La Cantina Productions - The Beat Cellar Blog

Beats on Bragster.com and Twitter

2009-07-12T15:03:00.004+01:00

While the summer goes back and forth in London, the team@lacantina has been working on various projects...

First of all, the good guys at Bragster.com have kicked off a collabo with The Beat Cellar and will be featuring a couple of our beats on their "best of" videos. Banging hip hop beats and kids doing crazy stunts (or "dares", as they're officially referred to...) is a perfect combo..........we know you can't wait to check it out, so head over to www.bragster.com

Second, La Cantina Productions is finally on Twitter. Yes, yes, kinda old news now and should've been done years ago...but we wanted to have a think about how to make the most of the art of tweeting before jumping on board...

So now that you can find us @lacantinaprod make sure you start following us...you know there will of course be some special love for our followers...

Keep on enjoying the summer people...

Radio and Blogs

2009-02-02T17:54:00.006Z

Word up

Haven't been posting on our BeatCellar blog for a while because...we have a new blog! We just launched TheRapBuzz.com as a way to share our passion for hip hop, and at the same time filter and digest for you the most important news out there in the rap world. So that's us guys who produce your beats, as a new activity we have now turned into bloggers as well...ah, we just love the web too much...

And then...we recently appeared on Radio Siena in Italy. Oh yes, one of our lovely artists wanted to interview us and find out why we spend all our time locked up making beats and running a website (and a blog as well now).

Fun times...the snow keeps falling on London and those beats just keep coming...

Ai!

Talk to us

2008-11-08T16:01:00.004Z

Ah yes, you can now talk to us! We have set up a live feedback page where you can ask questions, share ideas and rate us...along with the rest of our artists.

We're going to test this for a while and see how it goes. If it gets killed by spam we'll pull the plug on it, if however it becomes a useful resource for constructive feedback and cool ideas it'll live forever.

So, let's hear it...head over to www.getsatisfaction.com/lacantinaproductions and get posting! Who knows, we may even reward the best ideas and suggestions with free beats...who knows...

Everything a Rap Artist Needs

2008-11-01T17:44:00.004Z

After a few weekends of non-stop coffee and cigarette filled work we have finally managed to re-design and update our world famous resources page...

The cool new page now features:

- Loads of useful articles ranging from using rhyme schemes to effective email music marketing
- A fresh look & feel which is much easier on those tired eyes of yours

- Cleaned up new links to sites we recommend

We have also hunted down and hired some amazing writers who have already contributed their thoughts to these pages...of course, there is more to come from them in the following months

AND, mailing list subscribers will receive all new articles before they are published online. This is on top of special offers, new beats and other lovely freebies...(yes, we like being nice)

Enjoy people

New beats and beatmaker

2008-08-02T19:10:00.003+01:00

Even more new beats have been uploaded, have a listen....

And...another beatmaker joins our world famous production team, I-Cue. His beats are technically excellent and add yet another style to our melting pot of sounds (for real..)

Unlike Sockola, I-Cue wasn't hired while the founders of this site were intoxicated, but he applied himself online and simply knocked us out of our chairs. Way to go man!

New beats and a fresh look

2008-06-17T15:02:00.003+01:00

New beats have been uploaded and the catalogue has been re-designed...ai!

We did love the pictures on our old one (really) and liked to believe that you did as well. Stunning visuals and rap beats, a winning duo.

But then one day while cooking pasta we realised we had too many beats. And because we want your beat tasting experience to be as seamless as possible, we cut the pics and put all our bangers on one plate. Yes. (send us feedback if you hate it...!!)

And last, make sure you check out the first new beatmaker to join our world famous production team, Sockola. A fan of Reason's NN-XT, the man is known to love digging the crates for underground euro latin pop gems and being whack at Xbox first person shooters. He was hired one dark night when Jerry Spina and Stone Tone where too intoxicated to understand the implications of their actions.

Ai ai!

Selling Rap Beats Online - A few words on our birthday...

2008-03-09T20:03:00.006Z

Life rolls by quickly. Life online rolls by even quicker, and LaCantinaProductions.com today celebrates four successfull years of happy beatmaking and online business.

We've learnt loads in four years, but if there is one thing that has really stood out, it's the fact (read carefully, fact) that it ain't easy. Creating one of the web's top audio production sites has taken a tremendous amount of work, passion, enthusiasm, time and money. It didn't just happen...

