0:00

Hey guys, I'm Kaylee Shore and this is too

0:02

much to say. All

0:06

has been questions releasing yes,

0:09

so I'm so sad.

0:12

Now turn it.

0:13

Out you Okay

0:19

for starters, I wanted to say sorry that there wasn't

0:21

an episode last week. I have been crazy

0:23

busy going between Nashville and LA and

0:26

unfortunately sometimes life just gets

0:28

in the way. I'm

0:31

also working on releasing a new single for the first

0:33

time in over a year

0:35

and a half, which as the

0:37

longest I've ever gone without releasing music. But I wanted

0:39

to talk to you guys today about

0:42

the process of releasing music, why

0:44

it's not as simple as just putting something

0:46

on the Internet, and all the things that go on behind

0:48

the scenes with your favorite artists, especially

0:50

if they're independent in trying to get a single out.

0:54

So this song that I'm releasing

0:56

is called American Nightmare, and I'm

0:58

really.

0:59

Proud of it.

0:59

It's a message that I really want to

1:01

put out in the world, and I wrote it with one of my best

1:03

friends, Callie Rody, and this incredible

1:06

producer named Dylan Scott. And

1:10

it's really just not as

1:12

simple to put out music as

1:14

people think it is, and not even just you

1:17

know music fans, but also you know, when you

1:19

move to Nashville, you're like, oh, okay, like everybody's

1:22

just trying to help each other, and that's

1:24

true, but also people need to eat, and so you

1:26

want to be respectful of producers in their time.

1:28

But also it all adds up

1:31

really quickly. So

1:33

some of the costs that go into just the very

1:35

beginnings of a single.

1:38

And I'm using like an average of numbers

1:41

from music I've done in the past,

1:43

so not even specifically this song, but just

1:45

like an aggregate of what

1:48

those things cost. So recording

1:51

a song can cost you anywhere between

1:54

a thousand and five thousand,

1:56

and I would say that the typical range that

1:58

people are paying is twenty five hundred

2:00

song. Now, if you have a friend who will do you

2:02

a favor and maybe take more of the royalty

2:05

percentage, you can get a lower

2:07

up front rate. But typically if it's a producer

2:10

that you're working with for the first time that's not one of your

2:12

best friends, you're probably gonna be paying about

2:14

twenty five hundred dollars as an independent artist,

2:18

and then you give the producer anywhere from

2:20

five percent to fifty

2:22

percent, depending on how much you pay up front of

2:24

the royalties, so sometimes after

2:26

everyone else is paid, the artist ends

2:28

up owning less of the song than everybody else,

2:31

and that's never fun, but

2:35

it is how it works.

2:37

So you have just those.

2:38

Fees, but then that doesn't include mixing,

2:41

and mixing is where they get all of

2:43

the parts in

2:45

the song at the volumes that they should be.

2:47

Sometimes a mixer will think that.

2:49

A guitar part needs to be up higher

2:51

and the vocal needs to be lower, and they just

2:53

make sure that everything fits together seamlessly.

2:56

And then on top of that, you have

2:58

to master. And master is getting it

3:01

to the audio quality where it can be played

3:04

on huge speakers, it can be played

3:06

on the radio. You really you have

3:08

to master a song, and there's

3:11

ways that you can do that really inexpensive by using

3:13

like an AI service, but most

3:15

people still don't like doing that.

3:18

So you're gonna be paying about

3:21

five hundred to one thousand for mixing

3:23

and about five hundred to one thousand for mastering

3:26

as an independent artist.

3:27

So if you are doing.

3:29

The math, you could very easily already

3:31

be at forty five hundred dollars for this

3:33

song and.

3:33

It hasn't even come out yet.

3:36

Then there's the

3:38

fees that happen with the distributor,

3:41

so you give away a

3:43

part of the master, part of the royalties.

3:45

It does depend on what company you're working with,

3:47

but a.

3:48

Distributor is who gets it to Spotify

3:50

and Apple Music and YouTube. They do

3:52

all of the back end, the administrative

3:55

metadata stuff. They help

3:57

you get on Spotify and Apple Music editorial

4:00

playlists, and so they're really important, and

4:02

they take anywhere from ten

4:04

percent to fifty percent,

4:07

especially.

4:07

If they helped you pay for the track up front,

4:10

but.

4:10

I would say they're typically more in the fifteen

4:12

percent range, and so you

4:15

also so you're not paying those people up front,

4:17

but you do give them some of the back ends. So

4:19

you can see how if you gave

4:21

some the producer fifty percent of your master, you

4:24

give your distributor fifteen

4:26

percent, you already own less

4:28

than half of your song.

4:30

And that's never fun.

4:34

So it's it all

4:36

adds up really quickly.

4:37

But these are parts of it that you need, Like,

4:39

they're not things you can really skimp on.

