Lucy Hale's New Single Will Change 'PLL'

Pretty Little Liars star Lucy Hale released her first single, "You Sound Good To Me", from her upcoming, debut country music record on iTunes Tuesday, Jan. 7, just ahead of the show's highly anticipated midseason premiere. The Memphis-born actress, (who apparently grew up wanting to be a singer and looking up to Faith Hill and Martina Mcbride — who knew) signed a contract with Hollywood Records (the company that brought you Disney Channel faves Miley Cyrus, Demi Lovato, and Selena Gomez) back in June 2012 and premiered the single on Sirius XM's live show The Highway Monday on Jan. 6.

According to Hale, "You Sound Good To Me" is just the tip of the iceberg of what she plans to do with music. It looks like this Pretty Little Liars star is about to get really busy — but will the actress and ABC Family choose to make art imitate life in this case?

Hale hosted a Twitter Q&A yesterday to promote her currently untitled album and spoke to E! about her hope that people will keep an open mind about her choice to start making music. So don't write her off as just another actress-turned-musician just yet, guys. The actress has no intention of making music her "side career." From the sound of it, it seems like she's hoping it will become her only career. Hale told E!:

When I started this journey it was never for a hit single or one awesome album. I wanted it to be a lifetime thing. I want to create music as long as the world will possibly let me. I want to tour, see every place possible.

If Hollywood Records has anything to do with it, she could definitely end up touring nationally and worldwide alongside other actresses-turned-singers on their roster. And if the PR team for said record company has anything to do with it — there will definitely be a PLL crossover where we find out that Aria Montgomery is actually a highly accomplished singer and plans to pursue vocal performance at the college of her choice after graduating from Rosewood High. (Talk about a plot twist.)

Either way, Hale sounds truly earnest about making this transition — so earnest, in fact, that she might be giving Taylor Swift a run for her money as country's sweetheart when her album finally gets a release. On becoming a professional musician, the actress says that it's nice to be herself, "I don't have to hide behind a character, wardrobe or dialogue," and that hearing her song on the radio for the first time almost made her cry. Just adorable. Be yourself, girl.

And here's "You Sound Good To Me":