That's why it annoys us we've gone from having 5-6 quality sites selling beats online to what now are probably close to a hundred beatsomething.com's. Sure, competition is a positive force, it fuels innovation...but the problem is that we're not seeing innovation, just hopeless imitation.

Why? Because it looks like the new online rap beat biz opportunity is not about selling beats anymore, but telling others how to do it, and charging for the privilege. The craziest thing is that these "secrets of selling beats online" ebooks make it look like child's play...to the point that anyone who reads them feels they are perfectly capable of selling beats online and making six figure profits. Ha ha

Of course these ebooks are BS. Yes, they point you in the right direction, but it's not only about knowing how to do it, it's knowing how to do it better than everyone else. And if that wasn't enough, they fail to mention that without QUALITY beats, no one goes anywhere.

So what's our advice? Don't be foolish and throw your hard earned cash down the internet money making dreams drain just because some ebook tells you so. There's no more space for beat sites, the market is bursting (a search for "rap beats" on Google brings up 507,000 results, yes).

Instead, join an existing audio production site. Have a look around, pick the best ones (not the open to all buy and sell beat sites, you'll never get noticed there) and send them your beats along with a well written email. Trust us, if you're talented you'll eventually have your beats online, without having wasted thousands of dollars on building and promoting yet another buyrapbeat.com

So while we blow out the four candles on our birthday cake, we hope we've helped you with this simple, yet vital piece of advice...happy birthday LaCantinaProductions.com

10 Tips for Buying Rap Beats Online

2007-06-25T20:51:00.000+01:00

Because we love you all (yes we do) we want you to know what you're doing when you're buying rap beats online. There's lots of stinking crap out there, so these tips are here to guide you through the blinding dirt and find the shining light...ok ok enough philosophical talk, enjoy the tips and good luck with thA beats!

1. Music Licenses – Understand them

Know the difference between exclusive and non-exclusive licenses. An exclusive license will grant you the exclusive (hence the name) right to use the beats for your projects.

A non-exclusive license will give you the right to use the beat for your musical projects, however the producer retains the right to sell the beat to other artists too.

2. Music Licenses – Know which one to buy

Exclusive licenses can be expensive, but essential if you’re looking to commercially release an album. If you’re however recording a demo or mixtape, a non-exclusive license is fine, however make sure you check with the producer what rights you get as these will vary from site to site.

3. Prices, don’t pay too much!

Owners of beat sites often get carried away by their big ego’s and will charge inflated prices for standard beats.

A rough guideline for prices follows:

Non-Exclusive Licenses - $15 - $50

Exclusive Licenses - $100 - $1000

Of course, the above prices depend on the producer’s popularity and talent. However, we would not recommend paying more than $1000 for an exclusive license bought online from someone you have never met in person.

4. Websites, only buy from trusted ones

Any proper online business will make sure they have a trustworthy image. Therefore make sure that the site you’re buying from has at least one or two of these:

- Full contact details, phone number, email, mailing address

- Privacy Policy

5. Look for trust symbols

On top of the above, the website should also have third party trust symbols. These are certifications from other companies that prove the website is trustworthy and not fraudulent.

Some symbols to look for are:

- BBB Certification

- Paypal Verified

- Shopping reviews

- Hacker Safety Certifications

- Antivirus Safety Certifications

Also make sure these symbols link through to another page that explains what they mean and how the website in question fits the criteria.

6. Email the site and check if they reply

Crazy, but certain beat sites will not bother doing this. Would you want to do business with someone who doesn’t care about talking to you?

Also, this will prove that the website is a serious online business with a team of human beings running it properly.

7. Look for testimonials

This is not essential, but it’s always good if you can see that others have dealt with the site before and have been satisifed with their beats.

8. Avoid producers who only use a Soundclick/MySpace page to sell beats

A domain name costs less than $15 a year, surely it’s not a good sign if someone doesn’t even have the money to buy that and set up their own independent website?

9. Search for the site on Google

This is a quick easy way to check a site’s reputation. Do any bad comments show up, or anything else unusual?

