Record store Black Friday drop: original music bed, no sound-alikes

A record store can make four original instrumental beds for its Black Friday drop with the Sume Music Router for $0.50, since each track is a flat $0.125. The one rule is not to prompt for a particular artist or song, because the point of a store video is to promote other people's records without copying them.

A record store has a particular problem with background music: whatever plays under your ad invites the question of whose it is. Generating your own bed with a plain descriptive prompt avoids using a real recording. This post shows how to steer length and mood and where the limits are.

Prompt by mood, not by name

Describe tempo, instruments and feel: "warm instrumental, laid-back drums, upright bass, soft Rhodes keys, vinyl-room mood, 90 beats per minute". Do not write an artist's name or a song title, and do not ask for a sound-alike. Sume's music docs cover the router and the price; check them for the current prompt rules before you automate anything. The Music Router docs say the prompt limit is 5000 characters and that a non-empty negative prompt is rejected.

This is also a matter of respect for the people whose records you sell. Your shelf is the tribute. The ad is a quiet signal that the store is open.

• Describe instruments, tempo and room feel.
• Never name an artist, song or label.
• Leave the negative prompt empty; a non-empty one is rejected.

Length, since there is no duration field

The router has no duration field. You steer length in the prompt, by asking for a short piece with a clear ending or a loop-friendly bed, and trim afterward. The post on cutdowns at 15, 30 and 60 seconds shows how to get several lengths from one track, and the 24 takes post shows the price of auditioning.

Cost of the drop

Every route charges $0.125 per track (read 2026-10-10, Music Router docs). Four takes for one bed is $0.50, and 24 takes to audition is $3.00. Add a 6-second Wan 3.0 clip of a turntable at 720p ($0.75) and a drop video is $0.875 with one bed.

Auditioning and choosing a bed

Generate four takes with the same prompt and listen to them with the clip playing. A bed that sounds great alone can fight the footage. Pick the one that leaves space for any spoken line or on-screen text, and note the prompt wording that produced it, so you can get a sibling for the next week. Keep the one-line prompt in your own file along with the date.

Do not stack extra layers. A single instrumental bed under a short clip is enough, and quiet is better than busy for a store that sells music. If you want a version without the bed for the shop floor, keep the clip's silent original or export it with no music.

Dates and the drop itself

Black Friday is November 27, 2026. A good run is one teaser the week before, one on the day, and one on Small Business Saturday on November 28, each reusing the same bed so the store has a sound. Keep the title list of what is in the drop in the caption, as text, and do not claim a record is rare unless you have checked it.