Speaker 1: Hey guys, I'm Kaylee Shore and this is too much
Speaker 1: to say. All has been questions releasing yes, so I'm
Speaker 1: so sad.
Speaker 2: Now turn it.
Speaker 1: Out you Okay for starters, I wanted to say sorry
Speaker 1: that there wasn't an episode last week. I have been
Speaker 1: crazy busy going between Nashville and LA and unfortunately sometimes
Speaker 1: life just gets in the way. I'm also working on
Speaker 1: releasing a new single for the first time in over
Speaker 1: a year and a half, which as the longest I've
Speaker 1: ever gone without releasing music. But I wanted to talk
Speaker 1: to you guys today about the process of releasing music,
Speaker 1: why it's not as simple as just putting something on
Speaker 1: the Internet, and all the things that go on behind
Speaker 1: the scenes with your favorite artists, especially if they're independent
Speaker 1: in trying to get a single out. So this song
Speaker 1: that I'm releasing is called American Nightmare, and I'm really.
Speaker 2: Proud of it.
Speaker 1: It's a message that I really want to put out
Speaker 1: in the world, and I wrote it with one of
Speaker 1: my best friends, Callie Rody, and this incredible producer named
Speaker 1: Dylan Scott. And it's really just not as simple to
Speaker 1: put out music as people think it is, and not
Speaker 1: even just you know music fans, but also you know,
Speaker 1: when you move to Nashville, you're like, oh, okay, like everybody's
Speaker 1: just trying to help each other, and that's true, but
Speaker 1: also people need to eat, and so you want to
Speaker 1: be respectful of producers in their time. But also it
Speaker 1: all adds up really quickly. So some of the costs
Speaker 1: that go into just the very beginnings of a single.
Speaker 1: And I'm using like an average of numbers from music
Speaker 1: I've done in the past, so not even specifically this song,
Speaker 1: but just like an aggregate of what those things cost.
Speaker 1: So recording a song can cost you anywhere between a
Speaker 1: thousand and five thousand, and I would say that the
Speaker 1: typical range that people are paying is twenty five hundred song. Now,
Speaker 1: if you have a friend who will do you a
Speaker 1: favor and maybe take more of the royalty percentage, you
Speaker 1: can get a lower up front rate. But typically if
Speaker 1: it's a producer that you're working with for the first
Speaker 1: time that's not one of your best friends, you're probably
Speaker 1: gonna be paying about twenty five hundred dollars as an
Speaker 1: independent artist, and then you give the producer anywhere from
Speaker 1: five percent to fifty percent, depending on how much you
Speaker 1: pay up front of the royalties, so sometimes after everyone
Speaker 1: else is paid, the artist ends up owning less of
Speaker 1: the song than everybody else, and that's never fun, but
Speaker 1: it is how it works.
Speaker 2: So you have just those.
Speaker 1: Fees, but then that doesn't include mixing, and mixing is
Speaker 1: where they get all of the parts in the song
Speaker 1: at the volumes that they should be.
Speaker 2: Sometimes a mixer will think that.
Speaker 1: A guitar part needs to be up higher and the
Speaker 1: vocal needs to be lower, and they just make sure
Speaker 1: that everything fits together seamlessly. And then on top of that,
Speaker 1: you have to master. And master is getting it to
Speaker 1: the audio quality where it can be played on huge speakers,
Speaker 1: it can be played on the radio. You really you
Speaker 1: have to master a song, and there's ways that you
Speaker 1: can do that really inexpensive by using like an AI service,
Speaker 1: but most people still don't like doing that. So you're
Speaker 1: gonna be paying about five hundred to one thousand for
Speaker 1: mixing and about five hundred to one thousand for mastering
Speaker 1: as an independent artist.
Speaker 2: So if you are doing.
Speaker 1: The math, you could very easily already be at forty
Speaker 1: five hundred dollars for this song and.
