You may have seen my new graphic floating around. Two lists. One says “I Wrote the Songs, AI Sang Them.” The other says “I Wrote the Songs, I Sang Them.” A few of you have asked about it, so let’s pull back the curtain, receipts and all.
How Much Does It Cost to Professionally Record One Song?
Let me show you what I actually paid as an independent artist. No estimates, no Fiverr browsing, just real numbers from my own recordings:
- Pianist: $250 for one song
- Additional instrumentalist: $150 to fill in the other instruments
- Recording engineer: $100 per hour (I kept my booth time to a single hour)
- Producer: $100 to $150 per hour, and a couple of my songs took him 3 hours each
And here’s the part that still bothers me: I never received an itemized invoice for the producer’s hours. No breakdown, no time log. It was all based on “trust.” I was writing checks against a clock I couldn’t see.
Add it up and one song could easily run $600 to $1,000 or more. An album? Multiply that by ten or twelve. For a homeschooling mom with a full-time job, that’s not a music budget. That’s a mortgage payment.
What Does It Cost Just to Release the Music?
Recording is only the beginning. Then you have to pay to put the songs out into the world.
CD Baby charged me $19.99 per album just to distribute it. Want their $49.99 tier with a promotional “boost”? I’ll be honest with you: I have never seen or felt any boost from it, ever. Not one thing I could point to and say “that’s what I paid for.”
And then there are the services that charge you just for the chance to be heard. Taxi charges a fee simply to submit your song for consideration. Not to place it. To submit it.
How Much Do Independent Artists Actually Make From Streaming?
Cents. Literal fractions of a cent per listen. In 2025, my total payout from CD Baby was $25. Twenty-five dollars. For the whole year. Against songs that cost hundreds of dollars each to record and $19.99 per album to release.
You do the math, because I did, and it made me a little sick.
Pay to record. Pay to release. Pay to submit. Then get paid pennies when people actually listen. From where I’m standing, the whole system feels like a racket built on the backs of independent artists. And for years, that math kept my songs in a notebook instead of in your ears.
So I Made a Choice
I stopped waiting. I write every single lyric myself, every story, every rhyme, every hook. Then I use Suno to produce and sing the songs I can’t afford to record professionally yet. (That’s my invite link, so full disclosure, I benefit if you join.) It’s not a shortcut on the songwriting. It’s a bridge over the one obstacle I couldn’t out-write: the cost of the studio.
And I’m not hiding it. It’s right there on the graphic. I wrote the songs. AI sang them.
Can AI Songs Be Sync Licensed? Here’s Where It Gets Maddening
Now for the part that has me completely frustrated.
Sync licensing, getting your songs placed in TV shows, films, and commercials, is one of the only ways independent artists earn real money from music. So you’d think finding an affordable way to finally produce my songs would open that door.
Nope. The industry has wrapped AI-assisted music in yellow tape. Most sync libraries and licensing platforms won’t accept songs with AI vocals or AI production, no matter who wrote them.
Think about what that means for someone like me. I couldn’t afford the studio, so the traditional door was closed. I found a way to produce my songs anyway, and now that door is closed too, for the exact songs I made because the first door was closed. The lyrics are 100 percent mine. The stories are mine. But because AI sang them, they’re locked out of the one revenue stream that could actually fund the professional re-recordings the industry says it wants.
Pay to record, and you’re broke. Use AI instead, and you’re barred. It’s a catch-22 built for people with money, and it’s exactly why independent artists like me have to get creative and lean on listeners directly.
The Songs AI Sang
- Hot Summer from Summer State of Mind
- God Bless America from Summer State of Mind
- Chosen by Grace from Chosen by Grace
- Dance with Me from Through It All
- Stitched Together from Fabric of Our Lives
- Last First Kiss from Through It All
- The Irish Goodbye from March Winds
- Through It All from Through It All
- Where I’m From from My Thanksgiving
- Annual Family Photos from My Thanksgiving
The Songs I Sang Myself
- Packages and Presents from Magic of Santa
- I Said Yes
- The Breakup Song
- I Wanna Be a Cowboy
Those four are me, my voice, no filter. They’re proof of where this whole thing is headed.
Where This Is Going
Since sync licensing has slammed its door, my path forward runs straight through you. Every stream, every download, every share, every Reel with one of my songs behind it goes toward one goal: getting back into a real studio and singing my heart out on every song I’ve written. The AI versions got my songs out of the notebook. Your listening is what carries them the rest of the way home.
FAQ
Did you really write all these songs? Yes. Every lyric is mine.
How much did your songs cost to record? My professionally recorded songs ran roughly $600 to $1,000 each, plus $19.99 per album to distribute. My streaming royalties for all of 2025 were $25.
Can AI-assisted songs be placed in TV and film? Right now, mostly no. Most sync libraries and licensing platforms reject songs with AI vocals or production, even when a human wrote every word.
Why not just wait until you could afford the studio? Because songs don’t do anyone any good sitting in a drawer. I’d rather share them now and re-record later than never share them at all.
Will you re-record the AI songs in your own voice? That’s the plan. That’s the whole point.
🎧 Which song would you want to hear me re-record in my own voice first? Tell me in the comments.
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