The Guidebook to Self-Releasing Your Music

Chapter Preview

Throughout my career I have been passionate about making music and helping others do the same. I’m a classical composer and concert producer, supporting fellow composers and musicians through lobbying, commissioning, mentoring, and providing other industry guidance. Teaching others how to develop and promote their music brings me great joy, regardless of genre. 

If you are like me, you want to get your music out there in the world. You’ve realised that recording could give you many opportunities to showcase your music. Maybe you want to use a recording to promote a live performance or to market yourself as a composer. Perhaps you’ve already had some success in the music business, getting onto development schemes, a commission, artistic residencies, or teaching engagements, and you want to take your ‘brand’ to the next level. If you can relate to any of these goals, this book is for you.

During the pandemic, I held webinars to teach people how to release their own music; everything from producing and recording through to promotion, marketing, rights, distribution, and sales. My aim was for attendees of these webinars to know everything they needed to release their music either as a single or an album. The webinars packed an overwhelming amount of information into a 70-minute session. Participants often asked me for a reference book distilled down to the main points that would help them navigate their own self-releasing journeys. This is that book. While it is UK-centric, the skills I talk about can be applied globally. In addition, the book focuses on the most relevant topics regardless of musical genre. I have provided contact information and other resources for additional support along with a page on my website where these recourses will be collated along with other relevant things. 

In this book, I share my knowledge and experience. I hope it will help you sidestep potential pitfalls, employ new strategies to promote yourself and your music, and help you find your way to a successful career in music. If you decide that self-releasing is not for you, and you opt to sign with a record label, that is totally fine as well. This book is about giving you that self-understanding and ability to enter a negotiation with a label from a place of knowledge. Knowledge that will help you secure a better deal for yourself, your career, and your business. 

Releasing your own music is a lot of work! The first time I went through the process, I was overwhelmed learning about rights and registrations, budgeting and funding, the contracts I needed to sign, marketing and advertising, creating a presence on social media, and making sure everyone was in the right place at the right time with the right equipment in a quiet venue that sounded good and was affordable. It was challenging! But I was determined to sort it out and make it work. The ‘prize’ at the end was that I would own my music entirely. I could earn money from it and license it for synchronisation. I didn’t need to share any royalties. 

But releasing your own music is not for everyone. Are you sure you want to take on the work that’s required for the promise of earning more income, assuming all artistic control, and a guarantee that your music will be released?  Or would you rather take on less work, sacrifice artistic control, and live with the possibility that your music might never be released? Of course, you might write the next mega-hit, and you and someone else’s record label would benefit greatly. These are the trade-offs you need to consider. There is no wrong answer. Each person’s life situation is different. This book will help you make an informed decision about what’s best for you.   

As you start this process you should think about how releasing your music fits into your business goals. Do you want to earn money from it? Do you want to raise your profile to get commissions, residencies, or other funding? Or do you simply want a high-quality documentation of your work? Your specific goals will determine how much effort you will need to put into various parts of the process. If you want to develop an income stream from your released music, then you should follow the guidance throughout this book; if you want to create recordings for the purpose of seeking other commissions, you might want to invest more on PR when you release to make sure your music reaches those decision makers; or if you just want high quality documentation of your recordings you can just concentrate on the recording section. Though if you go to all that effort, why not release your music anyway?

I’ve used the word, ‘business’, a few times and will continue to do so throughout the book. I know some of you may have bristled at the word already! The music industry is a vast business set up to entertain people in exchange for money. Some parts of the business are blatantly commercial, like the pop music industry that is sustained by vast numbers of fans attending concerts and buying or streaming music. Other parts of the business can’t be supported financially by audience numbers alone and rely on funding organisations to keep them going to develop the artform and the performance practice. Regardless, all music ventures require the producers and musicians to deal with the pressures of marketing to audiences, marketing to businesses (e.g., pitching a gig to a venue), making touring decisions, building release schedules, creating business development plans, and paying bills. If you can’t pay the bills, you won’t be able to create music. All of this sounds like a business to me. The business of art. 

When I was starting out, one of the things that helped me get into the business mindset was to think of myself as Matthew Whiteside, the Composer. A completely separate entity to Matthew Whiteside, the Person. The Composer, Matthew Whiteside, didn’t mind talking about his music on the internet or giving interviews about his work, and was quite outgoing. On the other hand, Matthew Whiteside, the Person, was shy and didn’t want to impose his music projects onto others. In fact, he preferred to sit at home listening to and writing music, reading, watching films, and occasionally going scuba diving. This distinction helped Matthew Whiteside, the Composer, develop his music business without Matthew Whiteside, the Person, getting in the way. I realised  that this is what a lot of pop artists do; they create a stage persona that becomes their business brand. 

No matter what genre of music, you are a business. If you want to be a professional musician or composer, you need to think of yourself as a business. Even if you aren’t completely onboard with this idea, I hope you will think otherwise by the end of this book. 

* * *

So, how do you release your own music? 

This book is a step-by-step guide that includes how to identify and hire the best people for your project, how to estimate costs, tips for saving money, how to apply for funding, how to plan, record, and finalise your recording for release, and how to create your unique brand and market your music to the world.  

The book is roughly divided into five sections:

• Choosing the best people

• Budgeting and fundraising

• Recording, postproduction and preparing your music for release

• Public relations, marketing, branding, and synchronisation

• Perspectives on the music industry

The earlier sections focus on studio recording, working with notation-based music and recording live players. If you are a bedroom producer, this might not be relevant to your work now but will equip you for when and if you want to go this route. You’ll learn the skills to work with classical players even if you aren’t working with them…yet. If you are a band going into a recording studio, these chapters will help you understand all the different roles and parts of the process and how to track the development of the album. 

I’ve included a few non–skills-based chapters, too, which cover different perspectives on the music industry, such as the ethics of streaming and conflicts of interest across record companies. 

This book is not going to teach you how to craft a composition or write a song.  It will, however, guide you through the confusing process of getting your works recorded and out into the world. The confusion isn’t helped by the fact that the landscape of the music industry is constantly shifting with new services starting or businesses opening, new payment models being developed, old ones being changed, and new legislation being written. 

Although I received an excellent, in-depth university and music college education on how to compose music and work with musicians, I didn’t get information on the business of music. While many institutions are starting to offer courses and modules that teach students how to survive and thrive in the music industry, most music students are still graduating with limited understanding of making music in the ‘real’ world. In addition to these university graduates, a plethora of talented, self-taught producers, composers, and songwriters are creating music without any professional guidance.

This book is for all of you: whether you have had a formal music education or are self-taught; whether you are working in your bedroom or in a rehearsal space; whether you were given the opportunity to learn how to survive as a freelancer or are just graduating. In fact, this book is for anyone who wants to release their music or include recorded music as part of their business. I hope I can support you on your journey.