4:42

They're not things that you can pick and

4:44

choose which one you want to do, Like all of

4:46

these are necessary. You can

4:48

also decide to go through like a distributor

4:50

that's not going to have like the pitching capabilities,

4:53

and they'll charge you like an upfront

4:55

fee for the year that you have to renew every

4:57

year, and that can be like fifty dollars, but that's

4:59

fifty every year. But

5:02

those are becoming less and less

5:04

popular, especially if you're an artist that has a more

5:06

established fan base. You really

5:09

want to have a human

5:11

being that you can talk to about what to do with your

5:13

song and get their opinion. So that's why

5:15

distribution companies are now very

5:17

popular, and I personally

5:20

think much better than a traditional record

5:22

label because a traditional record

5:24

label, we'll take eighty five

5:26

percent of your master and then of what's

5:29

left, the artist has to pay out.

5:31

The percentage to the producer.

5:32

So I had fifteen percent and then had

5:34

to give a producer twenty five percent of that, and

5:37

after commissions, I was making six cents

5:39

on every dollar of my music.

5:43

So there's that.

5:45

So distributors are really really popular.

5:47

So those are the costs that it takes just

5:49

to get it online, just to

5:52

get it to the streaming services. And we come back, we're

5:54

going to talk about the things that are slightly more optional

5:56

but still really really important when it comes to rolling

5:58

out a single. So

6:11

your song is ready to go online and

6:14

you need to give it a six to eight

6:16

week lead time so that the distributors

6:18

have time to pitch the song to make

6:20

sure that it all gets uploaded seamlessly. Sometimes

6:23

an artists will drop a song faster than that because

6:25

it is possible, but then they get

6:27

kind of screwed over because there's just not enough time.

6:30

And sometimes that's why you'll see an artist who has

6:32

a song come out and it'll be on Apple Music

6:34

but not Spotify, or it'll come out of the wrong day,

6:36

and that's just you really need to have that

6:39

two month ish period built

6:41

in in order to make sure that everything goes smoothly.

6:45

So you have that time period, and during

6:47

that time period, ideally

6:50

you would already have the album artwork, but you can upload

6:52

that after you upload the master into

6:56

the distribution

6:58

system. You have to have artwork

7:01

and artwork, I mean, it's

7:03

it's definitely possible to do yourself. I did

7:05

the artwork for Amy by myself and

7:08

took that on my iPhone and photoshopped it myself,

7:10

and honestly, it was

7:12

kind of fun. But I did have a record label and I was sort of disappointed

7:15

I didn't get to do something more creative, but

7:18

I did it did have fun, I

7:20

will say that. But normally for a

7:22

photoshoot, I mean, if you have a

7:24

friend who will do it and wants

7:27

to help you, you can get a photo shoot for like three

7:29

hundred dollars. But if you're just paying somebody

7:31

who you picked because they're you

7:33

know, a celebrity photographer whatever, that's

7:36

between one and five thousand, and

7:39

you only get access to.

7:40

Part of the photos.

7:43

So you could pay someone, let's

7:45

say seven hundred and fifty dollars and

7:47

you can only they'll send you a folder

7:50

and you can go through them and you can pick like six ones

7:52

that you like, so you're

7:56

really you're ending up paying like over one hundred

7:58

dollars per photo, and then you're allowed to use them

8:00

and like you own the rights to them. But some

8:04

photographers are more intense with that

8:06

than others. And sometimes you can find

8:08

when he will just give you the whole drop box and let you go crazy,

8:11

and that's always really nice. It's very nice

8:13

of them, and that's why working with

8:15

your friends can be so great. But you

8:17

have those fees, and then you have graphic

8:20

design on top of that. So unless you can use

8:22

photoshop and do things yourself,

8:24

you're going to be looking at probably another three hundred

8:26

dollars for someone to design the single artwork.

8:29

And now Spotify canvases are

8:32

really important and people love those.

8:34

They keep people engaged when they're

8:36

listening. They give you sort of a visual

8:39

projection for the

8:42

song, like you can kind of see the world that

8:45

it lives in, and I think they're really important. And

8:47

so if you're going to have something that's animated, which

8:49

it has to be, you're going to be looking at

8:51

probably another two to three hundred dollars

8:54

for someone to create something. Again

8:56

if you can't do it yourself, so

8:59

that also adds up quite

9:01

a bit. Then from there you

9:04

have the more extra

9:07

things to do, but they are also really

9:09

important. So we're going to dive into that when we get back, but

9:12

so far everything we've said is kind of that's

9:14

what you're doing and you

9:17

can't avoid it. So

9:28

to recap just on the necessities for releasing

9:31

a song, we are currently at forty three hundred,

9:33

and that is for recording

9:36

it, mixing it, mastering it,

9:38

doing a photo shoot for the art and

9:41

then getting graphic design for the canvas,

9:45

and that's still a very conservative

9:48

estimate. It could be quite

9:50

a bit more. So,

9:53

just for those costs alone, you're already there.

