Today's music industry, thanks to the internet and new software like mobile music production studio Beat Thang, offers a playing field more level for hip hop producers than any music industry in years past. Anyone can write a song, produce a beat, or spit a rhyme and host it online to get his or her off the ground.

But there's more to being a successful beat maker / hip hop producer than just making beats. Below we've outlined the best websites out there for you to reference when seeking music production career advice, tips, technical troubleshooting help, or beat maker guidance in general.

Rocbattle.com

Created by big wig Grammy winning hip hop producer / beat maker Rockwilder (Redman, Xzibit, Busta Rhymes), rocbattle.com is one of the premier sites out there that allows musicians to sell beats (for cash prizes), compete in beat maker tournaments, ask questions in forums.

Being active on this site will definitely land you some attention from other hip hop producers, and surely boost the growth of any music production career you intend on keeping alive.

TheBeatTalk.com

Whereas Rocbattle is multidimensional in the sense that it offers tournaments, active forums, and a marketplace for aspiring hip hop producers and beat makers to sell their craft, this site is just a blog.

However, this blog offers fantastic editorial content on subjects from artist advice to music production career guidance.  It hasn't been updated in a while, but the content located there isn't really time-specific so that's irrelevant.

Futureproducers.com

This website also has editorial content and forums for all those hip hop producers in search of sustainable music production careers, but they have one thing that the abovementioned websites do not: gear reviews.

These reviews don't just come from site users either, they come from the editorial staff as well, which consists presumably of established beat makers and hip hop producers in their own right.

hiphopmakers.com

All hip hop producers and beat makers (of all sizes) will be happy to know that this site posts news about musicians and producers with outstanding music production careers – think Dre, Timbaland, and Kanye West to name a few. By reading any and all advice these guys share, no matter where it comes from originally, will be of help in some way, shape, or from on down the line in your music production career.

But that's not all, hiphopmakers.com offers videos on music tips, beats, software, and some awesome tutorials on general music production career topics like how to master being a beat maker in reason and writing better intros / outros.

Last but not least, their music resources section provides software, free samples, free VSTs, and more for download that any aspiring hip hop producer would be foolish to ignore. This site is a must for those looking to build their music production careers for the long run.

Homerecording.com

This page offers the same cool reviews, news, and forums that futureproducers.com does, but the content is less focused on beat makers and hip hop producers and more on broader music production careers.

If you're the type that likes to record samples with natural instruments instead of synthesized samples as a beat maker, this site will be a great resource to help make sure you're doing everything right in your music production career.