10. Is the site alive?

Does anyone update it or is it dead? We’re all very busy making beats, but adding some small updates once in a while is within everyone’s reach. Therefore look for blog posts, new beat uploads and even small updates such as changing the current year noted on the site!

The debate of the beat

2007-06-08T15:05:00.000+01:00

We’ve often had hot debates about this while chilling out in front of our keyboards and computers after a kick/snare session: what beats do artists actually want nowadays?

It’s apparent from what you can find on most other beat sites that “crunk” is very fashionable at the moment and that heavy synthy dre beats never fail to sell. We offer you a varied menu of musical dishes, some fall under these categories while others just have a insane life of their own…

But, what is it YOU like? When we used to rhyme we always looked for beats that literally gave us words…in most cases these tended to be very mellow emotional French style instrumentals, or wild concoctions of electronic sounds meshed with hip hop drums (and I guess you can at times hear these styles on our catalogue), but is that what the modern day emcee is after?

A quick look at the charts places Timbaland at the top, what about that? We agree he has produced some banging instrumentals (dirt off your shoulder) although using the same kick, snare and hihat on every single of nelly furtado’s album is a bit of a cheap production trick boy!

But so……what do you like, and more importantly I guess, why do you like it? Beat tastes are very subjective, but isn’t it cool to chat about it?

PS
Ah man we’re deep, how many other beat websites have such profound thoughts on their blogs? :-)

May

2007-05-25T12:31:00.000+01:00

What a month

First of all, one of our most successful in terms of beat sales (it must be that the imminent arrival of the summer is getting your rhymes bouncing….we love that).

Second, May finally brought Nas to London and we had the chance to go and see him rock the crowds live. From “NY State of Mind” to “The Message” to “One Mic” and “Made you Look”…they were all there. He’s now touring Europe, so if you’re one of our artists from the old continent make sure you don’t miss out on this incredible show.

Third, we’ve come across a few very talented producers who will shortly be joining our team. It has taken us a while to find beatmakers with the right sound for La Cantina Productions, but we’re getting there and these guys are pure fire. Introductions and beats to follow shortly.

So, the month isn’t over yet and we’re of course looking forward to more….!

Ai ai

The otherz...

2007-05-06T22:30:00.000+01:00

As you all know, we're not the only beat website on the internet. There's loads of us. We've mentioned previously how we feel some are respectable beatmakers, while others just end up using valuable bandwidth.

A few days ago one of these competitors (which I won't name coz it's not necessary) tried to "seduce" us into joining their affiliate program. An affiliate program is essentially a system through which you promote someone else's product/service on your website and get paid a commission for every sale you generate. We've never seen such a long and schmoozy email.

So of course our reaction was "what the f???? Why would we want to promote a competitor's beats on our website?" We were promised lots of cash and glory, but heck no...we're not your average whores..

We're happy to partner with like minded beat websites, but we're not going to make money for someone else at the expense of our hard work on the beats. We want you to rhyme over our beats, not someone else's...not matter how much we get paid to push you their way..

Feel better I got that off my chest...while Lupe sings "kick, push" I'll return to the beats......

Oh yeah and by the way, Google just gave us a PageRank of 5...in other words it means the biggest search engine in the world loves us even more...that can only be good news...

Code code...

2007-03-04T13:31:00.000Z

Finally made the fix on on our HTML to make our site look great on both IE and Firefox

Added a much needed social bookmarking button, so start bookmarking us on Delicious, Furl, Digg etc. etc. !

Back in action!

2007-01-29T21:14:00.000Z

Ciao all,

We've had a bit of a misadventure in getting our high speed internet connection set up in our new office (landline markers anyone??), but yes, we've made it now.

Yes yes we know, sounds like we're always moaning about something, but hey must be that we're getting put to the test by the gods of the beat!!

Anyhow, we've been hearing some great tracks from all of our artists (exclusive and non-exclusive buyers) and damn that shit is hot!! There's some real talent out there guys, make sure you keep on sending us your work!

But well, now that we're all set in our new temple of beats in North London (and I have finished deleting all the spam attempts on this blog) we can start functioning properly again. So, expect new bangers soon and also a long awaited newsletter packed with those creative tips you've been so eagerly waiting for...

Ai ai!

Your favourite beatmakers, LaCantinaProductions.com

New London offices!

