Navigating the DIY Music Publishing Journey: Tips for Independent Artists

There are so many possibilities available to us – one of those being DIY publishing. What’s great about this is if you know what you’re doing and if you’re willing to market your music through multiple digital platforms, you can get your music out there to the audience that you want. However, this takes a lot of time and patience for people to become familiar with your work.

There are some things that we don’t think about immediately when we decide to record an album. There are things like mechanical licensing, producing, royalties, and editing the tracks. These are things that record companies worry about and I can tell you that once you learn about these things, they are completely manageable if you are willing to be patient about the process.

Typically, with a lot of record companies, there are additional fees that include album art, production, and all the paperwork that would make your head spin. What I learned was while it was much easier to pay for these types of services, you don’t have as much creative power as you think you do regarding some of these other aspects as companies will do what they believe will sell.

In addition, it is not a 100% promise that you would be able to get millions of copies of your album sold and even so, you need to be your own advocate for distribution. Here are a couple of things to consider when producing and publishing your own music.
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1. Before you record anything, make sure you sort out your mechanical licensing. There are companies like EasySong, who are great in helping you get in contact with publishers and doing the paperwork that you need for mechanical licensing if you are recording works by other composers that are not originals.
2. Make sure you’re collaborating with people you trust. This is something that is important and can inspire some of the best music and who want to support you. In addition, if you can get someone to produce for you, that is also useful so that way you know that you have the takes that you need to be able to put it all together. 
3. Make sure that you have a space that is friendly to your instrument. If you are recording a CD that requires piano, it would be good to make sure to find a good Steinway. If you’re still studying at a University or Conservatory, be sure to take advantage of the resources available to you. To rent a space, especially for a full day can get pricey, so if you’re able to find resources that are free and/or available to you, that is definite plus. 
4. If you’re recording with piano, make sure that the piano is tuned before each session. This is something that often gets overlooked in the process, especially if you’re doing it yourself since there are so many other factors we’re worried about. To be consistent with the recording process and the tendencies of your instrument, it is also important to have it tuned to make sure if you need to make any edits that you can take another take from a different day. Get in contact with a local piano tuner that would be able to do it for you 1-2 hours before your scheduled recording session.
5. Find a great sound engineer. This can also get pricey, but worth it in the long run. It’s so important to find an engineer who can not only capture the essence of your playing, but also someone who is talented with helping you put it together. You can contact professional and local orchestras in your area and see who they use to record their concerts.
6. Listen to your playbacks with good headphones. This fact might be obvious for some, but when we listen to tracks without proper headphones, it makes it difficult to make solid decisions of what works and what needs to be edited out.
7. Do multiple listens when you’re rested. Sometimes the difficult part about recording and doing playbacks is that we are already so tired, and it takes more energy to be able to listen back to what you had already done. After you’ve completed your recording, be sure to take a break and give it a couple of hours and then return to listening. Listening is an active skill that requires a great deal of attention.
8. Create a chart with timings of usable tracks. This makes it so that way you have a big picture of what you’ve done and you’re able to see what takes you have and how you can piece it together. This is also going to help your engineer greatly as he’ll be able to take the timings from the raw tracks and help you piece it together if you’re working remotely.
9. Find a way to distribute. Now with everything on digital platforms, it’s important to find a way to distribute. There are companies like EmuBands and CDBaby that can help you upload your materials digitally.

We hope that these tips were helpful in your journey. If you feel overwhelmed with the process, you can also count on us to help you through the process. If you want to learn more about publishing your music, schedule a free consultation with us today! ​

Kristine Dizon

CEO & Founder
The Modern Artist Project