Releasing your music and putting it out into the world on streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music is an exciting time for any budding home recording enthusiast. For me, it's one of the most satisfying parts of my music creation process. Apart from releasing a song or a set of songs and being able to share my music with friends and fans, it's when I get to end that creative arc with those songs. Once I release music, it frees me from the creative pull associated with those songs allowing me to move on and start creating new music again. And thus, an exciting new creative cycle begins.

But when you're new to releasing music, how do you choose which platform to use to distribute your music? There are a lot of distribution platforms out there offering distribution of your music to all the music streaming services, and each has its particular nuances. I was inspired to write this post after speaking with a friend who is about to start releasing music on streaming sites. He told me he was leaning toward using a platform that was charging $250 to distribute his music and would give him everything he needed to do so. WTF? $250 to disperse his music to streaming sites. I nearly had a heart attack of catastrophic proportions when he told me this.

There are plenty of cheaper options, but I argue, why would you pay for distribution at all when you are commencing your journey of releasing music? If you don't yet have a fan base that will supply you with enough streams to generate the revenue needed to pay for distribution, perhaps starting out with a free platform is the way to go.

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So, you finally finished recording your masterpiece, and the time to commence mixing has come. Perhaps you have been sent your first session by a friend or colleague for a practice mix. Or, you are about to do some free work and start building your portfolio. Either way, once you have opened up the session, labelled and arranged all the tracks, and go to start mixing, you wonder about where to start. Mixing is an art, a creative endeavour. Though we all work with audio and use similar tools to achieve our desired outcome, the mixing process is a unique journey for each of us.

The inspiration for this episode comes from a question from one of my good friends and community members, Jesse. Jesse wanted to know the general rules about the volumes of different types of tracks when mixing. Are the drums up the most and build from that? Or, is it the vocals and build-off those? To me, there is no right or wrong answer to this. Nor do I believe there is a steadfast rule or set of rules that should be adhered to. After all, this is a creative process, and we are creating art. The desired outcome is a well-balanced mix that is pleasing to listen to. How you get there is up to you.

To answer and expand on Jesse's question, I will offer some insights into my mixing process. In doing so, I'll hopefully answer his question and help other home recording enthusiasts on their mixing journey as well.

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Our digital presence helps inform people if they want to pursue a relationship with our business or not by engaging with us through a series of touchpoints. There are many different touchpoints to engage with, and each time someone experiences a touchpoint is an opportunity to strengthen that relationship. It pays to have a good look at your digital trail and make sure everything is in order for when people discover you, and start to engage with you. Everything should lead to a positive, strengthening experience. Think about your habits when you’re contemplating purchasing a new piece of gear for your studio or wanting to drop some cash on plugins or virtual instruments. I know I go into full research mode and will have 20 tabs open as I look into a business. I investigate their website, check their social media, and read reviews. These are all touch points that I have personally now engaged with that are helping inform me if I want to keep going further and deepen this relationship or not. Ultimately the goal is to gain new customers or strengthen relationships with existing ones. There’s a basic marketing principle that it takes a person at least 7 touches before they will possibly act on a call to action with your business. Touchpoints can be physical and digital and there are many. For this piece, I’m going to take a dive into a select few and look at how we can make sure these touch points are on point to give a positive, cohesive experience for our home studio businesses.

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