Tiny Tunes, Big Dreams : Helping Your Kid Drop Their First Single
Following on from my blog last year about collaboration with ai to create music I wanted to share an update and the steps involved with setting up these services, not just for those looking to become the next overnight sensation, but also as a fun, educational and engaging activity kids of almost any age can enjoy.
For lots of parents in the UK next week is half term, and if - like most parents I know - this fills you with the anxiety of “what are we going to do to keep the kids occupied?” and “how much Mr. Tumble is too much Mr. Tumble?!” then I hope - for an afternoon at least - the following is an activity that will be fun for both you and your children… And for those without kids - it’s still a fun way to spend an afternoon or evening over a couple of drinks.
So, first a little background; I first started using AI for creative storytelling 2 years ago for my daughter Connie, who was then 4. It started by dreaming up a character for her to be in the stories. We have always tried to steer Connie away from princesses and unicorns, but Connie - not unlike her mother - knows her own mind and now every princess dress she owns is covered in rainbows and unicorns. So for the central character we settled on “Connie the Great Warrior Girl” and began using ChatGPT to generate stories that Connie and I would design together. Connie would provide the major story points, and I would fill a little prompting to give the AI something to work with. The main theme throughout being Connie is a great warrior and protector of “Rainbow Ridge” the town / kingdom that she lives in [which is magical and filled with rainbows and unicorns and so on] and also of her little brother Obi. They have missions and save the day, rinse, repeat, etc.
Note: I have since turned this process into something more automated, but more on that next blog.
As Connie has grown and learned to read more independently the images and basic stories have evolved into mainly text and a couple of black and white images to accompany [much like the reading books she now reads independently]. That’s the great thing about the agility of systems like ChatGPT. You aren’t stuck with something that your child will outgrow - you can make it age with your child and provide an endless source of fun and creative collaboration.
But that’s stories, and you’re here for music so - a bit about music. There have been a few different AI music generation tools launched over the last year or so. Suno was one of the first with a web interface where you could get text-to-audio, but it was initially pretty poor quality [March ‘24] compared to Udio which launched a month later, with a better UI and an output that was [at the time] way beyond anything else.
After a couple of months of playing with Udio and generating the music I wanted to hear more of, I then wanted to get these tracks onto the streaming platforms I use [namely Apple Music] so I could listen to my own stuff on the speakers around the house while I was cooking, or playing them to the kids [Obi is particularly fond of “Manic Sonata”, my Classical Dubstep album], which is how I came to discover the route to do this, through SoundCloud. More on the practical steps shortly.
Cut to Easter this year, another of the school holidays [there really are too many of them aren’t there?!]. We were trying to fill a bit of time after breakfast and before a family outing and I noticed that Connie had been writing in a notebook [as she sometimes does]. I asked her what it was that she had written, and she told me it was a song. She has a heavy preference for Britney Spears and the Spice Girls at the moment so I shouldn’t have been that surprised to see the initial lines “I tell you what I want baby, oooo. You tell me what you want baby, ooo. What I want is a rocket, ooo”. Happily though [and upon questioning] what she “wanted” wasn’t what most of those types of songs are referring to, no. What Connie wanted is a rocket, as in a space rocket, she loves space and we were about to go to see “The Moonwalkers” exhibition at the Lightroom at Kings Cross [very much recommended]. all very fun and innocent. Well as we had a little time on our hands I asked if she might want to turn her lyrics into a song?
Of course she did, and we spent the next half hour or so going through the process below until the track had been submitted for approval. By the end of the half term week we had released not one but two songs - across all the music streamers - by Connie’s alter-ego “DJ Sapphire”, and we even created a bass-heavy dance track for Obi [he really loves the bass] under his alter-ego “Great Big Hoo”.
Right, background covered, how do you start? well, there are a few [completely free] steps [and a few more with a charge if you want to launch to the music stores]. I will break the process down into the following stages;
Track Creation [£FREE]
Track Preparation [£FREE]
Track Distribution [£PaidSubscription]
Track Creation
It’s time to get creative. You’ll get out what you put in here, so think of the kind of music you like / would want to hear or what your kid is into and maybe how to make a fun parody of something. Anything you can think of.
Lyrics. If you’re doing this with the kids this is vital, you don’t need endless lyrics - unless you have the song fully formed already - so just something to start from. For kids it’s all about them hearing the stuff they just wrote down being sung back to them in a highly polished and produced way. Connie’s eyes light up as she realises that “daddy that lady singing is singing my song!”.
Ok, lyrics and song styles formed, let’s get to the studio to record! Get yourself over to Udio via the website and/or download the app to have a mobile studio at your fingertips! You’ll need to register and choose the “free” account [or pro if you want extra features - I’d recommend free until you decide the pro features are things you want].
Once logged in the UI is super intuitive but if there seems like too much going on, just start by describing the song [if your kid is around the 6 - 8 mark something like “an upbeat pop song that you can dance to” and choose “Custom” for lyrics and type in your / your kid’s words and hit “Create”!
Less than a minute and in your “Library” [the icon that says library] you’ll have 2 x versions of a 30 second clip of your track. You can listen to each version and either pick the best to extend or try the creation again to get something different. Once you’re happy with at least one of the clips it’s time to “extend”
Extend. Next to each “clip” is an “Extend” button [or pressing on the 3 dots to the right of each track if on mobile]. This will put you back into what looks like the “create” interface. But this time you have “extension placement” so you can add a section before / after or add an intro or outro. choose which you prefer and hit “Extend”.
