Muni Long: The R&B hitmaker dishes on how expensive it is to become a hit-making artist with Apple Music 1

R&B hitmaker Muni Long has plenty to talk about these days. From putting out fire tunes to exploring the world with her signature sound, the crooner kicks back and lets loose with Apple Music 1’s Nadeska to geek out about her state of mind and a flurry of industry topics.

Muni Long connects with Apple Music 1’s Nadeska to dish on the biz

From her personal influences growing up in the Sunshine State to the cost of being an active artist, there’s no holding back for Muni in this Q&A. Check out some of the interview highlights and keep scrolling for the video interview.

Muni Long tells Apple Music about how her identity has shifted over the past few years

Nadeska: It just led me to wonder how much your identity has shifted over the past few years. Not the person that we see, but as you see yourself in this transition from starting as a solo artist, being a songwriter for so long, and now just really being on the brink of superstar level, that's how good the talent is.

Muni Long: Oh, thank you. Thank you, omega. Don't make me cry now. It's funny. I started on YouTube when YouTube was just starting 2004. It was actually called YouTube beta, and they only had two options. They had the homepage and they had your page. All the stuff that they have now did not exist. And going viral before that was even a word. I was just being my silly 15, 16, 17-year-old self. And oddly enough, I go to LA and I become a professional and you get caught up in this. And it's funny, nobody ever tells you to do it, but you get caught up in this idea of what you think an artist is supposed to be, right? It is all guesswork and you kind of learn through osmosis. You are like, oh, that's what you do when you go to a party. Okay, you got to have shades and you got to not make eye contact. You have to be rude. You have to, oh, you can't sit with us very much. Just silly. And that's what I did for a while. It didn't really fit on me. I did a lot of drugs when I first moved to la, just like trying to compensate. I was uncomfortable, I was sad, I was lonely. And a lot of people go through that. I was homeless at one point, not for very long, but just sleeping in my car a couple nights, get a hotel sleep on a couch, which is actually normal behaviour when you're first starting out in la. And then when I finished trying to fit in, I did that for about two years and I was like, I going to studio sessions, five sessions a day, writing two songs in every session. I went through this whole phase of like, oh my God, I was signed to Capital Records at the time. My label wasn't paying attention to me. I'm going to get dropped. I don't want to go back to the country. What am I going to do? I started writing songs for other people, all of that just to finally come back this year. And I'm just like, you know what? I've done this before multiple times. I don't need anybody to tell me what to do. I just need to be myself. Let me forget about all this stuff, all the industry standards, and you got to be this way and you got to do this and you have to. No, I got to do what I feel like doing when I feel like doing it. If I don't want to do it, I'm not going to do it. And it is just very simple. If it's not making me happy, it's not a trick question. Pick something else. And I don't know why it took me so long to get back there. It's just the industry, man. There's just so much weight.

Muni Long tells Apple Music what she listened to while growing up 

Nadeska: Was that your foundation just growing up in Florida? Is it what you listened to at home and fell in love with a lot of country music?

Muni Long: My uncle is a black cowboy, so he used to force us to watch CMT. We used to be in there like, oh my God, can we learn on DRL please? So yeah, I know a lot of country songs, a lot of old standards. But honestly I think most of it comes from just being able to accompany myself on guitar and the kind of songs that come out because r and b chords are hard to play, so it is easier to write country. So I think that might be where it came from.

Nadeska: Okay. So that was the root of it. And then at which point did you feel comfortable transitioning into r&b?

Muni Long: I just thought about something that I hadn't done before. And also too, I love RB music and grew up listening. When I had a choice of what I could listen to, I was obsessed with Aaliyah, Janet, Whitney, Mariah Jodeci, genuine, and Casey and Jojo, Beyonce, Destiny's trial, TLC. Then I used to just be glued to the TV watching music videos and back when RB music was pop. So I kind of grew up saturated in all these cool females running it. It wasn't just here and there and she's like, no, they were dictating the style, the hair, the makeup, what we were talking about, the sounds. It was a time in the early 2000s, late 90s.” 

