HOW TO Record, Produce and Release your Church s Own Music Prepared by: Rich Birch 1
Introduction Clint Taylor and Jason Yost joined me in a fantastically informative webinar covering the entire process of getting your church s own music recorded, produced and released. These two guys recently took charge of the project to have Liquid Church s own song More released on the most popular internet sites and they did an outstanding job. What follows is a recap of the webinar that takes you from start to finish through the process. Who are these guys Jason Yost has been one of the worship leaders at Liquid Church for almost a year. He came to Liquid from the District of Columbia where he was involved in music ministry at National Community Church. Jason has had previous experience producing and recording music. Clint Taylor is also a worship leader at Liquid. He s been here for about eight months. He studied guitar performance in college and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music. This document is a summary of that webinar for people who couldn t be with us. 2
Getting Started: Motivation Jason and Clint s idea of having an original song recorded began during worship nights during the fall of 2013. Midweek worship nights, called More, were being held as a way to help create more of what was happening on Sunday mornings. The overall theme of these worship nights was that people wanted more of God, instead of more from God. Clint wrote the song More and they decided to produce it as a single of and for their church. Like Jason and Clint, think about your goals for producing and recording music for your church first from a spiritual perspective. What s your purpose Why do you want to produce music For these two guys, their motivation came from their perception of community and their desire to teach. Jason and Clint knew God was doing something amazing and they wanted to be good stewards of the gifts they have been given. They wanted to be able to use their music to teach why we sing. Why we worship. And at the same time provide an avenue of worship for their congregation and potentially for worshipers world-wide. 3
Choosing a song Before deciding on a song to produce and record, play it and test it often. Try it out on different people and in different settings. It needs to be fairly simple so people can sing it. Ask yourself questions like: How does it feel Can People Sing it Are people catching on Once you ve chosen a song to go with, you ll collaborate with your engineers to make some initial changes like instrumentation, number of verses, insertion of a bridge and so on. How much a song changes from the original form to the recorded version is different with every song. Try to come at this with an open mind. 4
Make it fake At this point you re ready to make your demo, also known as a fake or scratch version. Just as a side note, everything you do prior to going to the actual studio to record is called Pre-Production. So let s make a fake. Clint and Jason used a program called Pro Tools 11 to produce their demo. Using scratch or rough vocals, fake drums and scratch or rough guitars to make your fake version, you record and arrange your song the best you can. Garage Band is another program you could use to make a demo. This program is quick and easy, and you can use it to record vocals and guitar, add loops. It s also valid for a demo. Your engineer or producer can give you feedback and ideas and then finalize the arrangement. Keep in mind you don t want a lot of people to hear your demo because it can cloud their perception of the final released version. It is important to get feedback though. Handle your demo with open hands: be willing to change. You re moving closer to production, so you need to start deciding on a budget if you haven t thought about this already. It can cost anywhere from two hundred dollars to five thousand dollars to record the final version of your song. One decision that might affect your budget, or your budget might affect your decision, is your choice of musicians. The final step before heading into the studio is choosing who to perform on the final version. Teach them or give them time learn the song and time to rehearse and then you re ready to head into the studio. Slidedocs is a trademark of Duarte Press LLC. All rights reserved. 5
Session Players Or Community Church Players Time constraints can play a major role in this as well as your budget. Here are few factors to consider: 1 2 3 Session Players record music for a living so they are much faster at what they do. For example, a session drummer may be able to record 4 songs in an hour. It may take your own drummer much longer. Sessions Players cost money. Maybe as much as $250.00 an hour per instrument. Maybe more. Your own church players often flow better as a team. It may take longer, but it can be a better overall experience. All the instrumentation on the recording More was provided by Liquid Church people. 6
