It’s always been a sausage machine lol

The old joke is that you spend the first half of your career trying to get signed and the second half of your career trying to get out of that contract.

Best to just let the FBI/CIA/FVEY do it. It’s free!

Haven't seen a post to this, but Pulsar Audio had Updated their plugins:

Massive/Pass, MU, 8200eq, the W495eq ... and probably others that I don't have.

I've not found a Change Log.

This is what unsuccessful people tell themselves to feel better about not succeeding. The truth is that the vast majority of major label projects flop and a small percentage of very successful artists make enough money to pay for gambling on way more projects. If it was so easy to just make anything a hit, all major label releases would be hits. So it's safe to assume, that in fact you can't force any song into a hit, even if you spend a lot.

You can finance hits but it’s not a 100% success rate.
But there is a large part of commercial success that is manufactured.

Amplified, absolutely. Completely manufactured? I say it won't work, at least most of the time and especially over multiple songs for one artist.

I mean, yeah, you still need something that can be sold to a percentage of the listening public. But we tend to make that determination of quality after the fact. After the success. So it seems obvious. Of course it was successful. Look at all of these things that it’s got going for it.

It’s weird how some things catch on and some other amazing things don’t. Hence the “gamble” as you said. I was watching an interview on Agatha’s YT channel and the guy mentioned how he’s known for a handful of mega successes out of a thousand ish projects that went nowhere. I saw another interview a long time ago where the guy talked about never really knowing what was going to blow up or fail when you’re balls deep working on it.

I think we’re saying similar things but coming from different angles. I wouldn’t take any of this as absolute.

Popularity is weird. It has its own gravity. There’s a certain “manufactured consent” aspect to it oftentimes. But if the label wants to shelve you, you’re SOL.

Well labels suck in many ways, sure. Like shelving you or dicking you around. And I think we're mostly agreeing. But a lot of people seem to think that it's only about money and majors can make hits from absolutely anything. And as sensitive creators it's a lot easier on the ego to think that I too would be super successful if someone just poured a ton of money into advertising. But the reality is that a very small percentage of songs connect with people in that way and even can become hits with the right push. And it's still very much about timing, luck etc.

But if a song doesn't resonate. It's very unlikely to become a hit.

I hear you. Yeah there’s gotta be something that connects. The old self assessment is often a perilous endeavor.

I will say that some of the stuff that hits seems like garbage to me, but who am I to say what should or should not be popular. Perhaps that stuff lends itself to the perception that financial backing is everything. It’s usually necessary, but not absolute.

There's no accounting for taste in art and especially music which hits people differently even on the same day and same person depending on how they feel.
Music is truly magic to humans.

However, homogenized versions of it is pretty much what's going on
Do you want to kick drum like your favorite artist? download it.
In the end, mechanized, disco and hip-hop that started a half century ago has won the battle at least in modern American music.

Being surprised or going down a journey of Melody and production and chords that speak as much as the actual lyrics, ...wrapped up in something that's unique and it arrangement and recording…not an aspiration these days

Watching videos of every mixer, giving advice... everyone wants their sh.t to sound like someone else which tells them they've succeeded.

This was always the case. however when stax or Philly/Sigma sounds try to emulate Motown, the differences.. created something new.

Different players, different spaces, different equipment, different ears.
All that could be done today, but what you do is nudge everything around till it sounds like exactly a carbon copy of something already out there.

The artist feels like they're in "the game", the mixer if theres one gets paid because it sounds "professional"

Even the Janky weirdo tracks made by indie artist end up being a guitar synth or sound thing with a lot of effects on it or some plug-ins... the vocals, doubled [always doubled!!] drenched in reverb,
or Whispering girl with her acoustic guitar, some "analog" synthesis slathered from a "super cool" 90s keyboard the Producer found in the thrift store, and then processed to the point of just sounding like more background mush.

The building of this music and the production with each piece tends to make everything like a little goofy audio artifact

and not handmade bones of a unique skeleton which when put together creates something you've never seen/heard before, and yet is familiar, as it occupies your emotions for three minutes.

People like to make music, and that should continue... A lot of this AI stuff doesn't take in consideration that the process is the art.. As much as the ending result.

yup... but if the process is having to learn how to play the instruments, and learn to write, record, mix and master the music... then i think at this point, most peeps would rather let ai do it.

which basically allows anyone to "create music".

it used to be that one needed to know how to play the instruments.

then with computers and sampling, it turned into all one had to do was learn how to program midi.

now it's turning into a few clicks of the mouse and a brief description.

pretty crazy... but as i don't really care so much... i do feel for the peeps who get sucked into the ai side of music, basically robbing themselves of the joy of creating music via playing an instrument.

but it's all a choice, so whatever.

lol

Gonna be a bunch of professional part pickers on TikTok lol