2006-11-03T16:06:00.000Z

We made it..oh yes we did...La Cantina Productions has finally found the perfect location for our new studio/offices!

It did take a while, but from Monday 6th of Nov we'll be cooking our beats from Stroud Green Road, Islington, London. As described by Wikipedia, Stroud Green Road is "a microcosm of what London Mayor Ken Livingstone once described as "The world in one city." There can be few places with such a tension-free racial, cultural and class mix."

Sounded like the perfect home for a group of international hip hop beatmakers...

Full address will be posted on Monday once the move is complete. From then on, if you're based in London or just passing by, knock on our door...

They're up!

2006-09-10T16:29:00.000+01:00

Yes, yes, yes...! The new beats are up...!

Get rhyming!!!!!!!!!!!

A few important things...

2006-08-18T16:05:00.000+01:00

So...

We know you must all be thinking "damn these guys, they tell me in June that they're posting new beats and we're now in August and still no signs of any fresh new head bangerz on their catalogues...they too high to update their website or what??"

Well, you're right (no, not regarding us being too high...!) we're just "a bit" behind schedule...and we're sorry! But man it's been a busy summer...

We're hunting for a new home/office to live and work in here in London, and thanks to a couple of dodgy estate agents things have turned out to be way more difficult than you'd usually expect...it's hard out here for a producer........

On top of that, add the fact that the hip hop scene back in Roma, Italia has taken notice of what we do (it's taken us nearly three years, but hey...things move slooooowly back at home) and we've therefore had to fly back to meet & greet all the fantastic new artists who were just dying to rhyme over our beats (not kidding...!). And that takes time. (!)

So...once we find a new home/office, things will pick up and we'll get round to uploading these lovely new beats who have now been patiently waiting on the C drives of our computers for nearly three months...

Yet again, than you for your patience...we'll get there eventually............promise!

La Cantina Productions Team

New beats coming you way...

2006-06-23T13:54:00.000+01:00

...quicker than you can say southernplayalisticadillacmuzik !

We've got a broad range of banging new beats dying for rhymes................

Keep checking this space!

A tough market

2006-05-13T15:21:00.000+01:00

Ciao everyone,

Just a quick note from all of us here at LaCantinaProductions.com, it's been a while that we've been wanting to shout this out on the waves of the web...

In the last two years, the online beat market has literally exploded, with hundreds of sites popping out everywhere out of nowhere, cluttering the web and making our job much harder. We've got to a point where anyone thinks they can make beats, put up a website and make more cash than jay-z and master p put together...wish it was that easy...

I can think off the top of my head of maybe 5-6 other sites/production teams who are serious, professional and work as hard as we do on the kicks, snares and HTML coding. All the rest, an immense waste of time, space and valuable bandwidth.

Unfortunately, due to the way Mr. Google works, these garbage sites often get picked up and are among the top ten results for searches relevant to us. It's a shame, coz they make all of us look like a bunch of desperate wannabee's...

But nevertheless, rest assured that if you're one of our artists, you're in the right place. We work hard day and night (really...!) to make LaCantinaProductions.com what it is and keep it on top of the piles of garbage out there. We offer you more than the average beat website (free promotion anyone?) and are always looking into ways to give you that something extra to help you in your musical career. And of course, we love it.

So keep on making your music, and thank you for being our artists. We really, really, do appreciate it.

La Cantina Productions Team

Optimising, optimising, optimising...

2006-05-01T16:11:00.000+01:00

Today's been the search engine optimisation day...

We've now got a sitemap (XML and HTML) and a robots.txt file

Don't worry bout what this means...just hope that the big google now notices us a bit more, bringing us more visitors and you more beats!

As for the rest, the new beats are coming and don't forget that we're hiring !

Expanding our team...and other updates...

2006-04-15T11:47:00.000+01:00

And yes the time has come, we're looking for new beat makers to join our team! The demand for our beats has grown so much that we now need more people to help us keep all our hundreds of artists worldwide satisfied...

We're first posting a quick message on our blog about this, and we'll soon have an official page up on our site...if interested, drop us a line on info @ lacantinaproductions.com

As for the rest, we've made some minor SEO tweaks to our site which should help our rankings and we've also expanded our Italian and French pages which should soon be up and running...

That's all for now...new beats coming your way very soon...

New Beats Are Up!!!

