"We need a unified experience -- a cohesive ecosystem that empowers and embraces new creators, without overwhelming and discouraging them."

It’s not exactly a revelation to say that people are making and releasing more music than ever before. Be it for personal fulfillment and connection, the desire to forge a career as an artist, or as a means to expand their personal brand — the reasons for creating are numerous.

It’s also no surprise that the democratization of creator tools has helped to drive this growth. But, with all the talk of ease-of-access to music software, as well as distribution and promotion channels, there are still significant barriers to entry for a lot of aspiring creators.

The first problem is that most music creation tools are still geared towards more professional, experienced producers and engineers, and are based on the traditional recording studio paradigm — something foreign to the majority of creators.

Locked Out of (Music Creation) Heaven

Over the past 15 years, I’ve taught thousands of students how to use the major digital audio workstations (DAWs) — software designed for recording, editing, and mixing music. During this time, I’ve watched people struggle to wrap their minds around the software, tools, and techniques that will allow them to one day get to the point of producing music.

For some of them, there’s a sense that they must suffer through the tech to get to their art, as all too often these tools seem more of an obstacle than an assistant. Consider that most music software acts as a digital emulation of analog studio equipment and workflows, some of which have been around for nearly a century–a time capsule without context for the majority of modern creators.

Compare that to my 10-year-old niece, who feels quite confident picking up an iPhone and shooting a mini-movie, adding visual FX and filters, doing a bit of editing, and sharing it.

To her, creating music in the mobile version of GarageBand seems disconnected and intimidating, even though she plays piano. She’s more likely to create and sell digital clothing in Roblox than learn how to use a DAW, produce a song, and figure out how to release it.

As someone helping develop tech that lowers the barrier to entry for new creators, I am often met with arguments that simplified, intelligent tools are lazy or somehow cheapen music, when in fact more music, more expression, and more access for more people is what we actually need.

At the other end of the spectrum, I hear that powerful yet simple tools will take jobs away from audio professionals, whom new creators certainly cannot afford to hire, and when their music may not even warrant doing so, as they continue to learn, experiment, and evolve. The widespread availability of drum machines certainly challenged the need for professional drummers in certain situations, but also opened up new genres of music and equipment sales that have driven the industry for decades. Yet somehow we still have drummers as we still have drum machines, while an entire new community of creators gained access to production tools through that technology, shaping the future of music.

The longer view is that having an accessible, inexpensive point of entry for new creators widens the funnel for many other parts of the music industry.

But continuing to develop modern, affordable, user-friendly tools is only one part of the solution. The reality is that music production is a multi-faceted endeavor and few companies are working to connect all the pieces of the puzzle.

Fragmentation Rules The Nation
Take a minute and pretend that you’re totally new to the workflow of recording and releasing music. You want to record a song? Great, you hum the idea for a melody into the voice notes app on your phone as a start.

Now, time to figure out:
• Which software do you use?
• Which plugins, audio interface, and mic are you picking?
• Will you need to watch tutorials or seek some form of guidance to learn about music production?
• How do you find and work with others and deal with remote collaboration, file management, or royalty split sheets?
• How do you go about finding samples and loops, or licensing content?
• How do you tell if you’re finished recording your track?
• What about mixing and mastering?
• What music distributor should you use?
• How do you promote your music?
• Should you hire a professional for any or all of the above?

As you’re reading this, I’m sure you can name a few dozen companies that address one or two of these questions.

Now imagine being a new creator with a limited budget. Developers can make boatloads of intelligent, easy-to-use creator tools, but a large part of the potential addressable market will still languish, adrift in a sea of compartmentalized options.

You’re looking at 4 or 5 different monthly subscriptions and a handful of expensive software licenses that exist on disparate platforms, with little or no interoperability. That’s a ton of friction!

Right now, the biggest problem emerging music producers face when choosing their tools is fragmentation. It leaves aspiring creators stuck stitching together a hodgepodge of subscriptions, purchases and free tools to get them from creation to release, monetization, and beyond.

It’s no surprise that this level of fragmentation can leave an artist feeling like music creation isn’t viable for them even as a hobby, especially when you factor in the low-to-nonexistent income the overwhelming majority will see from their recorded music. That melody you recorded on your phone will likely never get any farther than that.

We Need a Resolution

To properly address these issues, companies need to go beyond traditional avenues as a means to offer users more value across the creator journey (affiliate partnerships, co-marketing, etc) — beyond merely consolidating under the same corporate umbrella. It’s not about the pieces, but how the puzzle fits together — blending software for creation, licensed content and samples, educational resources, collaboration tools, access to distribution and promotion, community feedback, networking, and even Web3 solutions.

We need a unified experience — a cohesive ecosystem that empowers and embraces new creators, without overwhelming and discouraging them. They can then incorporate more advanced tools as they feel ready, and with a better understanding of what they need and why.

Better-informed artists elevate the entire musical landscape. They come to the table more fully appreciative of what music professionals do and can have better-quality conversations, saving time and money and ultimately creating their most authentic art. Bringing that heightened level of knowledge, along with a more structured workflow, becomes a win-win for labels, publishers, and managers as well.

Edge of a Revolution

If the thought of a unified music creation experience for aspiring artists excites you, you’re not alone. I’m very optimistic about where the market is headed.

Over the next few years we will see the emergence of inexpensive platforms for artists to ideate, collaborate, create, promote and release their music. These will be intelligent, assistive turnkey solutions for creation, that learn from (and grow with) the user, exposing what they need when they need it, while seamlessly integrating new ways to engage with and monetize fan communities. And these may not look like anything we’ve seen before.

Get the tech out of their way, and see what the next generation of creators can teach us about the future of music. Meet them where they are.

(Author Bio)

Daniel Rowland is currently head of strategy and partnerships at Montreal’s LANDR Audio (landr.com), and professor of Recording Industry at MTSU in Nashville. Obsessed with the intersection of art and technology, he’s produced the music for an Oscar-winning Pixar film and mastered multi-platinum and Grammy-nominated albums, while helping to develop LANDR’s suite of intelligent creator tools.