacts, but also find new artists. The one artist who I was mentioning earlier, the one mirror guy who me and him are pretty locked in right now. I think he has a tape coming up. Hopefully a of my beats are on that tape. I actually found him through producer. He was one of the suggestions that Fabian had. had like a, he has a certain process. I think you know what feature I'm talking about, right? This spot, I forgot the name of it.

Esteban Candelario (34:34.571) Mm-hmm, the finding? Yeah.

Rogue Beats (34:36.839) It'll recommend artists similar to other artists that you like. And I found him this one, like, okay, this guy's Let me try and work with him. So has helped me find some good opportunities. Of course you got to do the work yourself. That's everything is like that. And recently he added an email feature. So if he can find his email, any artists you're looking to work with, sometimes they can find their email and then boom, you can just start sending them beats right away and it'll add it to your content.

Esteban Candelario (34:39.507) Exactly. Yeah.

Esteban Candelario (34:47.293) Yeah. Yeah.

Esteban Candelario (34:59.413) Nice. talk about that process. Like, what was it like looking for artists before you're using Producer Fury? Like what, how, like what were you just like scrolling through Instagram? Like how was that?

Rogue Beats (35:04.957) Mm-hmm.

Rogue Beats (35:08.981) I just go through Instagram and different like rap pages. And then now with Producer Free, I can find artists who are similar to other artists that I want certain style. I still scroll through Instagram. That still does help. But Producer Free has a filter button. You can filter by only artists have the email in their bio and I'll just do that and I'll spam. I'll listen for a few seconds to if it's good. I like it. And boom, they're already in my contacts. I can sort them how I want, send them beats. I don't have to do any commenting and DMing them.

Esteban Candelario (35:20.427) Mm.

Rogue Beats (35:38.675) just, you know, get started right away.

Esteban Candelario (35:39.371) Can you talk about your journey in terms of are you doing this by yourself? Do you have any help? Do you work with anybody?

Rogue Beats (35:50.735) in what nor good

Esteban Candelario (35:52.632) cause some producers have managers, some people, you know, handlers like. Gotcha. Okay.

Rogue Beats (35:56.253) Mainly I do this all by myself. I have other pieces I work with for fun. know, that's just collaborations. I do have a manager. I have actually two. One of them kind of he's he's kind of taking a break. The other one he just sends out beats for me. He's been pretty helpful. He does a pretty good job. I like him. He's an artist I actually met. That's what I was saying before. You got to make connections with the artists and I mean I generally like him. He's a good guy. Me and my friends were close. But so he was like, yo, I can send out beats for you. I know a lot of people who use these type of beats.

Esteban Candelario (36:13.897) Really?

Rogue Beats (36:25.465) Let me be your manager. I'm like, yo, let's do it. Okay? That's what I'm saying. You got to build connections with artists. It's like your friends want to help you. So make friends with people who are good people who can actually help you. Don't be friends with just like randoms who are, who don't provide you with anything, just like saying, nothing. I'm not saying, I'm not saying slam out your day ones. I'm just saying make friends who are like, who, you're a combination of the people around you. So put people around you who can do good.

Esteban Candelario (36:29.215) Wow.

Esteban Candelario (36:34.035) Yeah.

Esteban Candelario (36:42.859) Yeah, no, yeah. No, 100%. 100%. Makes sense. Yeah, no, if one plus one equals two, bro, it works. You know what I'm saying? So, okay, so then talk about that process. As far as the opportunities, do you think producers should have managers? Do you think it's a necessity or do you think it's something most producers can live without? Just in your personal opinion.

Rogue Beats (37:10.089) I'd say if you're...