Muni Long tells Apple Music about her writing process 

I did study a lot before or even becoming a writer. I also been writing since I was eight years old. I wrote my first song at eight. I didn't know that that's what it was called. And I used to have this little composition notebook and I would just write my ideas. And I was also very interested in writing in school. So I took creative writing classes. I learned about an A and a B rhyme. I ammeter Shakespeare took a lot of English lit classes. And so just like the shape, what it's supposed to look like on the page, I was always very obsessed with that. Even now. So when I turn in my lyric sheets, it won't just be, you know what I hate when they have the lyrics and there's a slash and no, don't do that. You write it so that when the person is reading it, they know where the end of the phrase is and they can say it with a rhythm. And so it was kind of natural for me learning how to write. But then there are specific styles of songwriting and as a writer you also need to be a good arranger. And I think that is missing in a lot of contemporary music where they're only doing a one take vocal. They're not stacking, they're not putting any accents. There's no backgrounds taking us from the hook to the chorus. There's no lift, there's nothing. It's just this. So I think sometimes a lot of people are really pulled into my music, for example, was made for me. The backgrounds on that, the ad libs, it's a part of the song. It's like nobody, nobody. Yeah, it is just pulling your attention. We call it ear candy. And so studying backgrounds that Brandy is a master at that her Full Moon album. I was obsessed. That's great. Oh my god, I wore it out until it was skipping. I know every song word for word. Also, another great album was Confessions. Usher studied that one. Destiny Fulfilled is another one. Unpredictable. Jamie Foxx was another one. That one, the background's on that Amazing Mary j Blige, the Breakthrough was another one. And so you'll hear a lot of things in my music that remind you of that calibre of music. I also have an amazing vocal producer where I can vocal produce myself. And a lot of the stuff on public displays of affection, I did myself for the most part when I wrote songs for other people, I vocal produce them. But there's something about the chemistry that me and Cook have his ear because sometimes I will overdo it. And so he knows how to put just the right amount and he encourages my weirdness where my little ad lib and all the silly shit that I do, he was like, no, I like that. We love that again. So he pulls out my character, like the personality where I was like, I might want something to be perfect. I'll be like, lemme go again. He's like, Nope, that was the one. Are you sure? Or you can get it, but it's not better than the last one. So we just have a really good language, almost unspoken. We don't have to talk. I'll do something and he'll just do a signal. And I was just like, okay, I just know what it means or he don't have to say anything. I could just see what he's doing on the computer and I just know he didn't like that take. We going to do it again. So we have a chemistry and I think it really shows on my vocals.

Muni Long tells Apple Music how her autism diagnosis impacted her

Nadeska: I hope this is not a part of yourself that you've felt like you needed to keep from people. You mentioned that last year when you got diagnosed with autism, part of it is you suppressing parts of your true and authentic self. Because you said it, you felt like it made people feel uncomfortable. Do you feel like you're kind of past some of those things now?

Muni Long: No. I make people uncomfortable and I could tell. 

Nadeska: Don't feel uncomfortable.

Muni Long: I think I'll say people who are unsure of themselves, I make them uncomfortable.

Nadeska: I thought you were just going to call me weird or

Muni Long: Something like you're a

Nadeska: Weirdo too.

Muni Long: Okay. No, people who know who they are, they tend to be fine. But I make people uncomfortable very frequently and I can tell. And so sometimes just toxic trash, I get disinterested very quick if I can tell that you are being performative or that you are. I also know that I have a very magnetic energy. So if you know anything about magnets, the stronger magnet always wins. And I don't like that. It's very boring. So if I'm talking to you and I can tell that I've pulled you over into my energy, I lose interest. So that's another, that's why I don't like going outside. I just be like, oh God, you're so boring, girl.

