Making music is so cheap nowadays

[eluherlu]

There are free/cheap daws now. Great free fx or instrument plugins.. So many free samples. And the quality is soo much better than years ago. Maybe better than most basic hardware music gears.

Come to think about it.. When making music is 'expensive', music has a much higher value than now. And maybe (?) better music back then. Years ago, we need to have more money to make music. Then we put our tears and blood to make the most of it. Otherwise we feel guilty because of the money we spend.

Do we need to make it 'more expensive' again, so our music can be greatly appreciated again like the old days? How can we make making music 'exclusive' again? Or maybe making music and its value is as it is right now, and we can't change that? Do we need another new form of art other than music, and make it 'exclusive'?

I don't know, I'm just sleepy and hungry

[Spin Boyz]

The barriers of entry to making music are virtually gone. You don’t need to know how to play any instrument and you don’t have to know how to sing. You don’t need a studio or engineers. Yeah it’s cheaper to make music but the quality of all the music doesn’t sound cheap. I think there’s some good music being made today.

[eluherlu]

The barriers of entry to making music are virtually gone. You don’t need to know how to play any instrument and you don’t have to know how to sing. You don’t need a studio or engineers. Yeah it’s cheaper to make music but the quality of all the music doesn’t sound cheap. I think there’s some good music being made today.

Yeah I can say the quality isn't cheap too. But supply and demand. More people making music, therefore the value is declining. I love making music, but also wanting not many people doing what I'm doing so I can stand out more lol. Two sided knife

[zerocrossing]

First of all, you can’t put that toothpaste back in the tube. The cost of making music isn’t really going to do back up unless there’s an apocalypse where we all lose electricity, and then we’ll have bigger problems.

Second, what you are noticing isn’t that music used to be better, it’s that there’s just no more gate keepers between the musician and the public. There are gate keepers making sure Music is just as good as it ever was, we just have a ton of crap to go though. It’s harder to find stuff, but it’s there. I just found an ambient act that I was amazed that I didn’t know about, because they’re right up my alley and were active around the same times I was doing live ambient music, yet I’ve only now found out about them because one of the members died. The band was called Stars Of The Lid. So now I have their whole catalog to discover and enjoy. I’m sure there are a lot of acts like that, I just have to find them.

But I also know that I’ve seen dozens of acts during my time (since the 80s) that were amazing, and yet never had a hit record. Why? Who knows? Why is Taylor Swift so popular? She is super mediocre in every way, yet she seems to speak to a generation. That generation isn’t me.

[Aloysius]

Computers are not cheap.
Internet access is not cheap.

In the old days, people sometimes wrote their songs before deciding to record them. They even rehearsed.

[FranklyFlawless]

Do we need to make it 'more expensive' again, so our music can be greatly appreciated again like the old days? How can we make making music 'exclusive' again? Or maybe making music and its value is as it is right now, and we can't change that? Do we need another new form of art other than music, and make it 'exclusive'?

I don't know, I'm just sleepy and hungry

I have many serious answers for your questions.

My music has been kept very closely to me, and I have only shared it with a handful of people, so access to it is very restricted. It is sacred, potent, and inseparable from my identity, acting as part of my signature/hallmark.

I do not commercialize my music. Whenever I share it, it is for free as in gratis. The value of my music comes from earning the privilege of being granted access to it, and the experience thereafter. I only share it with those who have demonstrated the ability to appreciate my presense; I reject everyone else unable to do so.

[Bombadil]

Nah. The music of my generation is better than anything out there today.
Taylor Swift? Not her target demographic.
I expect that if she and others use 'real' studios with professional engineers/producer, etc., in the 'traditional' model, she pays as much as anyone ever did for the privilege of using these facilities and services.
So, I don't see a + correlation between money and quality. What you may get are professionally polished turds.
And I'll never listen to anything made by non-musician with just loops.
The 'difficulty' finding great new music is easy for me to avoid. I'll just listen to classical music when the wealth of my generation doesn't suit.

[morelia]

The barriers of entry to making music are virtually gone. You don’t need to know how to play any instrument and you don’t have to know how to sing. You don’t need a studio or engineers. Yeah it’s cheaper to make music but the quality of all the music doesn’t sound cheap. I think there’s some good music being made today.

Same as it ever was. I think there is a lot more bad music today, and a lot more good music. Basically just more music. Painfully, the more music there is, the harder it gets to find what I really like.

Also, making music is cheap, if they way you choose to make music is cheap. If the way you choose to make music is not cheap then it's expensive. For example, a quick calculation, just to buy the amps I want, and this is just the main ones, not including boutiques and combos, I'd want around 40k.

[GaryG]

This is a bit like the 'DAW vs AI' thread, if you're end goal is just to create sounds that pass for music then, yeah, everything is cheaper and more accessible for sure. Without too much time committed, most people can use loops and ai tools to create something that is good enough for ads, games, ambient beds for media presentations, 'beats' etc. I guess this is where that resentment I sense comes from, people calling themselves 'producers' etc. But they'll always be those people who go further, people with a real ear for a melody or harmony or just an interesting arrangement.

So, yeah, I agree with the jist of your argument. 'Back in the day' when people had to scrimp and save for every little piece of gear then they would be more invested, I'm the biggest musical slackass around but even I put the time in when I only had a four track, mono synth, guitar and one multifx. Maybe that's why I find people doing the DAWless thing more interesting generally...? The good stuffs still out there, just don;t expect to find it on the major platforms anymore.

Stars Of The Lid.

Kind of jealous you're getting to hear them for the first time Make sure to check McBrides solo records too, equally good.

[revvy]

If people lived forever, the bitching and moaning about how music “was better back in the day” would become deafening.

[chk071]

It surely was more expensive back in the days, that's why we see so many hobbyists these days. But, even if it would be more expensive, there would be more people doing it, because people simply can't afford more these days.

[Michael L]

people with a real ear for a melody or harmony or just an interesting arrangement.

This.

Musicians will always be just as rare, but digitising sound now involves programmers, technologists, tinkerers, field recorders, sound designers, hobbyists, samplers, collectors, etc.

There are also more musical products: pre-recorded DJ sets, loops and construction kits, presets, sampling from Schaeffer to the Bomb Squad, sound installations, on and on.

So I don't think it's a change in cost at all (cough, eurorack) but a change in technology that involves more skills, interests and types of people.

[funky lime]

Nah. The music of my generation is better than anything out there today.


The 'difficulty' finding great new music is easy for me to avoid. I'll just listen to classical music when the wealth of my generation doesn't suit.

Self fulfilling prophecy much? If you are actively avoiding finding good new music, then of course you would naturally come to the conclusion that there is no good new music to be found.

[Bombadil]

I gave up decades ago. I'm ok with that. Why the Hell should I have to go searching for good music? It was served to me on platters when I grew up. Now, we're fed garbage. There are all kinds of studies that show the increasing homogenisation of modern music over the last few decades.
To each their own.

[funky lime]

You don't have to go searching for good music, that's fine.

But you could at least refrain from putting down those of us who make music today. Especially when you admit you have no actual basis for it (beyond the vague claim of "studies show...").

You've basically just told everyone here that their music (whether the stuff they create, or the stuff they enjoy) is garbage. Without even having bothered to listen to it yourself. To each their own, indeed