I think I can do everything on my own. My manager, he just sends out beats for me and I go ahead and give him a percent. don't mind. Some beats I'll send out myself and then I don't need to give a percent to anybody. I think if you really want to get good at music, you have to learn to not become stingy with money. You can fight over percentage. I I had an issue today with an artist. It wasn't really an issue at all, but he didn't understand how leases worked. So I'm like, okay, it's fine, bro. We'll just figure out like this. Don't worry about it. I'll wave the...

with royalties this time, like it's no worries. Like it's okay. So you got to be able to like, kind of like put your ego aside. And a lot of times it's not going to be, it's going to be a few dollars either way. Like why are we bullying each other over that? But managers can help. think if you get really big, if you have a lot of artists reaching to you and a lot of artists that you're working with and they'll talk into labels, having someone who really understands how it works can be worth that 10, 15 % cut, maybe even 20 that you're going to give them.

Esteban Candelario (37:48.234) Really.

Esteban Candelario (38:00.652) Mmm.

Rogue Beats (38:13.542) can definitely be worth it. I'm someone who likes to know everything myself. I like to figure it all out. I mean, that's just me. So most of the stuff I kind of do on my own. But if I was an opportunity like that where I would, or a situation where a manager would make sense, I wouldn't be opposed to it. Like, Hey, yeah, you probably have connections too that I don't have because you're already involved in this space. If you can get me better deals on certain, you know, situate in certain moments.

Esteban Candelario (38:13.76) Yeah.

Rogue Beats (38:43.25) That's right then.

Esteban Candelario (38:44.937) Yeah, no, yeah, no, I agree. And for you right now, is there like any artists, like a dream artist that you'd want to work with, like any placement that you could think of, like top your head?

Rogue Beats (39:01.32) I don't even know. think some the songs I really want is Skrilla. He makes like Philly drill music. I actually got his number. He said he liked one of my beats, so hopefully he uses it. I'll be like... He's like...

Esteban Candelario (39:08.459) Fire, yeah.

Esteban Candelario (39:13.341) What? What? Okay, so talk about that. How the fuck did that even land on your lap? Where does that start and how did it end?

Rogue Beats (39:20.776) I think I had it from before and I found it again. found it. I forgot how I got it again, but I got his number again. I'm like, yo, is this Skrilla? He's like, yeah. So I went ahead and sent him a bunch of beats. I'm like, okay, I like this one. And then I know he actually saved the beat to his phone because he sent it back to me. He said, speed this one up. So then I was like, okay, I was like, maybe it's not Skrilla. It could be someone who's just said, yeah, I am Skrilla. I don't know. I assume it is. I assume it is. It was like the same number from before because I think he changed it. So.

Esteban Candelario (39:39.206) shit.

Esteban Candelario (39:43.812) Could be his manager or something. Yeah.

Esteban Candelario (39:49.035) Mm.

Rogue Beats (39:50.089) I was like, okay, perfect. Like this seems like it was probably him. So yeah, I went ahead and speeded it up. was like, okay, hopefully if it doesn't happen, I'm not going to speak out over it, but that'd be a good B placement. Maybe some sort of industry placement. think a little baby would be pretty fire or a gunner. Maybe a EBKJ. I he's, he's, he, I think he's in jail right now or some sort of legal situation. Yeah.

Esteban Candelario (39:58.283) Yeah.

Esteban Candelario (40:04.555) So we fire.

Esteban Candelario (40:12.063) Bro, I feel like all of New York drill is in jail right now. Like all the good ones. okay, okay, okay. Nevermind. Yeah.

Rogue Beats (40:14.766) He's not, I think it was like West Coast, but yeah, I know your point. All the Joe rappers are in jail, you're right. Yeah. What was my point though? What was I going to say? But yeah, that'd be, those would be some cool opportunities. I don't really think about it too much. I just think, okay, as I get more opportunities, I will get more opportunities. I don't explain it. The more, the better you're doing, the more it will come to you, especially with music. People will want to work with you more. So yeah.

Esteban Candelario (40:35.167) Yeah, of course. It's natural. Yeah. Of course. Exactly. It's extremely natural, especially when you do it on like bigger platforms, like each artist that has a bigger platform. It's just more is going to come.

