Episode 38: Releasing A Song

In this episode of the Face Your Ears podcast, hosts Rich Bozic and Justin Hochella discuss the essentials of releasing music to the world. The duo delve into the foundational steps for music distribution, highlighting platforms like DistroKid, TuneCore, and CD Baby, and the importance of having your audio files, artwork, and genre details in order. They also cover copyright essentials and explore various strategies and tools for promoting your music, including social media, playlist promotion services, and hiring social media managers. This episode provides a comprehensive guide for artists looking to release and promote their music effectively.

00:00 Introduction and Welcome
00:27 Vacation Recap: Sunny California and the NAM Museum
01:50 Updates and Upcoming Events
02:26 Artists releasing on RJB Music Production
03:35 Releasing Music: Getting Started
04:41 Choosing a Music Distributor
07:21 Preparing Your Music for Distribution
10:54 Understanding Copyright
14:12 Promoting Your Music
19:22 Conclusion and Recap

Get Ready to Release:

https://www.rjbmusicproduction.com/get-ready-to-release

Copyright services:

https://cosynd.com

Music Marketing Services:

https://www.show.co

For Production Services, Coaching and Lessons, visit:

www.rjbmusicproduction.com

For help prepping your songs/voice for the studio:

www.bozicvoicestudio.com

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Transcript

Rich 0:09

Welcome everybody to another episode of the Face Your Ears podcast. My name's Rich Bozi. I'm joined today with Producer Elite from Michigan. Justin, Hola, how are you, sir?

Justin 0:27

Hi. I'm doing well fresh back from Sunny California. Actually, I was on vacation visiting family last week. It was lovely. I went to the Nam Museum,

Rich 0:39

Oh,

Justin 0:39

which is the. think it's North American Music Merchants it

Rich 0:45

okay. Okay.

Justin 0:46

I was in Carlsbad, California, so I stopped by the museum there and checked it out and it's basically like a museum about the manufacturing of music instruments over time and equipment. And they had everything from pianos and mandolins to. Synthesizers and drum machines and all this cool stuff. So it was really neat to see the history of all that stuff.

Rich 1:06

That is cool. I don't, they also have a festival that they do every year

Justin 1:10

The Nam Festival every January, I believe it is when all the come together in Anaheim, California and showcase their cool new gear for the year.

Rich 1:22

Nice. Was there a gift shop there selling you equipment?

Justin 1:26

there was, they didn't have much equipment. No. But I was tempted to buy this little drum machine thing they had for sale there. But I restrained myself. One thing I saw there that I thought was funny was. that had misquoted lyrics on them hold me closer, Tony Danza. Stuff like that. Anyway, it was fun.

Rich 1:50

Awesome. Yeah, things are going well here. Cooking along been busy here, teaching away as usual, just working out some pre-production things on some recordings that are coming up.

Justin 2:05

Nice.

Rich 2:05

Got an event that I'm planning for that I've already started. Doing all that we might've mentioned last time.

Justin 2:12

Yeah.

Rich 2:13

Yeah. So It's been going well though. Enjoying the summer with the family. It's going great and it's great to be here talking podcasts with you.

Justin 2:22

Yeah.

Rich 2:23

Do you have any updates for us?

Justin 2:26

One thing I wanted to talk about is RJB music production. Our music production outfit that rich and I and our friend Barack are in the throes of. So we started our music production business about a year ago, and we actually have an episode on this podcast where we introduced RJB music production, but it's been. A little over a year now, I think since we've officially established. Our music production

Rich 2:56

yeah.

Justin 2:57

And one thing I wanted to do was promote our playlist our website. So we'll put a link to that in the show notes so you can check it out. But we're really proud of the. Roster of artists that we've gotten to work with and collaborate with in various different ways. So we've got a diverse array of songs that you can check out on our website or wherever you stream music. One thing that these artists have in common is that they have released music on streaming platforms, which is exactly what we're gonna be talking about today.

Rich 3:35

that's exactly what we're talking about today, releasing music for the world to hear. So let's get into this. Justin. This seems a little bit daunting. Can we break this down in a way just gives people a general idea of what's going on. Where do we begin?

