Community Highlights: Meet Stuart Singleton of Cake Records

Today we’d like to introduce you to Stuart Singleton.

Hi Stuart, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I was born and raised in Nashville, TN, and always wanted to leave the city growing up. My whole life my parents told me that if I could find a job I love to do then I would never have to work a day in my life. It wasn’t until I was about 15 years old that I sat down and pondered what I could do every day and not get tired of it. I made a list of all of my interests at the time and went through all of them to see what I could not live without.

After a ton of thought, I realized that music was there for me every day no matter what mood I was in or what time it was. Living in Nashville and doing music was always the last thing I wanted to do because it was what my dad did, but when I realized that music was what I wanted to spend my time doing my whole perspective changed. Shortly after this I started recording people in my basement and began to discover why Nashville is such an incredible place to live for people in the music business.

After recording people in my basement and interning at some studios in town, I was able to start to develop skills as a sound engineer, but while I was interested in engineering it wasn’t the only aspect of the music industry that fascinated me. I wanted to start a record label and learn about every aspect of the music industry. So when I was a junior in high school I started a record label called Mattress House Music. While still in high school, I was researching bands all over the country that I thought had good songs, but not great recordings.

I would reach out to these artists, help them get better recordings, and promote their music. Now that I had a roster of artists I was working with, I knew they needed to start playing shows. When one of the artists told me they couldn’t get a show because they didn’t have enough ‘likes’ on Facebook, I thought well I can book a show for you. So I started organizing shows the summer after my junior year of high school. During this whole process, I also decided to skip my senior year of high school and go straight to Belmont.

Once I got to Belmont, everyone and their mother was starting a new band of some sort, and what do bands need? You guessed it, more shows. So as soon as I got to Belmont I started booking shows as often as possible. Sometimes I would have as many as three shows on the same day. During my time at Belmont, I worked with and met a lot of incredible artists, but after two years at Belmont, I got an opportunity to work for a small artist management company in town.

Through this opportunity, I was able to spend all my time working with artists and assisting in every aspect of promotional campaigns, including digital advertising and radio promotion. After working there for several months, I decided to take some time off to focus on what I really wanted to do in the music industry.

Once a year or so had gone by I got a message from Matt Royer over Instagram commenting on some food I had made and posted a story of. Matt and I started talking, realized we had a lot of similar interests, and decided to meet up. I came by Matt’s house and met Will Newman and Bryce Thwaits, and then reconnected with Nathan Fouts, who went to the same middle school and junior high as me.

Matt, Will, and Nathan had been working relentlessly to create a lot of new music over the past several years but didn’t have anyone specifically focused on the business side of things. After talking for a few weeks we all decided that the best way for all of us to work together was to start a label, and Cake Records was born.

While still working at Cake Records, I also took a job for a music administration company called Exploration. During my time at this job, I was able to learn more about royalties and every place to collect them from. I also learned a lot about why people are not getting paid for songs and how to fix any issues so you don’t miss out on a cent.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I don’t think anyone who has really made it as an entrepreneur ever says it is easy to get there.

I still don’t feel like I am there yet, but that’s part of the overall challenge of starting your own business. Every day has to be about progress and making things better. The music industry is in perpetual motion, and the process never stops. If you just released a new song, then you have to have another one in the pipeline.

If you just sold out the biggest venue in your hometown, then it’s on to the next city. In this business, you always have to have something on the horizon to compete at any level, and the competition that exists in the music industry alone means that you have to work harder AND smarter than everyone else to truly end up on top.

One of the main obstacles that every artist and entrepreneur faces at the beginning is funding. But whenever obstacles are presented, it means you have to get creative to find a way around them. This challenge forced us to find ways to create and promote music for a fraction of what it costs most labels and even independent artists.

No matter what challenge you are presented with the best advice I have is to just keep going.

We’ve been impressed with Cake Records, LLC, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Cake Records started as a more Hip-Hop focused label but has since then evolved to a plethora of genres and is now more than just a label.