Rogue Beats (40:47.651) Usually I give myself goals that are achievable. right now I want a goal within the next year to be able to get a 1900 rug grab placement. I even started posting his type of beats on YouTube. So that's the YouTube grind that I'm doing on the side. And I've been obsessing over the analytics. Like every four times a day I'll open YouTube Studio and I'm just like, what's my retention rate? What's my click through rate? Everything bro. You gotta be on top of that.

Esteban Candelario (40:58.047) Nice.

Esteban Candelario (41:12.17) Yeah.

Rogue Beats (41:16.048) stuff. See, why is this video getting five views? Okay. That's way better beat. And why is the beat from three days ago have 300 now? Like what's, what's, what's going to be 300 views? So yeah, hopefully you get a roadmap placement. That'd be pretty fire.

Esteban Candelario (41:19.411) Mm-hmm.

Esteban Candelario (41:31.133) Is it fair to say like, you know, like that one beat that you think is better than the other beat, but it only got five views and the other beat that you don't think is as good got 300? Is it fair to say like it's kind of like subjective and like the people kind of choose like, this is, you know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah.

Rogue Beats (41:43.464) Yeah, I was just thinking about it today. Music is very subjective. I'll have people reach out to me like, yo, I need this beat. be like, you want that beat? Like, all right, All right, sure.

Esteban Candelario (41:50.636) Yeah, mean so then talk about that like talk about because I feel like especially especially producers since it is their art it is their music

They understand what it took to make within the moment. There's probably like little things that happen. Like for example, like I produced and accidentally did something on my keyboard. I'm like, that was fire. I record that and it turns into something. So it's like, you have this emotional attachment. have you ever like, have you ever or how many times have you had an opportunity where someone's like, I want that beat and you're like, you want that? that, like not even my best work, bro. Like you can have this or you can have that, but like, you know what I'm

Rogue Beats (42:07.037) Mm-hmm.

Rogue Beats (42:11.92) Yeah, problem. Facts.

Rogue Beats (42:26.568) Yo, the song I was just telling you about, that one that got like, not even released yet and I already had people like, the one with the Philly guy, I think maybe 100,000 views on Instagram and Reels, you That's nothing too crazy, right? But I had a lot of people reach out to me for that, like, yo, like, we should work. I love your beats, bro. Or like, that beat was crazy, bro. Let's log in. Or, hey, just send me this beat. I don't even make music. I just wanna listen to the beat by itself. I don't even think the beat's that good. I'm gonna be keeping it a buck. The beat was like...

Esteban Candelario (42:49.983) Bro, really, Daniel is part.

Rogue Beats (42:55.816) For a while I had saved the beat and the 808s were out of tune and I had just fixed it and then sent it to the artist and they still didn't like it too much. like, it's very basic. The snares were hitting on the same thing the whole song. I'm like, like very uncreative beat, but they liked it. They liked the sample. They liked how the beat sounded. I mean, I still like the beat, I guess, but like, don't think it's, it's not my best work in my opinion. The artist did a good job on it. He made it sound like a great song.

Esteban Candelario (43:00.297) Mm. Mm.

Esteban Candelario (43:16.575) Yeah.

Esteban Candelario (43:23.199) Yeah.

Rogue Beats (43:25.761) which is pretty nice, but not my best beat. I've made better beats in my opinion.

Esteban Candelario (43:27.115) That's it, see, and I was just about to say, like, I guess I think producers forget that the artist is an instrument too, I like, I always think, and this is just like my personal opinion, the simpler the beat, the better, and just let the artist add whatever. If there's more space on the beat, then he or she can do whatever she wants to it.

Rogue Beats (43:34.717) Yeah.

Rogue Beats (43:40.2) Actually, yeah

I just remembered the biggest song I ever have. So I started posting remixes on TikTok and one of them has, I think, 400,000 or 300,000 streams now, right? Accumulating old platforms. I don't even listen to it. I like it when I'm making it. think it sounds nice and melodic and cool. But I'm not the top listener of this. mean, except if you count the time producing it, then yeah, maybe clicking back and forth. It's the same tune, is this not? But it's not a genre I listen to frequently. I don't listen to hood trap remixes as a...

Esteban Candelario (43:49.899) Mm-hmm.

