15 tips for your first season.

Push a drop before your first pitches

Your first beats miss the easiest artist by about 15 points, and quality alone won't close that gap. Push a drop (1 hour, $32) adds buzz the same day, and buzz counts in the pitch right away.

Buzz fades every morning: push on the day you pitch.

Cook with a full tank

A beat is judged on your energy after cooking. Below 60 it comes out 7% worse, below 35 it comes out 18% worse. Start a beat with 84 energy or more.

An hour of sleep is often the best hour of the day.

Keep the run going

Every day you cook or sell adds to your run, and your beats come out up to 14% better at 40 days.

Two full days without making or selling anything, and the run resets on the third morning. After two weeks idle, your reputation starts to bleed.

Ride the sound of the season

On-trend beats get +4 in the pitch and pay 22% more; off-trend beats pay about a sixth less. The season lasts 38 to 58 days, then turns.

Cook for the trend you're in, not the one that just ended.

Match the artist's style

A beat in a style the artist doesn't make counts at 81% of its quality. A solid beat in their style often beats an excellent one in the wrong style.

Read the pitch sheet before you send

It shows exactly how short or how clear each artist is. Borderline only works at zero or better, and comfortable means +6.

Choosing an interested artist doesn't use your pitch until you pick a price, so looking is free.

Don't waste a big artist's time

A refusal uses your only pitch of the day and the artist cools off for 5 days. If a tier 3+ artist is more than 18 points above your score, you also lose a reputation point.

Friend price early, ask for more later

A friend price (−30%) buys loyalty and mood. Loyalty 2 is what makes a contact introduce you to someone a tier higher.

Later, with a comfortable margin and loyal contacts, Ask for more (+35%) gets accepted far more often. The sheet shows the exact odds.

Pick your home for the long run

Social housing ($145 a week) is the balanced start. The student room ($75) is cheapest but slows training by 18% and beats by 7%. The flat ($210) trains 25% faster, if you can carry the bill.

Moving later costs four weeks of the new home's rent and living costs.

Keep a cushion before each quarter

Tax takes 22% of what you earned, on days 92, 183, 274 and 365, after the rent check. A good quarter can leave you short at the next Monday.

Three missed bills in a whole season is eviction, and they never reset.

Pay the lawyer on your first contract

$140 and every clause is readable, your judgement rises by 3, and you earn the Read it first badge. Half of all offers are predatory.

If you sign, remember the retainer: three weeks without a placement or a delivered commission and the label drops you.

Your catalog goes stale

After 45 days a beat starts losing quality every day. Keep cooking fresh ones for the pitches that matter, and let the old ones sell as beat sales to tier 1 and 2.

Mix for hire pays the rent, early

At the start it brings in about $43 to $58 for two hours. It needs mix clients, and every beat you sell costs some, so it fades as your career grows. Use it while it lasts.

Buy gear in the right order

Studio headphones first ($340, +7% quality). Then acoustic panels at reputation 12, so cooking and training cost less energy. At reputation 22, the faster machine cooks a beat in one hour instead of two.

Plan the last third of the year

In our test runs, no gold record came before day 200. A placement's record comes out 3 to 8 weeks after signing and is judged two weeks later, and a record still waiting on day 365 never gets its verdict.

Start placing with tier 3+ artists by mid-year.