Hearing Dreams

 

The music industry is evolving and unless artists take the task of doing everything themselves, expenses are high.

 

For Musicians to get their content out to listeners there’s costs from paying to having it master to writing. The creation of programs like SoundCloud and YouTube, both free music and video sharing platforms has made it easier for musicians to get their music heard but that doesn’t cover all platforms. The cost associated with putting a song or album on iTunes is steep for artists who must pay an upfront fee and give a 30 per cent of sales to Apple reported by Mashable.com.

 

Justin Stone is a 19 year-old rapper from Ohio and he is releasing his first album “Long Time Coming” on April 5th. Stone’s 13 song album took him nearly four months to prepare and he began working on it following his first headline show in December. He did it all while working a full time job. Stone said he hopes to be a voice for the unheard, for the ones that can’t speak for themselves.

 

“I’m not saying this is the album that helps me blow up at all. But I think this is the album that will start my come up,” said Stone. “I have a five year plan to get to where I want to be and I think with my drive and passion I will achieve it. But another goal for this album is I want to get 300,000 plays just from the songs on the album in a month or two.”

 

From the planning process to create the album, there are costs. From writing which Stone says takes two to six hours per song and recording takes another three hours.That means  time is the most important thing.

 

Ryan Oakes is a rapper from Virginia who is working on several albums and releasing music while touring and going to school. He describes the costs as being the hardest part to releasing an album.

 

“The hardest part of making an album is definitely getting the money,” said Oakes. “It costs  three to five grand, I’d say. And writing is the most underrated part of an album.”

 

While Stone absorbed most of the costs for his upcoming album by mixing and mastering it himself, he had friends who helped him out along the way and gave him beats to lower the costs.

 

Stone says he likes to write about exactly what he is feeling or thinking and writes about what he’s going through in his life. But when he writes music he has to be in his room alone or his car at night. Stone hopes to wow listeners with his style and ability to change his sound between songs, while also doing it all with clean lyrics.