Esteban Candelario (43:53.429) Jesus.

Esteban Candelario (44:04.916) Alright.

Rogue Beats (44:14.407) It's not in my playlist. Actually. Yeah. I'm not even in my own playlist. that's, I make it because I think it sounds nice and I enjoy making it, but mainly because other people like listening to it. And that's, have to understand that as producers. Yeah. We can have our own passions for different music styles, but what, what, what does, what do people want to hear? Right. And especially once you get involved in type beats and posting beats for content to like, get people to listen and purchase from you, you got to understand your, there's a term, it's like something customer profile.

Esteban Candelario (44:16.159) there.

Mm-hmm.

Rogue Beats (44:44.295) Average. Something like that. Yeah. You don't understand them. What did they want to hear? What are they like? What time? What time are they on their phone? TikTok and YouTube give you all these stats. Like, I know it sounds like, this is so minimal, but like these minimal things matter. Like what time they're on the phone. Don't forget about that. Like that's that you need to be looking at it the most. Your thumbnails, your titles. You really need to understand your customer. And sometimes you won't like making this type of beat in a moment. You just got to keep doing it. You got to keep posting it.

Esteban Candelario (44:44.703) Yeah, your ideal customer profile. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Esteban Candelario (45:10.763) Mm-hmm.

Rogue Beats (45:13.723) Yeah, and just keep on working. mean, everything in life is like that. You know, I do beats just because I like it. And recently I've been like, let me start working hard on it and really doing it. But there's stuff when I'm making this, I don't like this, like, yo, why am I doing this? It's like boring. So I think that's something you have to accept in life. Like there's going to be stuff no matter what that you don't like.

Esteban Candelario (45:37.109) So you're a strong believer in what's that expression? Dang, what's the expression? We don't do what we can. I forgot what the expression is. Basically, you have to do these things even though you don't like it to get to where you want to be.

Rogue Beats (45:47.717) I know what you're saying though.

Rogue Beats (45:54.088) I everything that I've wanted that I've achieved and I haven't even achieved everything that I've wanted. That's not what I'm trying to say. But like this, I've had to do stuff that I don't want to get there. Like that are not fun to achieve it. I think it's, I think I'm not necessarily a strong believer like, that's how everything works. But like, you can't avoid it. I've just accepted that I can't avoid things that suck and you're gonna have to do things that suck. Like if you want to look good and get a good physique, you're gonna have...

Esteban Candelario (46:00.363) Yeah.

Esteban Candelario (46:17.797) Mmm. Yeah.

Rogue Beats (46:21.767) You're gonna have to struggle in the gym for three months and it's gonna suck and it's gonna hurt and you're not gonna see a lot of progress and it's just gonna be boring, but you're gonna have to do it.

Esteban Candelario (46:23.935) Yeah.

Esteban Candelario (46:31.029) Yeah.

I just remembered it. We do what we have to, not what we want to. Do what we have to, not what we want to. And I think that's essential, bro. But you know, it's funny, I actually talking to producer, his name was David, I filmed a podcast with him, and he was talking about how he struggled with that, and he just didn't like, his theory is like, it's actually messing up the quality of music that's coming out, because producers are purposely choosing to make one sound and everything sounding alike,

Rogue Beats (46:38.405) Yeah, exactly.

Rogue Beats (46:45.799) Mm.

Rogue Beats (46:56.443) Hmm

Esteban Candelario (47:01.549) because they're choosing the analytics and the consumerism of all of it compared to actual music. You know what I'm saying? So, where do you draw the line for yourself or do you not? Is it just completely blurred and you just do it no matter what?

Rogue Beats (47:08.177) Hmm.

Rogue Beats (47:15.973) I just make whatever I like. look with tight beats, yeah, you're going to post like the same thing again. I have a template now for tight beats. just, the same sounds post again and again. But when I'm sending beats to artists, no, take my time. I go through my drum kits. I go through a bunch of sounds. I select here and here. I don't take too long. I'm not going to spend like 10 years looking for sounds, but you know, I want to make something that's different. Usually the snare will hit, you know, similar times for this, you know, tight beats and whatever.