Justin 3:56

Yeah, it can definitely seem overwhelming and intimidating if it's something you haven't done before. And one great resource we actually have on our RJB music production website, and we'll link to this as well, is a resource for distributing your music and how to do that. We have a page dedicated to this very topic called Get Ready to Release. And on this page we get into how, your music deserves to be heard. We actually interviewed one of the artists that we've worked with in her journey and releasing music and how she came to be able to do that and what that process was like This page really focuses on the concept of a music distributor. So what is that? It's a company handles the process of getting an artist's music released on digital platforms and streaming services like Apple Music, Spotify. Tidal, YouTube, all those different things. there's a lot of options out there.

Rich 5:01

Yeah,

Justin 5:02

there's

Rich 5:02

Yes.

Justin 5:03

and more every day there are three that really stand out and those are distro kid. Tune Core and CD baby. And so we're not gonna go into the nitty gritty on these, but you can check out our website, RJ b music production for all the nitty gritty, but each of them has, different, whistles and bells, features and benefits, so on and so forth for you to take a look at, to figure out what's best for you or what feels right for you. I wouldn't say that anyone is necessarily better than the other. But it's really about preference. One thing they all have in common is they will get your music on the most popular stores or platforms available. Again, Spotify, apple Music, TikTok, YouTube, et cetera, et cetera. And so just high level, I would say Distro Kid is best for frequent releasers who want a fast, affordable and easy platform with full revenue retention. is best for artists wanting advanced monetization tools and are okay with paying per release. BABY is great for occasional releases, so artists needing publishing help or maybe even physical distribution, they're good at that and prefer one time payments. So that's, at a high level. But one other thing I'll mention about the website is I featured. Short YouTube videos that explain how to use Distro, kid TuneCore and CD baby, so you can watch those videos as well to get more in depth information.

Rich 6:41

No, that's great. So you what is it, sorry. CD baby you mentioned was pay as you go, a la carte, it seemed. That seems to be a dying model, at least from what I've noticed compared to the other distributors.

Justin 6:57

They're the holdouts. I personally like that model'cause I don't really like super frequently, but hopefully it sticks around for a while. We'll see though.

Rich 7:07

Yeah, we'll see. Everything's going subscription based these days, so we'll see. So that gives just a general idea about distributors. So once I have a distributor, what do I need to have ready?

Justin 7:21

Yeah. So first and foremost, I would say have your audio file ready. Each distributor has different specs for what kind of audio file they want. For example, CD BABY requires 44.1 kilohertz, 16 bit audio, and in a nutshell, that just means CD quality. Audio. Ironically, if you try and submit it at a higher quality they'll reject

Rich 7:48

Hmm Or does it, do they compress it. down in some cases or will?

Justin 7:52

I think so. I think it gets compressed when it gets put on a streaming platform, but I just know from experience that, you know, if you try to upload like a 96 kilohertz. File, for example, they'll reject it. Even though that's higher quality, it's just not compatible with their system the set up.

Rich 8:10

Yeah. You know what's gonna happen. I bet one day they'll be like, now available 96 k, but everything will be more expensive. That's

Justin 8:19

of

Rich 8:19

how it's done.

Justin 8:20

they'll be like, audiophile ready for only 2 99 or whatever. But we'll see. A good point. So definitely have your audio file ready to upload in uncompressed format. So that's an important distinction. And usually that means having a wave file. So have that at the ready also. Have artwork ready to go and ensure that it meets the specifications of whatever distributor you are working with. That information should be a simple Google search away or searching through Help page. Just find out, you know what, specs they require for their image and just have that available and ready. Think about genre too. That's something you have to set up you are distributing your music. It, it may seem very obvious to you of what genre you want, but sometimes they'll have you select a secondary genre. So think that through not the end of the world. If you don't know in the moment, you can always select when you're uploading it, but good consider. And if you have. Anybody else that you've collaborated with, make sure that you have, their information and their information gets added to the payout. So That's also something you can set up with distributors The payout schedule and who gets what and how much, and all that good stuff. Generally, if it's two people, for example, 50 50 is a standard. If you've worked on a song with somebody, that's pretty standard, fair to have it split 50.

