How to release an album in 2024/2025 // Dirtywave M8

[@the_washington_monument_am9714]

11:22 titling the things is always the hardest part for me particularly for instrumental music - this is how your stuff is going to live in the public imagination. Deeply appreciate the in-depth explanation of the process ❤

[@the_washington_monument_am9714]

I feel so much better about using Ozone now too!

[@StephenMcLeod]

I am terrible at remembering the titles of tracks in general, even for bands I really like ha.

[@JamesMcMeeken]

Hearing about your process was super interesting - thank you 🙌

[@StephenMcLeod]

Thanks! Glad it was worth the watch.

[@pmoe0969]

Loving the album!

[@StephenMcLeod]

I am glad you like it!

[@LabRatWarfare]

🧠🎄Great to hear about your process making Brain Holiday, track 5 is melting the last of my mind away, haha, it's such an awesome tune to listen to while driving around, the whole albums is really. This is one of my favorite albums you've released man! 🔥🐀

[@StephenMcLeod]

That's what it's for!! Gotta melt the last of that away. Shake it off. Oh wait. That's another album entirely. Glad you like it!!

[@budgetkeyboardist]

I think a lot of us can relate. I was born in 65 and gave up on being a "rock star" decades ago. But in 2004 I released my first album, and now I have a total of 6 albums out and I'm working on a seventh. And I truly, truly suck at promotion. It's good to hear other people's approaches.

[@bojangprodoktschns5428]

I really like the playfulness of the album! It reflects your personality very well. About the AI artwork: The problem here is, that AI is simply considered cheap and uncreative by most people, so one obvious approach might be to choose something that isn't recognised as AI immediately. In your example the anatomically misplaced ear (of all things!) is a dead giveaway. More importantly, it's hard for me to imagine that an afternoon with some pencils, paint and scissors wouldn't yield something more unique and charming, even if you aren't as artistically gifted as you are musically.

[@StephenMcLeod]

Thanks for listening! RE: AI. I hear you, and the models are such that they will and have age very quickly. With that said, I am also not all that sure I am bothered if folks do think that AI produce are dull. As much as I appreciate your optimism about my drawing ability I can guarantee you that it is almost nil... In the past I have used some of my own photography which I *am* decent at, but it just doesn't really click in the same way, because it feels non-contextual. Perhaps in future I can use MidJourney more as an idea generator which I then use as a reference point for someone to do something better. That'd be one potential way to go about it, though again the cost comes in to play.

[@RJ_Eckie]

That was surprisingly helpful! (Surprising in that I wasn’t expecting to get inspired, I’m much more interested in performance than recording.) I hadn’t considered the album creation process as a sequence of quite separate and different steps. Really enjoyable overall 🙏🏻

[@StephenMcLeod]

Thanks a lot for watching and commenting! Unfortunately some of those steps are far more boring and torturous than others, ha.

[@wiggesobk]

Nice video and cool pullover.

[@StephenMcLeod]

About time somebody gave the jumper some recognition!

[@EkimElectro]

Great video! I can relate to you in so many ways. I’ll definitely take some of your advice and give it a try as well. Wishing you all the best! 🎄

[@StephenMcLeod]

Thanks! Get some of that sweet music out there!

[@digitalsouthofficial]

i like the title of your new album, and the album very much, too :)

[@StephenMcLeod]

Thanks a lot!

[@BigPlasticPlant]

I really enjoyed the video, it’s great to hear your process, but imagine listening to an artist talk about how they’ve got an exhibition coming up for their artwork and they’d love some really good music played during the exhibition, something that relates to the work and requires a level of understanding of the work, but not for the exorbitant price of £100 😂 no no no, I’ll just use that AI music generator thing, no harm. Make money as an artist, spend money on artists. Just like Simba told us to.

[@StephenMcLeod]

Thanks for watching and commenting. On the artwork side: I hear you, and understand the sentiment, though at the same time I also wouldn't have any issue if an artist wanted to use AI/stock music to achieve their particular aims rather than bring in somebody to specifically score things. Ultimately it's a tool and a creative choice - as well as a financial one. I have and do commission artwork for lots of other projects when it fits the bill - just not this one. :)

[@brawndothethirstmutilator9848]

Just gave a listen through over on Bandcamp. Shades of Autechre meets Ulrich Schnauss (that’s where my limited ears found nostalgic memories anyway). I like that there is a cohesive perspective to the album. My favorites on first listen were: “melt the last of it away”, “sorry friend, I fell asleep”, and “wander the plains”. Looking forward to future listening 👍

[@hazmatforhumanity7318]

Really enjoying that latest album friend. I am curious about who did the album art for Rituals and Glasgow Coma Scale. Really cool work. I might consider commissioning that same artist for an album cover for a project I am working on as well.

