As a beatmaker creating and selling original beats, it’s important to be aware of the sunk cost fallacy. The sunk cost fallacy is a psychological effect where people make irrational decisions because they don’t want to waste the costs they’ve already invested.
Here are three typical examples of how the sunk cost fallacy can manifest in beat sales:
- Responding to underperforming beats When beats that you’ve spent a lot of time creating don’t sell as well as you’d hoped, you may be reluctant to lower the price or remove them from your lineup because you don’t want to waste the cost of creating them. However, it’s important to flexibly adjust your pricing and update your lineup based on demand.
- Sticking to outdated genres If you’ve put a lot of effort into creating beats in a particular genre that you’re good at, but that genre becomes less popular, you may feel compelled to stick with that genre because you don’t want to waste the time you’ve invested in mastering that style. However, in beat sales, it’s crucial to keep up with current trends.
- Continuing to use obscure samples If you’ve invested a lot of time and money into collecting rare samples, you may become attached to using those samples. However, in beat sales, it’s important to cater to the tastes of listeners, and an attachment to obscure samples can sometimes work against you.
When you’re influenced by the sunk cost fallacy in these ways, you may be slow to adapt to changes and miss out on business opportunities. As a beatmaker, it’s important to be able to flexibly change your approach based on market demand, without being tied to past costs. Always strive to analyze the situation calmly and make forward-looking judgments.
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