You don't need a studio. You don't need a camera. You don't need to show your face, play an instrument, or record a single note yourself. With three tools and a weekend, you can create a full album, put it on every streaming platform, and launch a faceless YouTube channel to promote it.
Here's exactly how to do it.
What You Need
The whole stack is three tools:
- Suno — AI music generation. You describe what you want, it creates full songs with vocals, instruments, and production. This is your recording studio.
- Google Flow — AI video generation by Google DeepMind. You feed it a prompt and it creates cinematic visuals. This is your music video crew.
- DistroKid — Music distribution. Upload your album and it goes live on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Amazon, Tidal, and 150+ other platforms. This is your record label.
Total cost to get started: Suno has a free tier, Google Flow is free during its current rollout, and DistroKid runs about $22/year for unlimited uploads.
Step 1: Create Your Artist Identity
Before you make anything, decide on a brand. This is your faceless identity — the name, the vibe, the genre.
Pick these things first:
- Artist name (something memorable, easy to search)
- Genre or niche (lo-fi, synthwave, ambient, chill hip-hop, cinematic — pick one to start)
- Visual style (dark and moody? bright and dreamy? retro? futuristic?)
Consistency matters more than perfection. People follow artists and channels that have a recognizable feel. Pick a lane and stay in it, at least for your first album.
Step 2: Plan Your Album
An album isn't just a pile of random songs. It needs a concept, even a loose one. This is what separates a real release from a collection of demos.
Album structure that works:
- 8-12 tracks — enough to feel substantial, not so many that quality drops
- A theme or mood arc — pick a thread that connects the tracks (a time of day, a season, a feeling, a place)
- An opener and a closer — the first track sets the tone, the last one resolves it
- 1-2 singles — identify which tracks are the strongest and release them first to build momentum
Example album concept:
Album: "3 AM in Montreal"
Artist: Midnight Waves
Genre: Lo-fi ambient
Theme: A sleepless night in the city, from dusk to dawn
1. Golden Hour Fades — warm pads, soft piano, 82 bpm (opener)
2. St-Laurent After Dark — muted drums, vinyl crackle, 78 bpm
3. Rain on the Window — Rhodes piano, gentle rain, 75 bpm (single)
4. Empty Metro — ambient echoes, distant train, 70 bpm
5. 2 AM Coffee — jazz piano, upright bass, 80 bpm
6. Neon Puddles — synth pads, slow beat, 76 bpm
7. The Quiet Part — solo piano, no drums, 72 bpm
8. Snowfall on Sherbrooke — orchestral pads, celeste, 68 bpm (single)
9. Almost Morning — rising energy, brighter tones, 84 bpm
10. First Light — warm resolution, sunrise feel, 80 bpm (closer)Write this out before you open Suno. Knowing what you're building makes every decision faster.
Step 3: Generate the Tracks with Suno
Go to Suno and start creating. You have two approaches:
Simple mode: Describe what you want in plain English. Something like "a chill lo-fi beat with soft piano and vinyl crackle, 90 bpm, 3 minutes" and Suno generates the full track.
Custom mode: Write your own lyrics, specify the style, set the mood. For instrumental albums, type "[Instrumental]" in the lyrics field. This gives you more control and makes each track feel more intentional.
Tips for album-quality results:
- Be specific about instruments, tempo, and mood for each track
- Generate 3-4 versions of each track and pick the best one
- Extend tracks that are too short — Suno lets you continue generating from where a song left off
- Aim for 2:30-4:00 per track — long enough to feel complete, short enough to hold attention
- Download the stems if you want to do any editing or mixing yourself
- Listen to the album in order once you have all tracks — check that the flow feels right
Batch-create in sessions. Sit down and generate all 10 tracks in one afternoon. You'll throw away some versions, keep others. The ones that hit — those make the album.
Step 4: Create Visuals with Google Flow
This is where the YouTube channel comes in. Every track on your album gets a music video — all generated with AI.
Google Flow generates video from text prompts. No footage needed, no editing software, no stock video subscriptions.