Esteban Candelario (47:19.051) Yeah. That's crazy.

Esteban Candelario (47:28.299) Mm.

Esteban Candelario (47:32.97) Yeah.

Esteban Candelario (47:43.071) Yeah.

Rogue Beats (47:43.781) And the hi hats and all, but like, you know, have some fun, guess that's the word that add some things here at some things that make it, make it different. That's really what's going to get you in the best opportunities. And I make sure to do that with every beat, even the tight beats. I try and like, you know, do something different, like, this would sound cool if I did it and not thinking, no, I shouldn't do that. The consumer is not going to want to, or like the art, the not artists, the listener on YouTube is not going to hear that. Like, no, like maybe they'll actually like it.

you know, these subtle changes with perks and different effects that you can do for sure.

Esteban Candelario (48:13.397) Yeah.

Esteban Candelario (48:17.545) Yeah, and I mean you made a good point. mean there's no reason why you can't do both and have a strategy for both. So have you ever tried reaching out to an artist with like personalized beats like specifically made for them before or do you really? How's that process and how has the opportunities like occurred for you?

Rogue Beats (48:25.028) Mm-hmm.

Rogue Beats (48:34.405) Yeah.

I just don't say it specifically for them because I feel like that's like Loki if you glazed artists they don't work with you like yo this guy's just like get out of here bro like what are you doing but you just be like yo I made these beats and somehow they're actually in your style bro that's actually crazy like I would never would have thought that these were exactly your type beats like yo that's insane I don't even underplay I just be like yo I got beats for you and then they know I have probably a beat pack that I've had

Esteban Candelario (48:44.939) Yeah.

Yo.

Esteban Candelario (48:55.307) Really? So you underplay it like times a million? like... Yeah, okay. Okay.

Rogue Beats (49:03.398) Sometimes I'll actually sometimes I do the opposite like yo I have beats for you and it's beats that I've made before I've even heard they work It's any it's a piece that they would fit their style, right? So like hey, what do I think could grab this person's attention? So yeah making beats before you text artists I guess if you really want to but usually if you as long as you have a pack I mean I've built an or like what's the term? Like a folder of beats now that's well organized. So when I just text any artist

Esteban Candelario (49:11.177) near.

Mm.

Rogue Beats (49:29.798) I'm like, okay, know what they tell me what they want or if I already know what type of music they want, I can substitute them quickly. So, technically for them, you know, I don't think they care, no?

Esteban Candelario (49:40.811) I don't know it's a good question. I can't speak because

Rogue Beats (49:42.874) Unless they asked me if it's custom beats, then yeah, I'm making beats personally. They're like, yo, I made it. made a custom beat for you. you asked for this sample. That's, that's, that's different, right? You already connected with the artist, but yeah, I if they like the beat, they like the beat.

Esteban Candelario (49:46.699) Mmm.

Esteban Candelario (49:52.437) course yeah damn dude I think for me personally like I mean we covered everything as far as like what I want to talk about so I just want to say man just tell them where they can find you or where they can reach you if they wanted to

Rogue Beats (50:04.827) Alright, yeah.

Rogue Beats (50:12.294) yeah yeah instagram at rogue beats or rxgue and then beats it's all tiktok too soundcloud spotify is rogue beats without the x it's just the o you can find me on those pages you know tap in uh you know let's let's lock in let's make some good music you know

Esteban Candelario (50:35.051) Awesome bro. It was nice speaking to you brother. Thank you.

Rogue Beats (50:36.11) Yeah, yeah. Yo, hey, by the way, first podcast I done. Do you feel like I talk a lot or like I extend things out? Cause I feel like there's times I like, yeah bro. But I don't know that's what I'm supposed to do. Is it recording? Like, yeah, I know that. Yeah.

Esteban Candelario (50:44.908) Well, it's still recording, so yeah. Nah, you're good, you're good. It's okay, I'll cut that part out. Let me stop.