The Studio Time constraints can play a major role in this as well as your budget. Here are few factors to consider: Your engineer should just be able to hook in his equipment at the studio. There can be long waiting periods in the recording studio, so you also want to make sure it s a place you can relax and be comfortable. Clint and Jason chose Lakehouse Recording Studio in Asbury, New Jersey. The price for the day of recording at the studio was $800.00 What s next After the song is recorded, the engineer will edit it. He does things like tuning the drums, tuning the vocals, he time-stamps everything and makes sure everything is perfect. He will send this version back to you. Mixer The mixer balances the sound to make sure all the instruments are clear. He sends it back for approval and then he sends your song to the master once everyone feels comfortable. Master When you get the rough recorded version from the engineer, you ll make the final decisions on things like the arrangement and structure of your song. You ll finalize your decisions and send it to the mixer. The master compresses and brings the volume up, adds EQs and polishes the overall song. 7
Ready for release It s great if you have someone on your team who is familiar with PR or social media who can help promote your song prior to release. Jason and Clint mapped out a release calendar for the month prior to the release of More. They scheduled quick videos that ran daily on social media explaining interesting things about the song, they posted Instagrams of lyric images, they held a More Sunday at their church and gave a copy of the song to each of the church s 3000 members. Post-release they continued to promote the song by: Running a campaign on Noise Trade. This is an online service that provides music to its subscribers in exchange for their email address and zip code. Producing a music video Offering a church leader s kit on the Liquid Church website. The kit includes helpful resources for churches to use in connection with More like the Instagram lyrics, the video, chord charts and mp3 and more.! Overall the song was promoted as something to celebrate. Since More was released in the summer, it was timed especially well to coordinate with the theme of a celebration. You can use the release of your song to inject a spirit of community and joy into the life of your church. 8
How to release so you can celebrate! Broadcast Music Inc. or BMI and the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) are two organizations that protect your copyright and help collect royalties. You will need to register with one of these organizations and also with CCLI. CCLI is Christian Copywriting Licensing International, and it also helps to protect your copyright. After you upload your song to CCLI, you will have an administrator to help you. Every time copies of the song are printed for rehearsal or downloaded in churches, you will receive royalties. CCLI can also help with promotion. TuneCore TuneCore is the online music distribution service Clint and Jason used. It s the largest and most reputable way to introduce your song online. You ll create an account similar to Facebook by filling in your demographic and biographical information. Then you ll upload the.wav file of your song. Don t upload any other file to TuneCore. You ll want to use your highest quality version which is your.wav file. The next step is to select the stores where you want your song released. Some stores are free, and there are also other options you can choose. For instance, if you want it to be on the front page of some stores you ll have to pay for that. You ll click on the stores and the options you want and then pay for those choices through a system similar to PayPal. Clint and Jason released More on itunes, Spotify, Sony Songs Unlimited, iheartradio and Google Play. TuneCore tracks the sales and they come back into your account. The royalty fees vary, but an average fee you can expect to pay is around 30%. 9
Q & A Why a single instead of an album Timing: Jason and Clint wanted to release More as a single because of the timeliness of its message. The song identifies what God is doing, and they wanted to be able to sing it with their congregation as an outreach to identify with that. Efficiency: With the technology that s available today it s much more efficient to release a single than an entire album. An album today is more about a group of singles, than the idea of a musical journey. It s easier to release a single every four months and then compile those into an album. How do you help your church transition to generating your own songs You have to just try it! Maybe you don t want to try new things on Sunday morning, but you have to start somewhere! Make use of your worship team. If you have a song you want to try, take it to your worship leader or your band and ask them if it s singable. Try out original music during monthly worship nights or during other less formal worship settings. Test your songs to see if they stick. See if people enjoy them. Communicate your purpose. Help people see you re more than musicians. You can teach people why you worship. Use your music as a vessel to reach people. Remember that people in your church don t hear these songs as often as you do. By the time you introduce them to your congregation, you ve already heard them eight or nine times. Give your church time to adjust. 10
Q & A How do you define the style of music you re going for Your congregation gets used to who you are. They get to love you. Examine who you are and stay true to that. When you register on BMI, do you register as a publisher or songwriter If you re the only songwriter, you register as 100% songwriter. If you have a publisher, they will register as publisher 100%. If you wrote and published, you would register for 200%. You can find more information and great resources, including the church leader s kit at music.liquidchurch.com 11