For a while, we were just focused on making and promoting music for our own artists but have since then expanded to expand our focus to creating music for other artists and providing promotional resources for artists and other record labels. One of the strongest features that we have been able to develop for promotion is our comprehensive playlist database that features contacts for almost seven thousand playlist curators of all different genres.

We provide our promotional services to only select artists and select songs. The reason we only pick certain songs and artists to promote ensures that the music we share with curators is only of the highest quality. We are happy to review anyone’s track to see if we think we can help but don’t get discouraged if we don’t accept it.

The team at Cake Records now consists of Stuart Singleton, Matt Royer, Will Newman, and Bryce Thwaits.

Matt Royer started his musical career in high school. While attending some high school parties he was watching some freestyle ciphers break out through the night. Inspired he offered to record some of the group unknowing how invested he would become. After working with some local talent Matt was introduced to Ernest. A majority of his development as a producer came as his father (Robb Royer, a member of Bread and a successful songwriter) saw the potential in Ernest as well and took both of them under his wing.

After a year or so of working together, traveling to St. Thomas USVI, and making multiple songs everyone was ready to cement their own path. Ernest signed a publishing deal with Sony, beginning his path to stardom in Nashville. Royer, infatuated with hip hop, had started working with another local artist Nathan Fouts. Around this time Will Newman and Matt Royer teamed up to start a production team.

The group would go on to co-produce and release 2 albums as well as multiple singles amassing a few million plays collectively. Since the start of Cake Records, Royer and Newman have been actively producing and developing all types of artists, and most recently, “just_omalley” who coincidentally enough was part of that original group of rappers at the high school parties all those years ago.

Will Newman, is the predominant musical force behind Cake Records. Growing up playing music in the streets of Asheville, North Carolina (both in clubs and for festivals such as Goombay and Bele Chere) and studying songwriting and American Popular Music at the University of Miami Frost School of Music, Will’s multi-genre and multi-instrumental background provides an organic, original flavor to Cake Records’ music while remaining adaptable to any type of artist.

Bryce Thwaits grew up in Brentwood, Tennessee, and at a young age, he became interested in cameras & obsessed with YouTube. Once in high school, he joined a media class where he would make comedy sketches & host the school news. Eventually, he started shooting fellow students that made music which is where he struck up a passion for music videos & overall content for musicians.

After deciding college wasn’t for him, Bryce went on to be a production assistant for direct tv where he got a glimpse of what set life was like. After making over 30 music videos & countless studio shoots, Bryce continues to make content for Cake Records and other clients!

Cake Records has already released over 200 songs and more coming out this year than ever before. While Cake Records has been around for a few years now, they now have three different studios across Nashville that they make music out of. Feel free to check out some of our releases here and stay tuned this year for more great music.

Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
I learned that even if the world stops, people will continue to listen to music. Covid taught me that owning a catalog of music can help provide financial safety during an economic crisis.

The rate of return on investment for music catalogs had been able to outperform investments in some actively managed investment funds. I think this is one of the reasons we are seeing a recent increase in artists selling their music catalogs.

During the start of the pandemic, I was working at Exploration Group to help artists and songwriters find missing royalties and optimize the organization of their music catalogs. I saw this as a great way to help artists and songwriters when they needed it most.

There were a lot of people no longer able to perform, so even a slight boost in royalties can end up really helping. This taught me how important it is to ensure all your work is registered correctly.

Pricing:

• Our starting price for playlisting is $400.
• Mixing and Mastering Prices Available Upon Request.
• T-Shirts are Available for $25.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: thecakerecords.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/cakerecords
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thecakerecords
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/thecakerecords
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTc_RZOOtHGiUnx63YvpP_g
• SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/cake_records
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/user/bthm8wk6oe35pberya40zlmge?si=154f8202da6748ec

artist just_omalley
t shirts that we have for sale

our logo
Bryce Thwaits
Will Newman
Matt Royer

Image Credits
Bryce Thwaits, Stuart Singleton, Delaney Royer, Jordan Marcus, Will Newman, and Taylor Smith