Speaker 2: It hasn't even come out yet.
Speaker 1: Then there's the fees that happen with the distributor, so
Speaker 1: you give away a part of the master, part of
Speaker 1: the royalties.
Speaker 2: It does depend on what company you're working with, but a.
Speaker 1: Distributor is who gets it to Spotify and Apple Music
Speaker 1: and YouTube. They do all of the back end, the
Speaker 1: administrative metadata stuff. They help you get on Spotify and
Speaker 1: Apple Music editorial playlists, and so they're really important, and
Speaker 1: they take anywhere from ten percent to fifty percent, especially.
Speaker 2: If they helped you pay for the track up front, but.
Speaker 1: I would say they're typically more in the fifteen percent range,
Speaker 1: and so you also so you're not paying those people
Speaker 1: up front, but you do give them some of the
Speaker 1: back ends. So you can see how if you gave
Speaker 1: some the producer fifty percent of your master, you give
Speaker 1: your distributor fifteen percent, you already own less than half
Speaker 1: of your song.
Speaker 2: And that's never fun. So it's it all adds up
Speaker 2: really quickly.
Speaker 1: But these are parts of it that you need, Like,
Speaker 1: they're not things you can really skimp on. They're not
Speaker 1: things that you can pick and choose which one you
Speaker 1: want to do, Like all of these are necessary. You
Speaker 1: can also decide to go through like a distributor that's
Speaker 1: not going to have like the pitching capabilities, and they'll
Speaker 1: charge you like an upfront fee for the year that
Speaker 1: you have to renew every year, and that can be
Speaker 1: like fifty dollars, but that's fifty every year. But those
Speaker 1: are becoming less and less popular, especially if you're an
Speaker 1: artist that has a more established fan base. You really
Speaker 1: want to have a human being that you can talk
Speaker 1: to about what to do with your song and get
Speaker 1: their opinion. So that's why distribution companies are now very popular,
Speaker 1: and I personally think much better than a traditional record
Speaker 1: label because a traditional record label, we'll take eighty five
Speaker 1: percent of your master and then of what's left, the
Speaker 1: artist has to pay out.
Speaker 2: The percentage to the producer.
Speaker 1: So I had fifteen percent and then had to give
Speaker 1: a producer twenty five percent of that, and after commissions,
Speaker 1: I was making six cents on every dollar of my music.
Speaker 2: So there's that. So distributors are really really popular.
Speaker 1: So those are the costs that it takes just to
Speaker 1: get it online, just to get it to the streaming services.
Speaker 1: And we come back, we're going to talk about the
Speaker 1: things that are slightly more optional but still really really
Speaker 1: important when it comes to rolling out a single. So
Speaker 1: your song is ready to go online and you need
Speaker 1: to give it a six to eight week lead time
Speaker 1: so that the distributors have time to pitch the song
Speaker 1: to make sure that it all gets uploaded seamlessly. Sometimes
Speaker 1: an artists will drop a song faster than that because
Speaker 1: it is possible, but then they get kind of screwed
Speaker 1: over because there's just not enough time. And sometimes that's
Speaker 1: why you'll see an artist who has a song come
Speaker 1: out and it'll be on Apple Music but not Spotify,
Speaker 1: or it'll come out of the wrong day, and that's
Speaker 1: just you really need to have that two month ish
Speaker 1: period built in in order to make sure that everything
Speaker 1: goes smoothly. So you have that time period, and during
Speaker 1: that time period, ideally you would already have the album artwork,
Speaker 1: but you can upload that after you upload the master
Speaker 1: into the distribution system. You have to have artwork and artwork,
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's definitely possible to do yourself. I
Speaker 1: did the artwork for Amy by myself and took that
Speaker 1: on my iPhone and photoshopped it myself, and honestly, it
Speaker 1: was kind of fun. But I did have a record
Speaker 1: label and I was sort of disappointed I didn't get
Speaker 1: to do something more creative, but I did it did
Speaker 1: have fun, I will say that. But normally for a photoshoot,
Speaker 1: I mean, if you have a friend who will do
Speaker 1: it and wants to help you, you can get a
Speaker 1: photo shoot for like three hundred dollars. But if you're
Speaker 1: just paying somebody who you picked because they're you know,
Speaker 1: a celebrity photographer whatever, that's between one and five thousand,
Speaker 1: and you only get access to.
