Melanie Grace

Tag: AI music policy

  • Monday Mindset: Why Did I Let AI Sing My Songs?

    Monday Mindset: Why Did I Let AI Sing My Songs?

    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.

    A smiling woman holding an acoustic guitar, wearing a denim jacket over a sparkly top and distressed jeans. Text overlay includes her name, 'Melanie Grace,' and lists song titles she wrote, along with music platform icons at the bottom.

    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.

    A person wearing headphones smiles while holding a microphone in a small recording space, with a laptop displaying audio software and various items in the background.
    A smiling woman with short hair sits in front of a microphone, resting her head on her hand. The background features warm lighting and a window.
    A smiling woman sitting at a desk with a computer, a microphone, and handwritten notes, looking engaged and ready to work.
    A woman wearing headphones smiles at the camera in a recording studio, with a microphone in front of her and wooden walls in the background.

    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.

    Three notebooks with colorful patterned covers arranged on a wooden surface.

    And I’m not hiding it. It’s right there on the graphic. I wrote the songs. AI sang them.

    Woman coding with holographic programming interfaces projected from multiple screens
    A woman works with holographic coding interfaces in a home office environment.

    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.

    Screenshot of a membership renewal page with payment options, including PayPal and credit card, showing a total order amount of $199.95 after applying a discount.

    The Songs AI Sang

    The Songs I Sang Myself

    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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  • The Truth About Sync Licensing (And Why It Feels Like a Rigged Game)

    The Truth About Sync Licensing (And Why It Feels Like a Rigged Game)

    Let me be honest with you today. Like, really honest. The kind of honest that might make some industry people uncomfortable. That’s fine. Pull up a chair.

    I want to talk about sync licensing, about what it actually costs to be an independent musician trying to get her music into the world, and about a specific frustration that has been sitting in my chest for a while now.

    Here goes.

    I love making music. I love it with my whole heart and I have committed this entire year to proving that, one album a month, every month, twelve months straight. The music is there. The songs are real. The heart behind every single track is genuine.

    What I don’t have is unlimited money.

    Here’s a reality of being an independent artist that nobody talks about enough: recording is expensive. Wildly, surprisingly, sometimes devastatingly expensive. Last year I recorded a song in my own room, my own space, using my own setup, and then emailed my producer to mix and master it. One song. Four hundred dollars. For ONE song.

    Not a full album. Not a professional studio session. One song, mixed and mastered.

    So when a sync licensing company charges over a hundred dollars just for the privilege of MEMBERSHIP, before I’ve pitched a single song, before anyone has heard a note, just for the door to be open, you will understand why I have feelings about that.

    TAXI is one of the most well-known sync licensing platforms for independent musicians. And they do get placements. I know that. I am not here to say the service is worthless. But I am here to say that for an independent artist on a tight budget, the membership cost is a real barrier. It is money I could put toward producing another song. It is money that represents a genuine choice between two things I need.

    And then, on top of the cost, many of the listings specifically say: no AI music.

    No AI music.

    I use Suno AI to produce my songs. I have been completely transparent about this. I use Claude to collaborate on lyrics. I use AI as a creative partner and a production tool because it makes my music possible at a scale and a pace that would otherwise be financially out of reach for someone in my position. AI is literally how I have released an album every month this year.

    And I am being told: not here.

    I genuinely want to understand the reasoning. I do. I know there are copyright questions around AI-generated music. I know the industry is still working out what it means and how to categorize it. I am not pretending those questions don’t exist.

    But here is what I also know: the music I make is emotionally true. It is lyrically specific. It is performed in my voice, with my creative vision, telling my stories. The tool I use to produce it does not change any of that. A paintbrush does not make the painting. Neither does a production platform.

    So where does that leave me? It leaves me here, writing this blog, asking YOU to be my sync licensing department for right now.

    I am serious about this. If you use my music in your Instagram Reels, your YouTube videos, your TikToks, your podcast intros, your content of any kind, you are doing exactly what sync licensing is supposed to do: putting music with visuals and letting the combination reach new ears. You are helping me find the audience that the traditional gatekeepers are not quite ready to let me reach yet.

    Tag me. Credit me. Share the link to my streaming profiles. Tell your friends. Put my songs in your playlists. Every single one of those actions matters more than you know.

    The industry will catch up. It always does. Until then, I have you, and honestly? That means everything.

    Stream Mixtape Mindset on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Deezer, and Pandora. Follow me on Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook. And get on my email list so you never miss what’s coming next.

    If this post resonated with you, share it. Other independent artists need to know they are not alone in this. And music fans need to know that their support is not a small thing. It is the whole thing.