To release or to not release? THAT is the question.

Pretending to know the who, what, when, where and why of music distribution

Show Alert 🚨:

On July 23, I’m playing a writer’s round with a few other artists and a live band in Nashville at Living Waters in East.

7pm.

FREEEEEEE.

You should come :)

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Both the blessing and curse of life is that perhaps there’s no real right way to do most things. Some things can be argued as the right way to do them because they make the most sense or they offer the cheapest or fastest or most valuable or most productive outcome. Other things, like releasing music as an independent artist, are much less clear. I want so badly to have the perfect plan.

Moving forward in any decision comes with its own set of pros and cons. I could release all of my music now and tour it and give the public access to all Lunalay has available to her name, but that might not be the best way forward. I’m not trying to play a numbers game but I want to treat this investment (my music) like a real investment. I want to be smart, careful, and calculated.

In the midst of trying to figure out the right route forward with music distribution, I’ve had the chance to talk to a lot of people who are way smarter than me and way more experienced. And just about everyone says that it’s all about the content and for a social media despising mongrel like myself, THAT makes me want to run and hide and throw in the towel. It also makes me want to be very curious with myself and the ways I might be able to use social media authentically, if that’s even possible.

It’s been over a month since I’ve written any sort of update and that comes in the midst of a series of hard weeks. I usually do a better job of moderating my news media consumption but as Hank Green would say, I ate one Dorito, and then another, and then another, and then pretty soon I realized I’d only been eating Doritos for days and I wasn’t feeling very well and my mind and stomach were both a wreck and I was paying the price. Click bait Doritos and real Doritos might be my kryptonite.

June brought about personal challenges accompanied by hard feelings. That emotional dissonance can lead me to places where I create beautiful things, and then often times it doesn’t. That sadness often leads me down a Costco-sized bag of nacho cheese Doritos and a lot of complacency.

All to say, I’ve been distracted these past few weeks but I’m trying to make the best right decision for me and choosing a way to distribute my music that is feasible and authentic and enjoyable and not totally soul sucking. And I’m figuring it out. I’ve got masters in my inbox. I’m having conversations. I’m playing shows. I’m trying.

Thank you for your patience. Thank you for your belief. Thank you for your questions about releasing my music. Thank you for being here with me in the journey.

And thank you for taking the good with the bad. You didn’t ask for my existential musings or dumb attempts at trying to explain my internal crisis. But getting to share this part of myself with you matters to me too.

If you’re in Nashville, I’d love to see you in a few weeks at Living Waters.

— Layla