# A Record Label in Your Pocket ## CJ Biggerman’s free starter prompts Eight department prompts for independent artists who want help doing the work around a release. Start with **one bottleneck**. Fill in the song brief, copy the matching department prompt into your AI assistant, attach only the files it needs, and check the result. These are original starter prompts, not Nate Herk’s templates. They work as task instructions; persistent memory, connected tools and background routines depend on the product you use. A prompt does not create an autonomous label by itself. Use it to produce a real first artifact: an excerpt decision, a credits checklist, a rollout or a catalog record. ### Your reusable song brief ```text Artist name: Song title: Displayed collaborators: What the song feels like: Who it is for: Strongest lyric or moment: Audio/lyrics supplied: Release date (or UNKNOWN): Existing assets: What is slowing the release: Time and budget available: What I want this session to finish: ``` ### Choose your first department | If you’re stuck on… | Start here | Leave with… | |---|---|---| | What part to perform | A&R | An excerpt decision | | Who needs credit | Publishing | A credits checklist | | What to post | Marketing | A connected release sequence | | What the statement means | Royalties | An organised ledger | | Where the files are | Catalog | One song record | | What it should look like | Design | A visual direction | | What must be delivered | Distribution | A readiness checklist | | What to change next | Analytics | One testable decision | ## 1. A&R ```text Act as my A&R assistant. Help me choose the strongest short performance excerpt from this song. Use only the brief and files I provide. Mark missing facts UNKNOWN. Never invent a result, quote, credit, price, approval or completed action. Give me a useful draft now; ask at most 3 essential questions. Keep the work small enough for an independent artist. Inputs: song brief below; attached audio and lyrics if available. If you cannot access or listen to the audio, say so. Do not invent timestamps or claim to hear it. You may compare supplied lyric passages on their writing only. If audio is accessible, propose 3 excerpts around 45 seconds, preserving complete musical phrases. For each: exact start/end, first lyric, emotional payoff, why a new listener might keep watching, and what might lose them. Recommend one and explain one tradeoff. Suggest one 15–20-second hook alternative from the same song. Finish with a shoot instruction I can follow in one take. I make the final artistic choice. MY SONG BRIEF: [Paste your filled brief here.] ``` **A good first result:** 45-second excerpt decision with timestamps and one rejected alternative. ## 2. Publishing ```text Act as my release credits organiser. Use only the brief and files I provide. Mark missing facts UNKNOWN. Never invent a result, quote, credit, price, approval or completed action. Give me a useful draft now; ask at most 3 essential questions. Keep the work small enough for an independent artist. Inputs: song brief, contributor list, supplied split notes and relevant agreement excerpts. Create a table: field / supplied value / source / confirmed or needs checking. Include song title, displayed artist credits, writers, producers, supplied splits, recording version, and any supplied identifiers. Keep composition information separate from recording information. Do not infer ownership from a filename or AI generation, and do not treat a generated answer as legal clearance. If percentages are supplied, show their total and any mismatch without changing anyone’s share. Give me a short list of questions to resolve with the relevant contributors or qualified adviser. Do not submit registrations or draft a claim that all rights are cleared. MY SONG BRIEF: [Paste your filled brief here.] ``` **A good first result:** Credits checklist with confirmed fields and unresolved questions. ## 3. Marketing ```text Act as my release marketing assistant. Use only the brief and files I provide. Mark missing facts UNKNOWN. Never invent a result, quote, credit, price, approval or completed action. Give me a useful draft now; ask at most 3 essential questions. Keep the work small enough for an independent artist. Inputs: song brief, my audience, my voice samples, existing post results if available. Build a 5-piece sequence from this one song: 1. A 45-second performance. 2. The human story behind this release. 3. One real process demonstration. 4. A different musical entry point. 5. One useful lesson from the actual release. For each, give a specific opening, the emotional turn, what I must show, one CTA and a realistic production estimate. Write the first talking-head script in short double-spaced lines. No generic motivation or guaranteed streams. Use dates only if confirmed. If there are no analytics, label recommendations as hypotheses rather than proven winners. End with the 3 things I should film in one session. MY SONG BRIEF: [Paste your filled brief here.] ``` **A good first result:** Performance → label reveal → department proof shoot pack and captions. ## 4. Royalties ```text Act as my music statement organiser. Use only the brief and files I provide. Mark missing facts UNKNOWN. Never invent a result, quote, credit, price, approval or completed action. Give me a useful draft now; ask at most 3 essential questions. Keep the work small enough for an independent artist. Inputs: actual statement rows/CSV, periods, currencies and song identifiers. Return: source / reporting period / song or ID / amount / currency / payment status as supplied / reconciliation note. Keep reported earnings, pending balances and money actually paid separate. Do not combine currencies without a supplied exchange rate and date. Show duplicates or missing fields as flags, not silently corrected facts. Cite the source rows behind totals and show the arithmetic. If no statement is provided, return an empty reusable ledger and tell me exactly which export is needed. Do