[@StephenMcLeod]

Thank you! Those were both MidJourney as well - 'goth disco' was the initial prompt idea that merged into some wild and wacky stuff. I did a video on that at the time too that might be worth a watch - kzbin.info/www/bejne/qnTTfGiEn5mtrrM

[@anothercouture]

Now you've explained so clearly, I really have no excuse in 2025 to get my long trailed album actually released 😂. Thanks really interesting to hear your process.

[@StephenMcLeod]

Gotta get the finger out!!

[@Chiptune-Anamnesis]

Wow, I really related to the line "giving up on delusions of grandeur". Looking forward to listening to your album.

[@StephenMcLeod]

Thanks for giving it a listen!

[@HanjoSynth]

on the same boat, at the curation stage, lets see how long it takes until completion :D

[@StephenMcLeod]

Nice one! Let me know when it's done and out :)

[@CatFish107]

The point you mention at the start about getting your reward from the process of making the music in the first place is a solid one. Keeping in mind whether your goal is to make music, or to make yourself famous is probably important. On another topic: can yah drone with a tracker?

[@Vergarecords]

We've both released albums this year- but I'll never make a 'making of' vid

[@StephenMcLeod]

Did you do an Instagram story

[@DawlessHouseMusic]

How dare you circumvent the factory musical norms designed to maximize profits at the expense of the artist!

[@StephenMcLeod]

If only I had any profits!!

[@FernandoLins]

II was very disappointed watching a guy with thousands of pounds worth of gear behind him, gear used to make this album that "only a handful of people will buy digital copies of anyway", say that he can't afford to pay 100+ pounds for actual artwork that you might "only partially happy with". And then you said you were "fairly pleased" with the Midjourney result, which to me is the same as "only partially happy with".

[@StephenMcLeod]

I didn't say I couldn't afford it. I said that I couldn't justify it, because to me the artwork isn't as important as the music - especially not for an album that I am DIY releasing and I am already massively out of pocket on. In the past I have invested a lot of time and money to commission artists for projects and it has often been a major struggle, not to mention expense. If I went down that route every time I would never release anything. In terms of 'fairly pleased', your interpretation of what I meant there is incorrect. I like the result far better than the results I have gotten from commissions over the past few years, which is exactly why I went with it.

[@CatFish107]

Did you change the thumbnail in the last hour? Or is the tube doing funny business?

[@StephenMcLeod]

It's doing a swapsy where it tries out different thumbnails because I can't decide which one I like best.

[@greentoaster]

Funny to hear someone say they can't afford £100 for an album cover while standing in front of £30k worth of gear

[@StephenMcLeod]

I said I can't justify it. Not afford. The artwork portion of a release nobody is going to listen to isn't as important to me as the creation of the music.

[@guysmiley7289]

Is that a joke on the OJ Simpson book? "How I did it"

[@StephenMcLeod]

I wish I was that clever.

[@brawndothethirstmutilator9848]

*If I Did It (The victim’s families won ownership of the publishing rights in a suit to collect part of his debt, and they printed the “if” in tiny font 😂.)

[@busterbuster1641]

Damn the YT algo. Thought I'd banished this speccy attention seeking fud from my life forever. As Ralf Hutter would say ' Vorwärts und aufwärts'

[@StephenMcLeod]

You'll never get rid of the speccy fuds

[@emdotambient]

Interesting video. And I for one applaud your use of Midjourney for the cover. Some might think it's cheating, but the amount of time you put into tweaking prompts, and ultimately the curating of which images to use ... and maybe even tweaking the chosen image(s) in PhotoShop or Gimp or something ... it still ends up being your work.

[@Andre_2099]

I'm also disappointed by the AI artwork choice. Terrible for the environment, terrible for your fellow artists, just a very poor choice IMHO.

[@StephenMcLeod]

What a load of shite. For a start, blindly criticising anybody who uses any kind of AI for creative purposes is the most unbelievably redundant, reductive nonsense - especially given that you are doing so on a platform owned by one of the largest companies in the world, who are one of the primary drivers of that technology. What kind of device are you commenting from? A MacBook? A phone manufactured in a country halfway around the world that uses minerals mined by children? Give me a fucking break. It's incredibly easy for you and every other anonymous commenter to dish ethical criticisms out over AI, and ignore the massive inconsistencies. Secondly: Who are these 'fellow artists' that you are talking about? I don't owe any random artist anything. I have chosen to use AI as a tool this time around as part of *my* creative process because *I* want to, and don't like their product. The idea that I am somehow required to specifically hire somebody for my own project irrespective of the cost is utter bullshit. Don't come on here and dump your broad-brush criticism on me.