Opinion: why so many lofi libraries/effects these days?

[yul]

Therés a big difference between putting a lofi effect on a track vs a lofi synth or sampler. On a synth or sampler the effect will be a bit different on each note if it's embedded in the circuit (i.e. per voice effect or dac artifacts). These can be very pleasing to the ears

[Dumbquestions]

Agree with everything here. Thanks for the input, everyone. It seems clear to me why lofi has become what it is. The history, the nostalgia, the imperfections, the simplicity, the unique analog nature of the circuits. Not to sound pessimistic, but I still wish the talented, educated music major/producer, with degrees, touring experience, & 100s of unique compositions up on their youtube got at least half as many views as some of the beginning 18 year old high schoolers who whip together cookie-cutter lofi beats that are composed of standard 3 chord progressions, gets 1,000,000+ views in no time, and rakes in a paycheck every month. Maybe I need to just buy a CS-80 or a Roland Juno emulator, and bite the bullet? I think Arturia has a sale on. If you can’t beat em join them I guess

Because nostalgia sells…

This here, reminds me of this video I found recently from Venus theory. I like the philosophical approach he takes here in talking about how we now use nostalgia to our advantage of music creativity via the “older” sound. People want to “go back” and lofi sound seems to be the conduit to triggering those emotions. The imperfections & degradation in lofi vst’s leave room for your imagination to fill in what is subconsciously missing, like the brain does with old polaroids. When it’s super clear and crisp, the mind doesn’t need to engage/do anything to process what it sees/hears. It’s already “perfect.” Maybe Lofi the missing piece to my own music, then again…
https://youtu.be/bGEtGTDrfD0

…This stuff is all subjective anyway, right?

[fedexnman]

I like it.