9:56

And after that,

9:58

there's so many other things artists want

10:00

to do with songs. I mean, a visuals are so

10:02

fun. I love doing music videos.

10:04

It's so inspiring to me. It's something that

10:07

I think every artist dreams of, like when

10:09

you're in the car and you're

10:11

looking out the window in the rain and you're pretending you're in

10:13

a music video, Like everybody wants to do that,

10:15

and it's just fun and getting to bring

10:18

these songs to life.

10:19

But more and more those

10:22

are kind of going obsolete.

10:24

And if you're a major label artist, you can

10:26

pay i mean hundreds and hundreds of thousands

10:28

of dollars for those, but if you're an independent

10:30

artist, you're probably looking between on

10:34

the very low end of things, two thousand

10:36

and on the

10:38

more realistic end of things, between

10:40

seven thousand and ten thousand. So

10:44

that is already more than it ever costs to release

10:47

the song. So if you see an artist with the music video they

10:50

really really really that was

10:52

important to them, please watch it. And

10:56

sometimes people have friends who will cut them favors,

10:58

but you can never rely on that, and you

11:00

know, this is all just going under the assumption that

11:02

we are paying people's going rate. After

11:06

that, you really

11:08

really releasing songs

11:10

without a publicist is very difficult,

11:13

and press is still very important.

11:15

It's a great way to get

11:18

media opportunities. But also those publicists

11:21

can have relationships with Spotify and with

11:23

different social media companies and they can tell

11:25

you how to run ads, and it's a really

11:28

important piece of it. And on

11:30

the low end, for a publicist, you're going to be looking at

11:32

twenty five hundred dollars per month during the

11:34

release cycle, and then on

11:37

the more realistic side of things, you're looking at five

11:39

thousand a month, and you'll probably

11:41

do that for about three months, but if you're releasing a

11:43

project and a string of singles, you'll

11:45

need them for longer, so multiply that by

11:48

six months. So we are

11:50

up there, and I've

11:52

done releases where I've done all of

11:54

those things. I've done releases where I've done very

11:57

few of those things, and just the basics. For

12:00

this current one, we

12:02

will be doing the basics, maybe

12:06

a publicist, which would be great, but

12:09

that is a lot of money,

12:12

and the average publishing deal if

12:15

you're a signed songwriter, pays between

12:18

two thousand and

12:21

three thousand a month. Some people have more.

12:24

But it's also not really it's

12:27

not free money. That's your money that you're spending.

12:30

That's your money from down the road.

12:31

That you're spending. Now it's like a credit card, it's like a

12:33

loan.

12:35

So there I mean

12:38

that, and that barely covers the cost of living

12:40

in rent.

12:41

I mean, that's like thirty thousand a year.

12:42

So you have to get really creative to figure out how you're

12:45

going to pay for this stuff. And for me, normally

12:47

I was able to fund my entire career.

12:50

I funded it all by myself.

12:51

But I was able to do that with royalties from

12:54

my other songs. So I would just make money

12:56

from one project,

12:58

save it up, and then least another one. And so I

13:01

was never really profiting that much, but

13:03

I was able to consistently release music. And

13:05

because I went from making you

13:08

know, between fifty to one hundred percent of my

13:11

like royalties to making

13:14

six percent of my royalties, I

13:17

don't have that that

13:19

to there's that doesn't exist anymore

13:21

to pay for this

13:23

new music.

13:24

Because it was so drastically cut.

13:27

So all of this being said,

13:30

when you're commenting on an artist thing and you're saying,

13:32

oh my god, drop this, like just remember

13:34

that we want to so badly

13:37

more than anything. But figuring all

13:39

of that out is really really difficult. And

13:42

honestly, I'm

13:44

independent on the management side now for the

13:46

first time in nine years,

13:49

so I am in between managers

13:51

and that's really difficult because I'm

13:53

doing all of this business stuff myself and I'm negotiating

13:56

numbers and that's normally something that, like,

13:58

you know, you want to be able to work with your friends

14:00

and not have awkward conversations about money, and so

14:02

that's why teams do that. So

14:05

it's been really overwhelming, and I'm trying

14:07

really hard to get this song out, but I wanted to kind

14:09

of be vulnerable with you guys and let you know

14:12

exactly what goes into releasing a song

14:14

and how difficult

14:16

it can be to come up with that.

14:19

People hate talking about money.

14:20

It's tacky, but I think that a lot

14:22

of people don't know what

14:24

goes in to a release. So figured

14:27

I keep you guys posted, but hopefully I'll have a

14:29

release date really soon for American Nightmare.

14:31

I'm so excited to put it out.

14:32

I've done a lot of teasers on my Instagram and TikTok,

14:35

so you can go check that out. And thank you

14:37

guys for your patience with me as I've been a little bit all

14:39

over the place. I appreciate you so much.

14:41

I'm Kailie sure and this is too much to say

14:45

asking questions

14:49

so soon. Now

14:53

tell it out, you