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Stacks AI Studio / Independent Music Labels
AI for Independent Music Labels
"I feel behind on AI, and there is no chance I can catch up." If that is the sentence in your head, you are exactly who I work with. I am not selling software or theory-based advice. I run my own ten person managed services business on Claude, I know the value it adds every week, and now I help owners do the same inside independent music labels like yours: your team trained, jobs automated, hours saved. Saying yes to starting puts you ahead of many of your competitors.
Experience, Not Theory
That is our first four automations at Stacks, across a ten person team. We took on more clients, and gross margin went from 26% to 56% in twelve months. AI was not the only driver. It was the biggest one. It also set a new standard for what my team sends out: the same bar for research, formatting, and finish on everything that leaves the building, no shortcuts.
Casey Templeton, Founder of Stacks. Nashville.
"In one week I went from a two-hour session with Casey to a brand new marketing site and firing the marketing firm I'd used for two years. If Casey wants to work with you, don't be a dummy. Just do it."
The Week
Your Week. I Know It.
Five jobs nobody wants. This is the work an automation goes after first.
A street date lands with no one sheet. Somebody rebuilds it from the last release at midnight.
The editorial pitch is due before you are ready. The copy gets written the night before the window closes.
Metadata goes to the distributor in a rush. One bad ISRC or a missing credit sends the delivery back.
Every campaign timeline gets rebuilt from scratch. The steps live in one person's head and nowhere else.
Royalty statements land as a spreadsheet nobody reads. The artist asks what it means and waits a week.
Every release now lands in a much bigger crowd than it did five years ago.
Source: MIDiA Research, July 2026.
The First Step
Two Sessions. Two Hours Each.
For most independent music labels, this is the first step. Homework first, then two sessions, two hours each. In person if you are near Nashville, or over Zoom. $1,950.
For the math: one person at $25 an hour who gets two hours a week back is worth about $2,600 a year. If the first automation does that for one employee, it pays for itself with room to spare. And if after our first session you do not see a job worth automating, you pay nothing.
An automation is a repeated piece of work you teach Claude once. Your team runs it every day, you own it and tune it, and it carries the work to 80 percent so your people finish the 20 that needs their judgment.
"Casey taught me how to actually put AI to work. I generate quotes faster, my workflow is smoother, and I'm making more money because of it. One of the best investments I've made in my business."
01
Homework
Before we ever meet, you pull real examples of the work that eats your week: actual documents, actual messages, nothing cleaned up for me.
02
Session One
Two hours. We map how your label actually runs, get Claude set up for your team, and train you on how to operate it.
03
Session Two
Two hours. We start building your first automations and put together the training your team needs to run Claude every day.
04
What You Leave With
Claude running for your team, your people trained on it, and one job automated and in use.
Five Automations We Could Build In Your Label.
One page, no obligation. Proof of what we could build together, before we ever talk.
One email with the PDF. No newsletter, no drip campaign.
rise in global vinyl revenue in 2025.
Source: IFPI Global Music Report, March 2026.
Splits, licenses, and master rights live in signed agreements, so the data path is written down and you approve it first.
The Stack
Claude Sits In The Middle.
It works with the tools you already run. It reads from your distribution portal, your release calendar, and your royalty accounting, and writes back where it can.
Start with one connection, not all of them. The first automation usually needs one export from your distributor, and that is the whole first step. Once it earns its keep, the release calendar comes in, then the accounting. Every automation gets sharper as it goes, because Claude can finally see across the whole label instead of one screen at a time.
The Numbers
The Numbers Label Owners Are Seeing.
That feeling of being behind is not in your head. For independent music labels, most of what your catalog earns arrives as a statement from a service you do not control.
US small businesses using generative AI
Source: U.S. Chamber of Commerce, August 2025.
Of global music income is streaming
Source: IFPI Global Music Report, March 2026.
Questions
Questions, Answered.
I feel like I am already behind on AI. Is it too late?
No, and you are not as far behind as you think. The owners who feel furthest behind often move fastest once they start, because they have not spent a year on tools that did not stick. You do not need a strategy, a budget cycle, or a technical person on staff. You need four hours and one job that is costing you time every week. That is the whole first step.
Will this replace my staff?
No, and that is the whole design. An automation carries a job to 80 percent quickly and your employee takes the final 20 percent over the finish line. Efficiency goes up for everyone, the label grows without the headcount it used to need, margins grow with it, and your team spends its time on artists and relationships instead of retyping.
Will it work with the software we already run?
Usually, whether that is The Orchard, Symphonic, DistroKid, or Believe. Some systems give me an API, some give me a monthly export, and a few give me nothing but a screen to copy from. I tell you which one you have before I scope anything.
Does any of this make the music?
No. I do not make music, lyrics, vocals, or artwork. Generative audio is a different business and I am not in it. Every automation I build works on the paperwork and campaign admin around a finished record. The music stays the artist's, and the relationships stay yours.
Does an automation decide who we sign?
No. An automation never picks an artist. Signing is a judgment call about a person and a career, and it stays with you and your A and R. An automation does not negotiate a deal, set an advance, or split a song. Those are decisions a person makes and signs.
What happens to unreleased masters and our data?
You approve the data path before any automation runs. Most of these jobs run on metadata and text alone, so I do them that way. Unreleased audio does not have to move for a one sheet to get drafted. Your distributor stays the system of record.
How long before we see something working?
The first automation runs in weeks, not quarters. The two sessions scope it, I build it against a release already on your calendar, and your team uses it while I refine it. One automation in production beats five in a plan.
Who owns what you build?
You own the automations and the documentation. They live in your account, written in plain language, so your team can read them and change them. If you stop working with me, nothing walks out the door.
What if we get to the end and nothing is worth automating?
Then you pay nothing. If after our first session you do not see a job worth automating, the engagement ends there and there is no charge. The first session either surfaces a job worth the money or it does not, and that risk is mine, not yours.
Why $1,950?
Because the format is small on purpose. Homework, two working sessions of two hours each, and the setup work around them. For the math: one person at $25 an hour who gets two hours a week back is worth about $2,600 a year. If the first automation does that for one employee, it has paid for itself with room to spare. Every number in that sentence is yours to check.
Who You Will Be Working With
Casey Templeton.
Founder of Stacks, a ten person business in Nashville that runs on Claude. Both sessions are with him directly, and every message from this page lands in his inbox, not a queue.
Start Here
Start With A Conversation Between Two Small Business Owners.
Tell me about your label. I take on two or three of these engagements a month. Every message comes to me and I answer it myself. The first conversation costs nothing.
Book A 15 Minute Call"A fear of not understanding AI had kept me from diving in. Casey's coaching changed that. It opened my eyes to a sea of possibilities and left me more confident to explore. Come open-minded, and see where your imagination takes you."
I reply to every message. No newsletter, no drip campaign.