Speaker 2: Part of the photos.
Speaker 1: So you could pay someone, let's say seven hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty dollars and you can only they'll send you a
Speaker 1: folder and you can go through them and you can
Speaker 1: pick like six ones that you like, so you're really
Speaker 1: you're ending up paying like over one hundred dollars per photo,
Speaker 1: and then you're allowed to use them and like you
Speaker 1: own the rights to them. But some photographers are more
Speaker 1: intense with that than others. And sometimes you can find
Speaker 1: when he will just give you the whole drop box
Speaker 1: and let you go crazy, and that's always really nice.
Speaker 1: It's very nice of them, and that's why working with
Speaker 1: your friends can be so great. But you have those fees,
Speaker 1: and then you have graphic design on top of that.
Speaker 1: So unless you can use photoshop and do things yourself,
Speaker 1: you're going to be looking at probably another three hundred
Speaker 1: dollars for someone to design the single artwork. And now
Speaker 1: Spotify canvases are really important and people love those. They
Speaker 1: keep people engaged when they're listening. They give you sort
Speaker 1: of a visual projection for the song, like you can
Speaker 1: kind of see the world that it lives in, and
Speaker 1: I think they're really important. And so if you're going
Speaker 1: to have something that's animated, which it has to be,
Speaker 1: you're going to be looking at probably another two to
Speaker 1: three hundred dollars for someone to create something. Again if
Speaker 1: you can't do it yourself, so that also adds up
Speaker 1: quite a bit. Then from there you have the more
Speaker 1: extra things to do, but they are also really important.
Speaker 1: So we're going to dive into that when we get back,
Speaker 1: but so far everything we've said is kind of that's
Speaker 1: what you're doing and you can't avoid it. So to
Speaker 1: recap just on the necessities for releasing a song, we
Speaker 1: are currently at forty three hundred, and that is for
Speaker 1: recording it, mixing it, mastering it, doing a photo shoot
Speaker 1: for the art and then getting graphic design for the canvas,
Speaker 1: and that's still a very conservative estimate. It could be
Speaker 1: quite a bit more. So, just for those costs alone,
Speaker 1: you're already there. And after that, there's so many other
Speaker 1: things artists want to do with songs. I mean, a
Speaker 1: visuals are so fun. I love doing music videos. It's
Speaker 1: so inspiring to me. It's something that I think every
Speaker 1: artist dreams of, like when you're in the car and
Speaker 1: you're looking out the window in the rain and you're
Speaker 1: pretending you're in a music video, Like everybody wants to
Speaker 1: do that, and it's just fun and getting to bring
Speaker 1: these songs to life.
Speaker 2: But more and more those are kind of going obsolete.
Speaker 1: And if you're a major label artist, you can pay
Speaker 1: i mean hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars for those,
Speaker 1: but if you're an independent artist, you're probably looking between
Speaker 1: on the very low end of things, two thousand and
Speaker 1: on the more realistic end of things, between seven thousand
Speaker 1: and ten thousand. So that is already more than it
Speaker 1: ever costs to release the song. So if you see
Speaker 1: an artist with the music video they really really really
Speaker 1: that was important to them, please watch it. And sometimes
Speaker 1: people have friends who will cut them favors, but you
Speaker 1: can never rely on that, and you know, this is
Speaker 1: all just going under the assumption that we are paying
Speaker 1: people's going rate. After that, you really really releasing songs
Speaker 1: without a publicist is very difficult, and press is still
Speaker 1: very important. It's a great way to get media opportunities.