2006-02-07T20:20:00.000Z

Hooray, we've made it!!!

14 hot new sizzling beats have been uploaded to our catalogue.......!!

Our biggest beat up date ever.........

Enjoy!!

www.LaCantinaProductions.com

2005-12-28T17:48:00.000Z

Wassup people!

Hope you all had a good xmas!Just to let you know that the new beat upload
has been in fact been postponed to the first week of January. I know its
been a while coming but dont worry, loads of new banging beats will be
available on the catalogue very soon...

Wish you all have a happy new year and keep sending your tracks!

Stone

Beat Update Coming Very Soon!!!

2005-11-28T21:48:00.000Z

Just a quick word to let you all know that we've been hard at work making
some seriously bangin' beats, available on our site in a few days...

so stay tuned!!!

Stone Tone

-----------------------------------------
La Cantina Productions - The Beat Cellar

Email: info@lacantinaproductions.com
Tel: +44 7970260863

www.LaCantinaProductions.com

Via Capo D'Africa 23A8
00184 Roma
Italy
-----------------------------------------

In London, UK!

2005-11-24T22:58:00.000Z

We've made it.....we've made the move to London, UK successfully. It took us a bit longer than expected, but Stone Tone and I are finally here and we're going to be working full time from our brand new UK office. Our headquarters are still in Rome, Italy, but with the two of us here, we can now serve all our artists much better, as London IS the European music capital! So look out for some new cool updates coming along your way....

As for the rest, we've made our first press appearance on Fat Controlller, the UK's national student magazine. The article was very well received and we're looking forward to spreading the word about La Cantina Productions in the UK.

And on a separate final note, we're loving 1st Infantry and the Alchemist here....so go out and buy it!

Ai!

Jerry Spina

New beats and deejay!

2005-08-15T14:07:00.000+01:00

A few updates for everyone....

We've got new beats up and running on our catalogue.....so get downloading!

We've also found one of the best deejays out there to scratch over your tracks.....we'll soon be releasing his name and talents on our website.....

And on a final note, profits have been great in the last two months....so this means more beats and cool services for you guys! We're currently re-investing everything we earn...so the more you buy, the more we grow with you and for you...!

Navigation Updates

2005-05-28T00:35:00.000+01:00

Finally got round to organising our links section. Much easier to navigate now that it's in a directory format.

Our Music Services page has also been re-organised for better viewing.

Major Web Updates

2005-05-24T12:29:00.000+01:00

Some heavy web updates are under way...be prepared for cleaner and clearer navigation and richer content!

Loads of new beats on their way too...

Definitely back for good....

2005-04-30T12:21:00.000+01:00

ah yes, we've made it back from the domain name jungle and are back on the scene........damn it was stressfull, but we've survived.....!

So, be prepared for some massive updates and changes in the next few months as we take our website to the next level..........more producers, a new and better design, and way more beats for you to choose from.....

We're also getting nostalgic, and are going to consequently start spreading the word a lot more back at home in Italy...we're they're in desperate need of quality beats! So don't worry if you see some Italian on our pages......we're simply trying to make life easier for our visitors from there...!

On a final note....listen to Tupac's new album. I know the last 8 (!) have been crap....but I have to say that having Eminem take care of the production and rhyming gives pac's verses a more contemporary vibe. Not that Eminem is a production genius (far from it...) but he nevertheless makes Tupac sound less out of date....like the old Death Row beats used to.....

Jerry Spina

Back for good

2005-04-03T00:49:00.000+01:00

We've been up now for about a week and there have been no major issues...

Just give us a few days to straighten out some bureaucratic stuff with our webhost and we'll be back up and running exactly like before (uploading beats and sending newsletters)! And as promised...everyone on our mailing list will be entitled to a free beat!

ai!

LaCantinaProductions.com Staff

We're finally back!!!!!!!!!

2005-03-23T23:44:00.000Z

We're finally back!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Head over to www.LaCantinaProductions.com !!!!!!!

More info on what happened to appear soon....

Days 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12

2005-03-21T22:53:00.000Z

Nothing's changed and MSN has noticed our absence...not good...

Apparently "they're working on it" according to our webhost...but it's been 12 days now that our site has been down. Our staff is currently assessing what options we have at this stage.