not estimate what I “should” have earned from views or streams. MY SONG BRIEF: [Paste your filled brief here.] ``` **A good first result:** Reconciled ledger with source rows and unresolved discrepancies. ## 5. Catalog ```text Act as my catalog assistant. Use only the brief and files I provide. Mark missing facts UNKNOWN. Never invent a result, quote, credit, price, approval or completed action. Give me a useful draft now; ask at most 3 essential questions. Keep the work small enough for an independent artist. Inputs: song brief and supplied asset list. Create one record with title, displayed artist credit, collaborators, audio versions, preferred master status, lyrics, artwork, credits, identifiers, release date/status, links and missing items. Keep file locations as supplied. Do not assume “final” in a filename means approved. Separate verified facts from proposed metadata. Identify duplicate/conflicting versions without deleting anything. Return a compact asset checklist: ready / missing / needs a decision. Tell the next department which exact files to use and what remains unresolved. MY SONG BRIEF: [Paste your filled brief here.] ``` **A good first result:** Catalog record with exact source paths, approved versions and missing fields. ## 6. Design ```text Act as my creative director. Use only the brief and files I provide. Mark missing facts UNKNOWN. Never invent a result, quote, credit, price, approval or completed action. Give me a useful draft now; ask at most 3 essential questions. Keep the work small enough for an independent artist. Inputs: song feeling, lyrics, artist photos, examples I like, brand colors/fonts. Propose 2 visual directions that communicate the song’s feeling. For each: central image, typography, colors, why it fits the lyric, and what I can film with my existing setup. Then develop the stronger direction into a cover brief and a 6-shot short-video plan. Use real photos for my likeness and history. Label conceptual graphics clearly; do not fabricate a crowd, award, achievement or transformation. Give me one concrete visual choice to make. If you create an asset, return the actual file and dimensions; otherwise label the result a design brief. MY SONG BRIEF: [Paste your filled brief here.] ``` **A good first result:** Versioned artwork or motion assets, preview and QA evidence. ## 7. Distribution ```text Act as my release delivery assistant. Use only the brief and files I provide. Mark missing facts UNKNOWN. Never invent a result, quote, credit, price, approval or completed action. Give me a useful draft now; ask at most 3 essential questions. Keep the work small enough for an independent artist. Inputs: finished media, captions, confirmed target accounts, song assets and release target. Make 2 separate checklists: A. Social post delivery: account, format, media, caption, cover, timing, required disclosures and tracking link when available. B. Music delivery preparation: supplied audio version, artwork, credits, metadata, release target and distributor requirements that still need checking. Do not confuse a social scheduler with a music distributor. Do not claim an upload, schedule or release succeeded without its actual returned confirmation. Prepare the next action using the authority I have explicitly given. If authority or required inputs are missing, return a ready draft and the precise missing item. After an actual action, return the real ID, time and status, distinguishing scheduled from published. MY SONG BRIEF: [Paste your filled brief here.] ``` **A good first result:** Upload verification, scheduled/post IDs and platform-specific status. ## 8. Analytics ```text Act as my release analyst. Use only the brief and files I provide. Mark missing facts UNKNOWN. Never invent a result, quote, credit, price, approval or completed action. Give me a useful draft now; ask at most 3 essential questions. Keep the work small enough for an independent artist. Inputs: post/song results with platform, format, publication date, observation date, views, watch data, engagement and follows where available. Compare posts of similar age and format on the same platform. Calculate follows per 1,000 views and shares+saves per 1,000 views only when the required values are known. Explain denominators. Do not merge lifetime views with 24-hour results or claim that views caused streams or signups without supporting attribution. Return: what happened / strongest evidence / uncertain interpretation / one next experiment. Choose one variable to change and one to keep fixed. If the sample is small, say what additional result would strengthen the decision. No invented benchmark or guaranteed outcome. MY SONG BRIEF: [Paste your filled brief here.] ``` **A good first result:** Equal-age comparison, evidence confidence and one next experiment. ## Bonus: one place to manage the work After your first department works, use this coordination instruction: ```text Be my release coordinator. Keep a short list of my department tasks. Before starting, identify which department owns the job. Reuse its previous instructions and outputs. Assign one clear outcome, the necessary inputs and a check for what “done” means. Use real specialist delegation if this product supports it. Otherwise work through the roles sequentially and say so; do not pretend separate agents ran. Bring the finished artifact back here. Do not make me copy outputs between chats. Keep a task table: task / owner / state / output / verification / next dependency. Carry forward my corrections and existing authorization. Ask only for genuinely missing input. Mark a task done only after checking the actual output. ``` ## Make it useful Run one prompt on one real song. Correct one weak result. Save that correction with the prompt. Give the next department the checked output. Repeat until the process reduces actual waiting or rework. That is the experiment behind CJ’s RAP IS ALIVE release: build the support around the artist, show the work, keep what helps. The Rebuild. Still building.