Soundalikes are pieces of music that are meant to sound similar to more popular bands. The record should allow the listener a similar aesthetic and tone while still being unique. Music supervisors quite often are limited to small budgets and cannot afford sync licenses for the real band’s recording and song. For this reason, it is more realistic to utilize a sound-alike recording in the same style.

As a recording artist wanting to record sound-alikes, you want to take influence from the original band without infringing on their copyright. Firstly set your song at a similar speed. This ensures the overall attitude will remain. A few beats per minute difference would be fitting. Do to change the key signature. Note the song’s chord progression and arrangement. Ensure that you write a different progression whilst retaining the feel. Another key aspect is instrumentation. You will want to record instruments that are included on the referenced recording, aiming for tone and arrangement in their manner.

Lyrically, try to write words that convey the overall idea yet are unique enough to be considered a real song unto itself. If your singing style is not similar enough to the band’s you will want to collaborate with a session vocalist who can convincingly sing the intended genre. This factor is very important to convincing the audience.

Once you have recorded all of your tracks, the production also should be modeled after the recording artist. Find articles covering the artist’s production process in detail. The music producer usually covers what gear was used and how they approached processing specific tracks. If you have a decent project studio, you should be able to complete the recording at home. However, sometimes hiring a mixing engineer to fine tune the record will make your song to sound its best. No matter where you decide to mix the track it is wise to have the production mastered by a dedicated mastering engineer. Send both the original song and your version so the engineer can model something very similar in comparison.

Now that you have perfected your sound-alike creation process, your songs can start to be picked up by music publishers. If the songs are good enough and fit the right situation, the music can be a great source of income via sync licensing and back-end public performance royalties.