From the rehearsal room recording to streaming platforms

Back to Music – With AI and Old Recordings

In 1994, I shelved my vision of making money with music. Back then, our band was in the final round for Germany's Eurovision Song Contest selection—and it just wasn't meant to be. Afterward, I kept playing bass, sometimes in casual jams, sometimes in fixed band lineups.

In 2011, my last band, the Awesome Dudes, disbanded. Since then, I haven't started any new band projects. Instead, I sing as a tenor in a Berlin pop and jazz choir. Not a replacement for a band, but a nice hobby.

From Old Recordings to New Tools  

While exploring ever-evolving AI tools, an idea struck me: Invest a weekend to see how far AI can take you in music production today.  

I dug up old rehearsal room recordings of the Awesome Dudes and found ten songs with decent enough quality for an experiment. Anyone who loves alternative rock would find them timeless. My former bandmates had no objections—the experiment was on.  

Goal: Get the songs on streaming platforms.  
Secondary goal: Why stop at one album? There could be multiple.  

The Path to Streaming Platforms  

Direct access to platforms like Spotify is usually reserved for distributors. After some comparisons, I chose DistroKid, a provider Spotify officially recommends.  

During the first test run, however, DistroKid noted that the recordings still needed mastering. I researched mastering—and quickly realized I wouldn’t climb that learning curve in a weekend.  

Luckily, AI came to the rescue: Using the integrated tool Mixea, I had all ten songs mastered within 30 minutes.  

Upload Hurdles—and Lots of Paperwork  

Next came the upload. And yes, there were many form fields: song titles, contributors, copyright holders, label name, cover art—and an album title was needed too.  

I learned that cover songs are trickier. While DistroKid offers a solution via an extra fee, I opted for original compositions instead.  

Three hours later, everything was filled out. I had ISRC and UPC codes for all songs—the technical foundation for release. Since I set the release date for seven days later, there was still some time left... and nerves. Whether everything was correct would only become clear later.  

More Albums: AI Makes It Possible  

I used the time to tackle my secondary goal: more albums. I’d already experimented with suno.com. I conceptualized two new projects—a rock cover album and one in the style of Bossa Nova/Jazz.  

Beyond the eight songs from the first album, I found more ideas in the old rehearsal recordings worth pursuing. The creative process took a few hours, and the release process followed the same steps: mastering, creating covers, filling out forms, waiting.