Rich 9:53

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Justin 9:55

I think another thing is, when you're doing this for the first time, I mentioned payout before. You should have your bank information ready. So that, your payout is flowing to your bank when they actually pay you out. So I think CD baby for example, that you can set a threshold, like when it hits$10, they'll release

Rich 10:17

In about 50 years.

Justin 10:20

So when, you're in the throes of retirement, you can get that sweet$10 check from that song you released. I.

Rich 10:30

God willing people will have great success and be

Justin 10:34

Yes,

Rich 10:35

it in. yes.

Justin 10:37

But it is a requirement. They do require that you set that up. So just, keep that in mind. And have that at the ready. So those are some of the things that you want to be thinking about or have ready. otherwise you might get tripped up.

Rich 10:52

great. about copyright?

Justin 10:54

Ah, yes. So copyright, it can be complicated. However, there are resources out there to help you with this. You can raw dogg it, to speak, and you can go to the United States Governments copyright website. You can find the forms for most common copyrights you can go out to the US Government's website and go through this awful interface and fill out forms for two different copyrights. One is a musical composition and the other is the actual sound recording. Basically what that means is you have a copyright for actual, like song itself that you wrote, then a copyright for the actual recording. For example, rich, if you wrote a song and you recorded it, you would have musical composition and sound recording copyright, and then if I heard your song, I was like, Hey, I wanna do my own version of that. I could license it. We won't get into that here, But, but then I would record my version of your song and then I would have my own copyright of my recording of that's the distinction there. But there are companies out there that facilitate this and help you sort of wade through the waters of copyright. And one of them is Cosynd. We can also provide a link to them as well, but they're a partner of CD baby and they're a great example of a company that, they charge a small fee on top of the standard fees. I should also mention that are required to submit copyright. Forms to the government. But they make it easier if this is something that's very new to you and you wanna protect your intellectual property in the music that you've created.

Rich 12:40

Yeah, A good overview. Something also keep in mind with copyright, if you do it like that through the government website, you could copyright individual compositions. But if you have a bunch of collection of works, I think they do. I can't remember if it was up to eight at a time that you could copyright together as long as all of the. Everything on like all the credit and credentials on the recordings are all the same. Same person wrote all the lyrics, same person wrote all the music, et cetera. You could copyright everything on mass for one fee. That way as well. Save yourself some money.

Justin 13:18

Yeah if you're somebody that's releasing an album, it makes sense to do it in one push versus doing a bunch of different forms that would be exorbitantly expensive. So great call out.

Rich 13:29

So Justin, I think copyright is a big issue. Perhaps we could even do ano a whole episode on copyright at some point.

Justin 13:37

Oh my gosh. Yeah you could do like a whole podcast series on music copyright, Yeah it's a deep dive

Rich 13:44

Yeah.

Justin 13:45

But that's a good

Rich 13:45

Well, If we want to gain five more listeners, maybe we can do a whole copyright podcast.

Justin 13:52

absolutely. If somebody's on their podcast platform, searching for music, copyright, they'll come

Rich 13:57

I know, I don't know how compelling a copyright podcast would be, but maybe Who knows? Who knows? What do I know? now that we've discussed copyright what about promotion? So leading up to the release and after and what should people consider?

Justin 14:17

Yeah. There's a lot to consider in terms of promoting your music, so there's a grassroots approach, which is. Go on your

Rich 14:26

I.

Justin 14:27

media accounts, Instagram, Facebook, et cetera, and promote it. That could be videos of you singing your music or you in the studio or clips from like Spotify, whatever it might be. There, really. And I would say in this day and age, there's no limit to that. There I've seen people doing posts for their single. Daily. Just promoting it. Promoting it. I don't think you can do it enough just get it in front of people as much as possible. And, that's one way to approach it. I think that's a given nowadays is that it's expected that you would promote whatever you're doing on your social media. And it's not a once and done if you're doing it right. And I'm not saying I am, but I think a good approach is. To do it regularly and to not be ashamed of

Rich 15:22

Mm-hmm.

Justin 15:23

You think about other brand that's out there, Starbucks, Nike, apple, they're constantly

Rich 15:29

Oh yeah.

Justin 15:30

their products,

Rich 15:31

tell you the truth, I'd rather see advertisements for songs than like deodorant.

Justin 15:38

latte.

Rich 15:39

Yeah.