What works well for music visuals:
- Slow atmospheric shots — cityscapes at night, rain on windows, forests in fog
- Abstract motion — flowing colors, particles, geometric patterns
- Character-driven scenes — a silhouette walking through neon streets, someone sitting by a window
- Nature loops — ocean waves, clouds moving, aurora borealis
Prompt example:
Cinematic slow-motion shot of rain falling on a neon-lit Montreal street at night. No people. Reflections on wet pavement. Moody, atmospheric. 4K quality.Match each video's mood to its track. Your album has an arc — your visuals should follow it. Early tracks get darker, moodier visuals. Later tracks get warmer, brighter ones.
Step 5: Combine Audio + Video
Open any video editor — CapCut, DaVinci Resolve (free), or iMovie. Drop in your Google Flow visuals and your Suno audio track. Line them up.
Keep it simple:
- Add your artist name and track title as minimal text overlay
- Use cross-dissolve transitions between clips
- Match visual transitions to the music's natural breaks
- Export at 1080p or 4K for YouTube
Do this for every track on the album. You'll also want to create one long "full album" video that plays all tracks back-to-back — these perform extremely well on YouTube for ambient and lo-fi genres.
Step 6: Create Your Cover Art
Every album needs cover art. Every single needs its own cover too. You need two types:
- Album cover — 3000x3000 pixels, this is what shows up on Spotify, Apple Music, and everywhere else
- Single covers — same size, one for each single you release ahead of the album
Use any AI image generator — Midjourney, DALL-E, Google Imagen, or even Canva's AI tools. Keep the visual style consistent with your channel's identity. A simple approach: use the same layout and color palette, just swap the imagery for each release.
Step 7: Distribute with DistroKid
DistroKid is how your album gets on every streaming platform. Sign up, pick the musician plan, and start uploading.
Release strategy for an album:
- Week 1-2: Release your first single. This builds anticipation and gets your artist profile live on streaming platforms.
- Week 3-4: Release your second single. Now you have two tracks out and people can start following you.
- Week 5: Drop the full album. All 10 tracks go live at once. The two singles are already on there — DistroKid handles this cleanly.
For each release, you'll need:
- The audio files (WAV or high-quality MP3)
- Cover art (3000x3000)
- Track titles, artist name, genre, album name
- Release date (schedule 2-3 weeks ahead for Spotify editorial playlist consideration)
DistroKid pushes your album to Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Tidal, Deezer, and 150+ other platforms. It usually goes live within 1-3 days, but schedule ahead for best results.
Step 8: Build the Channel
Your YouTube channel is the visual home for your music. Upload each track as its own music video, plus the full album video.
Channel setup:
- Use your artist name as the channel name
- Your album cover works as the channel banner
- Create a playlist for each album
- Upload all music videos + the full album video
Growth tactics that work for faceless channels:
- Use YouTube Shorts — clip 30-60 second highlights from your videos
- Create playlists on Spotify around your genre/mood
- Cross-post clips to TikTok and Instagram Reels
- Engage with other creators in your niche
- Submit to Spotify editorial playlists through DistroKid
Then start planning your second album. The artists who win in streaming are the ones who keep releasing.
Revenue Streams
A faceless artist with an album out can earn from multiple angles:
- Spotify/Apple Music streams — small per-stream payouts add up with volume and multiple albums
- YouTube ad revenue — once you hit 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours
- YouTube Music — additional streaming revenue from your distributed tracks
- Sync licensing — content creators may want to use your music in their videos
- Catalog value — every album you release is a permanent asset that keeps earning
Nobody gets rich from their first album. But three albums across all platforms with consistent visuals and a clear niche? That starts compounding. Each new release drives listens to your back catalog.
The Whole Workflow in One Glance
- Pick your artist name, genre, and visual style
- Plan your album — theme, track list, mood arc
- Generate all tracks with Suno (batch in one session)
- Generate matching visuals with Google Flow
- Combine audio + video in a simple editor
- Create cover art for the album and singles
- Release singles first, then the full album via DistroKid
- Upload all music videos to YouTube
- Promote with Shorts, Reels, and playlists
- Start planning album two
Three tools, no face, no camera, no mic, no studio. You're a recording artist now.
Next up: In Part II, I show you how to automate the YouTube upload step with a simple Python script — so you never have to touch YouTube Studio again.