A commissioned song moves through six stages, and every one of them ends with something you can read or hear. Nothing is started until the stage before it is agreed, which is what keeps a commission predictable from the client's side of the desk. This page describes that path in the order it happens.
One — the brief
Everything begins with what the song must do. A brief does not need musical vocabulary; it needs honesty about the occasion, the audience and the feeling. Who will hear this? Where will it play? Is it a private gift, a public campaign, a background bed under a voice, or a song that has to survive being sung live? We also ask for practical boundaries: an approximate length, any words that must appear, any words that must never appear, and the deadline the song has to meet. From all of that we write a single-paragraph summary of the song we intend to make and send it back for you to correct. This is the cheapest moment to change direction, so it is the moment we slow down.
Two — the direction note
The brief becomes a direction note: a tempo, a key, a feel, a list of instruments, and a map of the song's sections. If you gave us a reference track, we describe what we are borrowing from it — the pace, the mood, the density of the arrangement — and what we are deliberately leaving out so the result is yours rather than a copy. You approve the note, and only then does writing begin.
Three — the melody and the topline
The melody comes first because everything else answers to it. We write a tune that can be sung or hummed with nothing behind it, and we record it plainly so you can judge the tune itself rather than the production around it. If the song will have lyrics, the words are drafted here in parallel, because the shape of a line and the shape of a tune have to agree. Where a vocalist is involved, this is the stage that defines what they will sing.
Four — the arrangement
With the melody agreed, we build the arrangement: the chords underneath, the instruments that enter and leave, the rhythm section, and the way the song grows or pulls back. An arrangement is a set of decisions about energy. A chorus only lifts if the verse before it left room, and a final section only lands if the one before it did not already spend everything. We share a rough arrangement before recording it properly, so the structure is settled while changes are still cheap.
Five — recording and the vocal
Once the structure is fixed, the parts are recorded properly. The rhythm is laid down first because everything else locks to it; then the harmonic instruments; then the voice, which is recorded last because it has to sit on top of a finished bed. If you are supplying the voice, this is where we send you the track and the guide, and where we work with your takes. If we are supplying the voice, a session singer records the topline and we keep the best pass rather than the first one.
Six — the mix and delivery
The final stage balances everything so the song survives on a phone speaker and in a car and on a pair of studio headphones. We check the mix on more than one system on purpose, because a balance that only works in one room is not a balance. Then the song is delivered as a bundle: the full mix, an instrumental version, and the separated elements we can practically provide. Each file is described in writing. If you intend to publish the song, read licensing and ownership first — it tells you exactly what the delivery permits before you use it.
How long it takes
A focused single song with a vocal typically takes two to four weeks from an agreed direction note, depending on how many rounds of revision the melody needs and whether a session singer has to be scheduled. An instrumental bed for a video can be much faster, sometimes inside a week, because it skips the lyric and vocal stages. The schedule is agreed before we start and we tell you immediately if anything threatens it.
Where revisions fit
Revisions are built into the process rather than bolted on at the end. Because you hear the melody before the arrangement and the arrangement before the mix, most adjustments happen where they cost the least. The services page sets out how many rounds each kind of commission includes, and the questions page answers what happens if the song still needs work after delivery. To begin, send a brief through the commission request form.