Creating music is a deeply personal journey. For me, it’s about more than just putting notes and lyrics together—it’s a form of storytelling, a way to share my experiences and emotions with the world. Here, I’d love to share the process of how to make an album in 10 steps, based on my own experiences.

Step 1: Write Your Music

The first step to creating an album is writing the music. This is the backbone of your story, where you pour out your emotions, experiences, and creative energy.

Step 2: Determine Song Order

I spend significant time on this step, thinking about the story I want to tell. The songs you choose and the order you arrange them in are crucial to conveying your narrative.

Step 3: Record Your Music

You’ll need some essential tools for this step—a microphone, an interface, some software, a mic stand, pop filter cables. There’s a lot more depth to this stage, but that’s the gist of it.

Step 4: Communicate with Your Artist

Working with an artist to create your album cover is an exciting step. I believe it’s important to communicate your story well to the artist, so they can accurately portray it visually. Check out these custom album cover prints for inspiration.

Step 5: Artist Photos

Artist photos are a key part of your album’s visual identity. I use my artist photos on Spotify and for all promotional purposes. They play a vital role in representing your brand and your music.

Step 6: Mixing

This is where you polish your sound. You can use software like Garageband, Logic Pro Tools, or any other digital performer. I mostly focus on EQ compression, reverb, and delay to keep things simple.

Step 7: Mastering

Mastering is the final touch to your sound. I mastered my first album myself, despite advice to the contrary. This process is essentially mixing but looking at the song as a whole rather than each individual track.

Step 8: Promotion

Talk about your music, a lot! Word of mouth and social media are significant promotional tools. Share your journey, your story, and get people excited about your music.

Step 9: Press Releases

Writing your own press releases or reaching out to blogs can help promote your music. Be specific—if you’re in Portland, reach out to Portland blogs.

Step 10: Have a Release Party

Celebrate your hard work! Hosting a release party is an excellent opportunity to share your music and celebrate the journey with friends, family, and fans.

Creating an album is a journey of self-expression and storytelling. It’s a process that should be celebrated and shared. So, embrace your story, your music, and your unique sound. And remember, whatever the process looks like for you, your story matters, and there are people excited to hear it.

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how to make an album in 10 steps. first you gotta write the music. next is song order. and I probably spend the most time on this. um, I’m thinking about what’s the story I wanna tell. which songs you can tell that story. and what order do I need to put the songs in order to tell that story. next, you gotta record you need a microphone and interface. some sort of software. mic stand, pop filter cables. I’m gonna do video more depth on this. but that’s the gist of it. then art communication with your artist is so important. tell them the story. you’re trying to tell so they can accurately portray that visually. artist photos. artist photos are so important. I use my artist photos for my spotify. for and for all promo. I have not been seen numbers. but six is mixing. so you can use garageband logic pro tools. digital performer. hmm. any of those would work. um, I mostly focus on eq compression, reverb and delay. just to keep simple. then you want to get it mastered. I mastered my all myself. which everyone said not to do. and with my next one, I’m not gonna master myself. but this is basically just mixing. but looking at the song as a whole rather than at each individual track. seven is promo. talk about it, talk about it so much. word of mouth is so important. and then also social media. No.9 is press you can write your own press releases. you can write to blogs, do press releases. but no matter what, just be specific. for example, if you’re in Portland, do press for Portland blogs and No.10. have a release party. this is so hard. so celebrate. speaking of, mine is ours 27th at the way post in Portland, Oregon. if you want to come.