So you finally finished writing your song and you’re ready to move on to your final recording. This quick guide will walk you from writing to a completed song ready for your fans to enjoy.

Step 1 – Lights, Camera, Action

First thing you should do is to get footage of you recording your song. You’ll have to get all the video equipment ready, at the very least get the basics. This means a phone or camera, a simple desktop tripod and some decent lighting. Once that’s setup, start recording video. Keep recording everything until the release rollout is complete.

Step 2 – Lay It Down

Now that’s out of the way, start recording your song. Record each section of your song at least 3 times. This means your best performance 3 times for each verse, hook, adlibs, etc. When finished with this step, edit and organize your session, label all of your takes as needed.


Now that we captured your best performance, the most important thing is to not lose your work. So this means we will backup your session AND video recordings of your session to another device. This could be an external hard drive, to a USB stick, CD/DVD/Blu-ray or Cloud Backup Service. Doesn’t matter what you pick, I have used all of the above and I prefer both an external hard drive and a cloud backup service.

Step 3 – Stir It Up

Now that we took care of that incredibly important step, it’s time to mix your song. During this stage you would be gainstaging, leveling and making your voice fit with the instruments. You can start mixing just the vocals and then when your finished there you will need to mix the vocals with the beat. Obviously this would mean during this stage is when you will have to decide whether you’re committed to the song. Because to get the highest quality stems for a beat you need to purchase them from the creator of the beat.


Once you’ve mixed it the best you can then we will repeat one of the previous steps. Backup your session and video recordings again. You can never backup your files too much 🤣Now at this stage we’re almost done. You should have been recording all this on video up until this point, it doesn’t matter if you think you’ll use it or not. It will come in handy later.

Step 4 – Time To Cook

So now that your mix is ready, it’s time for Mastering. You can accomplish this a few different ways, you can use mastering plugins, or pay to get it mastered for you. The idea here is to get a few dope masters and compare them in the car. Your job will be to pick the one that sounds best to you.


When you find the magical one. Back that thang up. At this point you should have got a license with your stems for your beat so you will be able to cross that off your list. You will also want to copyright the lyrics and additional elements you created with that beat using the Form PA at copyright.gov. Also additionally, if this happens to be a custom beat where you own the rights you should also consider registering the sound recording itself using Form SR.

Step 5 – The Sprinkles

At this point you can get your cover art created. You can either do this yourself or hire someone to do it. Do your best to make it the visual twin of the song. You want it to look the way your song sounds.

Now make sure you save your copyright receipts and your song artwork in the same place where your session and video recordings are backed up.

From this point you can schedule your song for release. Head over to a distributor such as Distrokid or Tunecore. Make sure when you are setting up your release that you credit any collaborators that aren’t you (such as producers, engineers, singers, etc.) Also properly set up percentages based off agreements with any collaborators.

Using all your release information (including the IWSC code given from your distribution) you will make sure your songs are registered correctly with BMI or ASCAP or SongTrust. Join a PRO to collect performance royalties for the public performance of the song. However, note that if the beat is licensed, the producer may also have the right to collect royalties for its public performance. If it’s a custom beat or buyout then you could be the sole collector of performance royalties.


Now you have the basics setup, and you can start creating and publishing video content using the footage from the beginning of this guide. Remember as soon as you make content, to back up your work.

If you liked this guide then you’ll love my soulful rap pro pack. This pack helps with everything in this guide, it includes the full in depth guides for writing, recording and mixing as well as stems for over 62 soulful hip hop beats. If it’s still available you’ll be hearing about in your email.

Stay Tuned,