Muni Long tells Apple Music about the financial cost of being an artist

Muni Long: A lot of people tried to tell me for many, many years, why do you feel like you need me to help you put out your record? Why don't you just do it? There's nothing stopping you. I'd be like, but no, I just need you to give me a chance. And why don't you just go in the studio? Well, and the answer is because you know where you want to go, but you don't know how to get there. I didn't realize there were so many steps from the desire to the actual manifestation of the product. So I have to go in the studio. I got a book studio time, and you may not get a song the first session. So now I got to keep doing that and that's money. And then I have to hire an engineer, and that's money. And I got to feed everybody. That's money. And then when I make the song, I have to finish it. That's money. It's more studio sessions. Now I've brought in another producer. Now I got to pay that producer, pay this producer. We got to negotiate. So now that's lawyers, that's money. And now I got to mix it. That's money per song. Now that's 14 songs on this album. The last album was 19. So let's say, and I posted something like this on my page and people argue with me about it. So studios typically for a 12 hour block is 1200 bucks. And then this session engineer is 75 to 100 an hour. So just add that up. Say you do seven sessions a week, that's $10,000 just on sessions. And then mixing anywhere from 2,500 to 10,000 a track. That's 19 tracks. So that's a hundred thousand dollars. Just rounding it. Your — 

Nadeska: Math is impeccable

Muni Long: By the way. Just rounding it. Okay. That's horrible math. No, just think about that. So now you already at 120 and now you got to pay for the beats. So they're anywhere from 5,000 to 40,000 a track depending on who you're working with. And sometimes there's multiple producers. So you got to pay this fee, this fee, this fee, this fee times 14. So 400,000 at the top. So let's just say two 50 plus one 20. Now you're already at 300,000. That eliminates 75% of the people who are aspiring. I didn't realise how much money that it takes to actually be an artist. This is before you market. This is before you shoot a video. This is before you do an appearance. And now also I'm a female.

Muni Long tells Apple Music about the type of artists she wants to sign

Nadeska: Well, it's, it's good that you now have this bird's eye view. Also being an artist and a businesswoman owning your own label. You are officially a business now to another level. And do you feel like it's, in some ways, although you've had so many challenges and a lot of things I'm sure you would like to erase that you didn't need to go through as a person or as an artist. Are there any benefits to your success being gradual over the years and now being at a point where your star is really blowing up?

Muni Long: Oh yes. I wish I had a time machine. There was a lot of things that I wish I could skip. A lot of people, I ran into a lot of people who identified me as something, she's going to be something. And those were just barriers to my success. Because one thing that I learned, and when I do finally, I have a producer that's assigned to me and slowly I'm looking at other people. I don't ever want to sign anyone that I don't really connect with and feel like You really love this shit. And I'm not going to have to like, Hey, don't you want to go work? Come to the studio. Today, please. If I ever sign you and I have to ask you, you're getting dropped. No thank you. I don't want it. You can take everything. I don't want nobody lazy. When I finally do start seriously getting into artists, I want them to be free. You need to feel like you can be, do have whatever. I don't want you to feel suffocated. If at any point you feel like I'm holding you back, please go. Because the music is going to have a stinky poo on it if you feel like that. And that's one thing that I wish publishers, lawyers, managers, production companies, anybody that I've been in business with in the past realise you have to love on your artists. You cannot suffocate them. You have to just watch them and see who they are, who they want to be, and draw that out. That's it. That's your only job.

Muni Long tells Apple Music about persevering the obstacles she faced in her career 

Nadeska: What is that balance between knowing when to keep pushing, that your time will come, but also not tolerating too much abuse or disrespect?

Muni Long: I tolerated a lot. I tolerated a lot. I don't know why it took me so long along.

Nadeska: Maybe you just knew this part was coming at some point, even if you couldn't see it clearly back then.

Muni Long: I really, really, really wanted to do this. So I mean, there's people who put up with a lot worse than me, so I'll say that. But the disrespect, I've had a lot of music stolen, a lot of things I didn't get credit for. Didn't get paid. A lot of people taking money and they didn't do anything and I was just like, whatever I can do it again. And I just kept doing it. And I just kept doing it. And what I learned is those people don't last. They're here and then they're gone. People who fight over scraps, I want an extra 10%. It doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things, and it does matter, but I have my eye on the ultimate goal. I'm going to be doing this for until I'm 70. I will be here for a very long time. I just know that I'm going to be doing this till I'm 70 years old. So a lot of times when I did have those moments, I'm in the closet screaming in my pillow why I hate it here. And that would happen more than I would like to admit. I just wanted to quit so bad. I would be thinking, what else? What I'm going to do? Go work at Target. That's fine. Hey, that's what you want to do. Have at it. It's just not for me. And literally every time I would want to pack up and leave, I would be like, I didn't do what? Girl, be miserable.