Speaker 1: But also those publicists can have relationships with Spotify and
Speaker 1: with different social media companies and they can tell you
Speaker 1: how to run ads, and it's a really important piece
Speaker 1: of it. And on the low end, for a publicist,
Speaker 1: you're going to be looking at twenty five hundred dollars
Speaker 1: per month during the release cycle, and then on the
Speaker 1: more realistic side of things, you're looking at five thousand
Speaker 1: a month, and you'll probably do that for about three months,
Speaker 1: but if you're releasing a project and a string of singles,
Speaker 1: you'll need them for longer, so multiply that by six months.
Speaker 1: So we are up there, and I've done releases where
Speaker 1: I've done all of those things. I've done releases where
Speaker 1: I've done very few of those things, and just the basics.
Speaker 1: For this current one, we will be doing the basics,
Speaker 1: maybe a publicist, which would be great, but that is
Speaker 1: a lot of money, and the average publishing deal if
Speaker 1: you're a signed songwriter, pays between two thousand and three
Speaker 1: thousand a month. Some people have more. But it's also
Speaker 1: not really it's not free money. That's your money that
Speaker 1: you're spending. That's your money from down the road.
Speaker 2: That you're spending. Now it's like a credit card, it's
Speaker 2: like a loan.
Speaker 1: So there I mean that, and that barely covers the
Speaker 1: cost of living in rent.
Speaker 2: I mean, that's like thirty thousand a year.
Speaker 1: So you have to get really creative to figure out
Speaker 1: how you're going to pay for this stuff. And for me,
Speaker 1: normally I was able to fund my entire career.
Speaker 2: I funded it all by myself.
Speaker 1: But I was able to do that with royalties from
Speaker 1: my other songs. So I would just make money from
Speaker 1: one project, save it up, and then least another one.
Speaker 1: And so I was never really profiting that much, but
Speaker 1: I was able to consistently release music. And because I
Speaker 1: went from making you know, between fifty to one hundred
Speaker 1: percent of my like royalties to making six percent of
Speaker 1: my royalties, I don't have that that to there's that
Speaker 1: doesn't exist anymore to pay for this new music.
Speaker 2: Because it was so drastically cut.
Speaker 1: So all of this being said, when you're commenting on
Speaker 1: an artist thing and you're saying, oh my god, drop this,
Speaker 1: like just remember that we want to so badly more
Speaker 1: than anything. But figuring all of that out is really
Speaker 1: really difficult. And honestly, I'm independent on the management side
Speaker 1: now for the first time in nine years, so I
Speaker 1: am in between managers and that's really difficult because I'm
Speaker 1: doing all of this business stuff myself and I'm negotiating
Speaker 1: numbers and that's normally something that, like, you know, you
Speaker 1: want to be able to work with your friends and
Speaker 1: not have awkward conversations about money, and so that's why
Speaker 1: teams do that. So it's been really overwhelming, and I'm
Speaker 1: trying really hard to get this song out, but I
Speaker 1: wanted to kind of be vulnerable with you guys and
Speaker 1: let you know exactly what goes into releasing a song
Speaker 1: and how difficult it can be to come up with that.
Speaker 2: People hate talking about money.
Speaker 1: It's tacky, but I think that a lot of people
Speaker 1: don't know what goes in to a release. So figured
Speaker 1: I keep you guys posted, but hopefully I'll have a
Speaker 1: release date really soon for American Nightmare.
Speaker 2: I'm so excited to put it out.
Speaker 1: I've done a lot of teasers on my Instagram and TikTok,
Speaker 1: so you can go check that out. And thank you
Speaker 1: guys for your patience with me as I've been a
Speaker 1: little bit all over the place. I appreciate you so much.
Speaker 1: I'm Kailie sure and this is too much to say
Speaker 1: asking questions so soon. Now tell it out, you