Keep on checking back for more updates, we'll probably send out a newsletter soon to everyone.

Day 6 and 7

2005-03-16T00:31:00.000Z

Still down and no updates......and the number of beats waiting to get posted on the catalogue is growing every day!! Damn....

Anyways, just heard a chinese guy (forgot his name) rapping in english (sounded a bit like Eminem) and produced by Wyclef......hmmm, star of the future?

Day 4 and 5

2005-03-13T14:39:00.000Z

Our webhost support technicians got back to us and told us a bit more. They're trying their best to get our domain out of the old registar who went bust and into the new one. Hopefully it should be released soon...

Keep on keeping your fingers crossed for us!

Day 3

2005-03-11T16:52:00.000Z

Some friendly people have told us what is going on but, still no idea of how long it's going to take to get us back up and running.

Our webhost still hasn't got back to us

In contrast to what we said yesterday, 50cent and the game seem to have become friends again.....the rap biz.....

New visitors welcome!

2005-03-10T12:21:00.000Z

Welcome to everyone who has ended up here from our various ads on the web!

We really do sell beats and promotion for $9.99 and we really are La Cantina Productions! Unfortunately our registrar has gone bust and our web host is working with a new registrar to resolve the issue. In simple words, this has made our website go down and we don't know when we'll be back.

We currently have some beats on http://www.soundclick.com/bands/1/lacantinabeatsmusic.htm and we will be uploading new ones if our web situation gets any worse.

Keep checking back and we guarantee that we will be back ASAP! Feel free to post comments on this blog or drop us an email at lcp_business@yahoo.it.

Anyone who gets in touch with us is in entitled to a FREE beat...! ;-)

Thank you!
La Cantina Productions Team

Day 2

2005-03-10T11:03:00.000Z

Still no updates from our webhost

To get our minds on something else....apparently 50cent's been having a little bit of a brawl with em, dre and the game! I wonder what they did to piss him off (or viceversa)? Just hope he realises that if it wasn't for em and dre, g-unit wouldn't exist...

We've heard much better emcees than g-unit among our customers!

We're officially down

2005-03-09T22:26:00.000Z

Our downtime has begun.....just like we feared, our web issues got worst and we have no idea of how long this is going to take to resolve

We can only wait for our webhost to resolve the legal/technical issues the domain regitrars are having.

As long as we're down, this blog is our only "presence" on the web, so keep on checking back for updates...

La Cantina Productions Team
lcp_business@yahoo.it

The web issues continue...

2005-03-07T17:28:00.000Z

Our web issues are not over yet....thought they were resolved a month ago but here we are again....lets hope for the best...! We have to save our site!

Google found us...

2005-03-01T02:34:00.000Z

And finally, after some heavy optimization...Google finally found us!

MSN and Yahoo have always been nice, but Google seemed to ignore our existence for some strange reason...

But, anyways...we're there now so it's all good!

Winzip on the FAQ

2005-02-26T22:58:00.000Z

Added an FAQ item.....it's good that someone pointed out that we don't specify our downloads are zip files. So there we go, we've provided a link to a free download of WinZip...

Updated the catalogue...

2005-02-16T02:29:00.000Z

2:38 AM finally finished updating the catalogue..........enjoy!

Getting closer to the new catalogue...

2005-02-15T01:19:00.000Z

Anton Silver's beats have been uploaded and some minor errors have been corrected on the site pages.

Site Optimisation

2005-02-13T23:53:00.000Z

Made a few tweaks to help the search engines find us more easily and corrected some minor HTML code errors to make us look prettier in Firefox...

Domain Name Drama

2005-02-13T12:44:00.000Z

Our domain name issues should be resolved now...

We were about to lose lacantinaproductions.com to a greedy registrar who wanted to hold it in ransom from us...but we've luckily got it back!

New Beats Uploaded

2005-02-13T12:37:00.000Z

Just uploaded 8 new beats from Jerry Spina, waiting for a few more from AntonSilver and Aria. Updated catalogue with "updated" prices should be released soon...

Blog Released!

2005-02-13T00:43:00.000Z

Our Blog is here!

This is where we'll post any news related to La Cantina Productions and general thoughts we may have on the state of the music scene.

Feel free to add your own posts and comment on ours!

Jerry Spina
LaCantinaProductions.com