Again, less than a minute and in your “Library” [the icon that says library] you’ll have 2 x extended versions of your previous clip with an extra 30 seconds added. You can again listen to each version and either pick the best to extend or try the creation again to get something different.
You repeat this process until you - step-by-step - build up the track you want and you / your kids are ready to launch that thing!
Next step is to download the .mp3 file so we have something to use / upload.
Track Creation - Artwork
We have our song, but we still need a cover / artwork right!? So for this we will use ChatGPT’s image creation.
Draw something / have your kid draw the album cover! We are going to take a photo of the drawing and upload the photo to ChatGPT and ask it to “please turn this drawing into a track cover for the latest single [insert song name]”. If you’re not so keen on drawing then just type in something like “please create me an image for a new track called [insert your track name] it should have [x,y,z] - whatever you want to appear.
Try this until you get what you want / are happy with and save this image. Make sure it is 3000 x 3000 pixels - you can ask ChatGPT to output in this size / format and it will be important at the distribution phase.
Track Preparation
Now we have our certified banger in digital form, along with a killer cover we need to get it uploaded to the platform we will use to send it [or distribute it] to the various music streaming services. There are loads of options out there, but the most straight forward one I have found is SoundCloud. You have options here - if you don’t want to distribute to the streamers, you can sign up for a free basic account, which will let you upload up to 2 hours of tracks to your SoundCloud artist profile, and you will be able to listen to and share those tracks with others using the SoundCloud app.
If you do want to release those tracks - and have you / your kid put their own music on whenever they like then opt for the Artist / Artist Pro account [currently £27/year or £75/year respectively]. Either way, get logged in on your profile, then it’s time to get the track up.
Navigate to your profile and hit the “Upload” button or visit this page while logged in.
Drag in the .mp3 we just finished creating and wait for it to process.
You will then need to fill in some details about the track, most importantly the Cover Image, Title and the Main Artist. this is the name you want / your kid wants to be known as, so think carefully!
Once your track is live and uploaded - CONGRATULATIONS! you can now point people to [https://soundcloud.com/YourArtistName] to listen to your latest hits!
Track Distribution [optional]
I know there’ve been a few steps. I’ll look to do a video at some point to condense these, but well done. You’ve just published your / your kid’s first track. Insane right?! who says you need to sign with a label? YOU ARE THE LABEL. Ok, more hype later, let’s get this on Spotify already.
Head to the distribution section of SoundCloud. This has a bit of a different feel to it and interface. It’s the “ForArtists” section where you can see the status of various parts of your account. You will have to do the boring things like register an account for the royalties [yeah we’re monetising these tracks for real! - currently sitting on a “pile”.. or £1.08] and other bits to prove you’re not a bot, etc. Follow the info here for more on that side. We will skip to the “Distribution” menu item from the left-hand side
You should see a “Distribute a track” option at the top right and then a wizard to guide you through the process.
Select a track to distribute. If you want to do a bunch at once and release a mixtape / EP / album just select all the tracks you wish to upload [you’ll have to do one at a time] and they will appear in the “Tracks” list.
You will notice the tracks have “Need Info” next to them, so go ahead and click “+ Add track info” to go into the info screen. You need to fill in all the required fields here, including the “Contributor Name” for Main Artist, Composer, etc. Use your real name for the composer as this is required to verify you are responsible for the track, and the Main Arist should be the pseudonym you / your kid created. You should also add “Udio” as a “Producer” or other as you should state that the track was made in collaboration with AI [per Udio terms and conditions]. What with the creative climate right now it’s best to be open about these things! Set the songwriter to “I wrote this song / I represent the writers” and fill in the rest of the items as appropriate, then “Save and Close”.
Details is the second step. You need the image we created earlier [this is why the 3000 x 3000 dimensions were important as any lower and the image will be rejected. Then you select a genre and the Record Label. THAT’S YOU YEAH! Let’s GO!!!
Partners - where you are distributing. There’re around 30 different platforms your track will be available on if you select them all. The more the merrier as you can share your music with the world!
Profile Mapping - for Apple and Spotify you can “create new” profiles. These will be the artist pages like this one that the track[s] will be linked to. Create a new one and just remember if you’re releasing more music to note down the artist for future tracks where you will be offered the matching profiles that share your artist’s name.
Split Pay - irrelevant, so skip to the Review.
Review - here shows if your track is ready to push for approval, check each section and when happy press “Submit”
Wait. SoundCloud will email you with any issues they find [like the wrong “content” selection or silly things like that] and if they find none they will email when the track has been released!
With any luck you won’t have any issues with the submission and within a few days [literally like 3 or 4] your music will land in all of the streaming services you selected in the “Partners” page.
Share loudly and proudly that your / your kid’s latest release is now available and can be streamed on all the major listening platforms!
So, whether killing time in school holidays or finally being able to co-create music using your vision, taste and computer keyboard - rather than the other kind - I hope this has been useful and/or interesting for you, and if nothing else, shows once again how the advance in AI tooling is help make things more accessible for all. Taking away barriers and offering anyone who has the time and curiosity the ability to be creative.
