The ‘Throwaway Beat’ Myth: Why Producers Should Save All of Their Beats

Recently, producer Alchemist tweeted out that 87% of his beats are trash and that we only hear about 13% when all is said and done. While I personally can never say that I’ve heard a wack Alchemist beat it does raise an interesting point about how many of our beats are considered “good” and whether producers should throw any of their beats away (we believe that you should never throw any beat/idea away… ever).

While it is true that creative in general would do well to know that not every piece of art is ready to be shared, especially if it isn’t up to our personal standards, Alchemist’s tweet brings out an insightful about not only how you feel about your art, but what fans feel about your art.

Although you feel that something isn’t up to par society may believe it to be the greatest thing they’ve ever seen/heard — and while we can’t definitely say if that’s a testament to your greatness as a creative it does further prove our point that as beatmakers you should never throw anything away.

Yes. I know that it’s not a good beat. I know you can make something better. But then again, what exactly is “better?” In fact, who’s to say that this beat that you were about to delete because it’s “trash” isn’t the one that would’ve changed your life forever. And to get even more rational about it, the song project itself is only a few MBs (megabytes) in size; I’m sure it won’t kill your hard drive to save it.

Keep in mind, you never quite know what an artist is going to choose for their project, and we’ve personally known of instances where artists have chosen the least likely thing that the producer played but because they had the courage to play it, and they DIDN’T throw it away the person ended up getting a placement. Although that’s not always the case, it is worth remembering that art is objective and that, even though one out of every 10 beats Alchemist makes is something that he deems good enough to hear those other nine are still on the hard drive, waiting to be discovered by someone.

If you read our other blog post we talked about quality over quantity when it comes to beat-making. We put forth the idea that one should focus more on the quality of the music they’re making and their personal standards for making music, and that you shouldn’t focus too much on the quantity.

Because of that, and because of the fact that Alchemist is a master of his craft one could venture to say that he might agree with this sentiment. And it’s the reason we revere his catalog so much. In fact, It’d be fair to say that most of the producers that we revere and most of the artists we love, we do so because we haven’t heard 90% of the music that they want to come out with. We’ve only heard their 10% best and personally, I prefer that we keep it that way. If not for the sake of their legacy then for the sake of our ears.

Regardless, creatives who feel the same way as Alchemist should feel empowered knowing that their contemporaries, who make art at a level they aspire to make it to also have those same insecurities and high standards about the work that they create. Put out the best and save the rest for later. To you, it’s a throwaway, but to them, it means the world.

Originally published at https://drummachineaddicts.com on February 17, 2020.