Justin 15:41

So yeah, that's one thing, but then there's also some really interesting tools that you can pay for. For better or worse, there are playlist, platforms, I guess you could call it, or a playlist. Promotion services is a better way to put it, Where you can pay a company money to help get your song on various playlists like on Spotify. And that feels a little weird to me, but

Rich 16:10

Yeah.

Justin 16:10

I also understand that it's a vast ocean of. Music that's out there, 50,000 plus songs a day that are getting released or something insane like that.

Rich 16:20

Yeah.

Justin 16:21

little bit helps. But there are things out there boost Collective is one

Rich 16:28

Submit Hub. I think

Justin 16:30

Hub song tools.io. There's a lot of different resources like that out there. CD Baby has one, I think it's called Show.co.

Rich 16:43

The advantage of doing this kind of thing it could help connect you with your audience.'cause if you get on the right playlist where people are listening to that genre, that could be helpful to connect you with people who'd be into what you're doing.

Justin 16:57

absolutely. Spotify also has ads you can buy for your music, so that's something you can do run ads through like Instagram and stuff, and that'll point people to Spotify. One I just mentioned that I'll go into a bit is Show.co. So it's show.co. And I'll just read this from their site real quick. It says, with Show.co you can easily launch a Spotify pre-save campaign. So basically people can, like pres save your song. You can run ads on Rolling Stone Pitchfork and more so like music. Publications, drive streams and video views. Reach new listeners with Spotify audio ads. Premiere a YouTube video. Grow your social following, build your email list, reward your fans. this is more of a multi-pronged approach, I think. Something like show co. But there, there's all kinds of different resources. like show CO

Rich 17:50

Yeah.

Justin 17:51

allow you to promote your stuff, create collateral for marketing, and so on and

Rich 17:57

Yeah.

Justin 17:57

there's definitely tools out there.

Rich 17:59

even have clients who hire individuals to do this kind of stuff for them to help them out. Can you talk about that a little bit?

Justin 18:08

Yeah, that's something you can absolutely do. And in today's world, that is absolutely a valid approach because. There, there are so many facets to being a musician now just, making music, where it makes sense that if this is something you wanna pursue as a career, it makes sense to hire somebody that can manage this stuff for you and help facilitate this process.

Rich 18:33

especially if you have a rich uncle who's willing to step in and fund the whole project,

Justin 18:37

If you got a, if you got a rich uncle,

Rich 18:40

the whole project.

Justin 18:41

Warbucks, whatever, at the ready, go for it. I say go for it. But seriously though it's a lot of work. And if you wanna focus on the creative aspect of it, you have the means to hire somebody, I say do it because it can allow you to focus on that creative side. And, hire basically a social media manager, for lack of a better term. But, if you go to places like a Fiverr, for example, like there's people out there that are. Experienced in this and can help promote whatever it is that you're doing. And you can certainly check that out.

Rich 19:20

That's great Justin. This is a nice overview for what one has to do to start to get their music out there. So just to give a little bit of recap of what we talked about today we talked about, finding a distributor which would help get your music out there in the first place. And once you do pick a distributor, make sure that all of your materials like having the audio format correctly with your file and all of the other things like lyrics and artwork are all lined up and ready to go, then you might want to. Consider copywriting your music and there are ways to go about that. And then once you are ready to release, you probably want to do a little bit of promotion leading up to the release and follow up after the recording is released with some more promotion of the recording. And then you could also dabble with other. Options to continue building your brand and expanding upon what you've started already. So I think that's a pretty good recap. What do you think, Justin?

Justin 20:34

Yeah, absolutely. I think o over everything else, just remember make good music.

Rich 20:40

Yes.

Justin 20:41

I think when you're doing this kind of thing, getting stuck in the sort of business side, if you will the non-creative side. It can be easy to lose touch with why you're doing what you're doing, but all of this is a necessary component so that people will hear your music. That's why we release it. We want people to hear it and enjoy it. So hopefully this gives you some food for thought, some resources to consider and pursue to figure out what's the right fit for you and your music. So with that, we'll wrap it up here. Thank you so much for the great recap, rich and the great conversation, and we will catch you all in the next episode. bye for now.

Rich 21:19

Take care.