Meh… Just try and relax. If you don’t like making good music regardless of how it’s done, why bother? Just listen to someone else’s. Once you hear good music, how will you know how it’s made without further research?
This isn’t a saber swinging battle between acoustic instruments, electronic instruments, samples, sample packs… Do whatever you want. It’s well known that successful music is formulaic and what becomes successful is pretty much winning the lottery.
I know it sounds strange but you have to make music for yourself. If you can’t make it for yourself to enjoy, you can’t really make it for anyone else, because it comes off as dishonest. This is something I struggle with.
I do think that learning an acoustic instrument in your downtime could help balance the negativity you feel towards the scene. I got a banjo a few months ago, but I’ve been playing classical instruments since I was in elementary school. I find electronic music much more difficult, ironically.
There’s nothing wrong with music becoming more like sculpting where we uncover gems through refinement, rather than pottery where we build them up from scratch.
No one makes money from “songs” anymore unless you’re getting a literal BILLION streams, why would we expect AI to make any money if none of us are
Of course there will be a Baby Shark AI hit and everyone will debate again. Loops, Sampling, AI are just tools for us to shape and bend.
Money has always been tied to live performance since the Troubadours and traveling poet singers of prehistory, be a storyteller with your music, even if it doesn’t have lyrics it can evoke emotion!
Remember when “AI” Player Pianos took over every bar and saloon in the “old west” yeah… neither do I, it was a fad for a few years then Jazz got extremely popular
Some people are good at creating sounds.
Some people are good at writing songs.
Very few people are good at both things.
Use the tools you have at your disposal.
The things Spotify, loopcloud, youtube, AI, and others cannot replicate is the heat of another person and a room full of cheering people. Getting a drink on the bar, being amused and strangely proud by the new 21 year old metal heads, and shooting the shit over a joint about great shows with the old-heads.
Or even just a quiet coffee shop with your friends and other musicians admiring your composition and technical skills.
Performance has value! Showing off your skill has value! Being a community builder has value!
People bring with them their joy and sorrow and body heat, the blood of a city beating into a place to share in the awe of a performance.
You’re right, everything has gone global and we are all small individuals on this planet. So we as musicians have to go the other way: Go local. Teach your friends to get by on a guitar. Play all of those coffee shop shows. Make something for yourself, and then your friends, and then your city.
As an old bloke in this game, a few things I can tell you:
Making music “for yourself” is the most important. No matter what you do in music, your goal should be to enjoy it and be proud of it, even if nobody else likes your music. It’s not about liking the smell of your own farts, it’s about “honest work”. Having an audience is just icing on the cake, or a nice motivation pusher depending on your personality.
“Platforms producers” are not magicians and their output is not even that great. There’s ton of stuff there that just rehash the same gimmicks, follow the latest trends, basically bring no added value. In the end, it’s not about competing with producers, it’s about expressing yourself through music. It’s an art form, not a fucking bike race.
You just started making music ? In 10 years, or much less, none of the stuff you hear on loopcloud will intimidate you.
FYI - I’ve noticed the stuff people make, walk through, do tutorial’s on Youtube are much different than the stuff DJs (including myself) play in clubs. At least on the house and techno front.
I hate to say it, but a lot of the music I buy and play uses loops. I don’t hate to say that, but in the context of this thread I guess I do.
I think some people, not all, have a strange impression about how dance music is made. While there are some great tracks that don’t use loops or “samples”, my impression is that 95% of the tracks in my record collection have some type of loop or sample in them.
I’ve asked other producer friends how they played a certain riff and they’re like, “bro, that’s a loop”
A lot of good artists don’t even use Elektron boxes live.
They’re boxes that make sounds. The interface invokes inspiration and different workflows. Plenty of people just record a few tracks from an Elektron box and finish it in a DAW… there aren’t any rules. Take that as one may.
If you want money, become a loop maker! It’s no different than the famous saying “the one who gets rich during a gold rush is the one who sells shovels”.
As far as services that provide loops there are basically two options–people will slap together loops to make generic sounding music OR people personalize those sound and make not generic music. The second option will take as much work as starting from making sounds from scratch. Also, if you enjoy making music, why worry about how other people are doing it? No one is getting famous arranging loops from loopcloud (probably)–and, furthermore, if they do that audience is unlikely to be your audience anyway.
