How do I ear candy?

[enroe]

What I'm interested in is how people write the kind of ear candy you hear throughout the track. ...

An important aspect here - about "ear-candy" - is this:

--- What is "ear-candy" anyway?
--- How can I compose such songs myself?

I will rephrase the question in a more "musical" way:

--- How do I compose songs that I and most people like?
--- How do I compose "mainstream" songs?

That's exactly what it's about! Most people here - just look at the
"Music Cafe" - compose intuitively and out of passion. That's a
good thing, because it's fun - but sometimes the response from
listeners is poor.

However, if the songwriter wants to have a greater audience
response, i.e. more people to hear his songs, then he either has
to target his niche audience more precisely (which is difficult) or
become more compatible with the masses. In other words, he
has to make more mainstream or ear-candy songs.

Ultimately it’s about:

--- How much energy and how much focus do I put into the
mainstream songs?

[garageg]

You could try using the delay or reverb send and modulating the reverb size or delay time as well as enabling/disabling the track to create rhythm.

[WackyZoundz]

I hear plenty of tremolo, vibrato, LFO-controlled lowpass (all working great in combination with delay/reverb) and formant filtering if that's what you're referring to.

[irpacynot]

...I will rephrase the question in a more "musical" way:

--- How do I compose songs that I and most people like?
--- How do I compose "mainstream" songs?

That's exactly what it's about! Most people here - just look at the
"Music Cafe" - compose intuitively and out of passion. That's a
good thing, because it's fun - but sometimes the response from
listeners is poor.

However, if the songwriter wants to have a greater audience
response, i.e. more people to hear his songs, then he either has
to target his niche audience more precisely (which is difficult) or
become more compatible with the masses. In other words, he
has to make more mainstream or ear-candy songs.

Ultimately it’s about:

--- How much energy and how much focus do I put into the
mainstream songs?

And my guess would be, with respect to your post, is that it's probably more challenging when you're the performer as well. Probably difficult to be objective. Might be better to work with a detached producer and engineer to achieve that goal.

Going back to the OP, though, I listened, and though I agree, it's pleasing music, those tinkles were a bit too aggressive for me -- hurt my ears. For my taste, I think I'd prefer them lower in the mix.

So, perhaps it depends on the type of candy you like. I prefer less high-fructose corn syrup.