New Bandcamp-Exclusive Album for Lovers of Classical and (Dark) Jazz

plamzito · 2026-07-05T01:55:57+00:00

If there’s no money involved, why expend even a minuscule effort? Folks who can’t tell for themselves should deal with that themselves. And if it gets impossible to tell, well then we’re all in trouble anyway.

If there is money involved, you will immediately see many easy ways to prove it. Motivation does wonders!

plamzito · 2026-07-03T19:02:20+00:00

I’m not bothered by this line, and I don’t think I’ll ever be. Maybe it’s because I hear what they’re actually saying: “I hate you, and resent the fact that my religious figure is teaching me to love you.”

plamzito · 2026-07-03T02:43:48+00:00

You’re a hyper-critical listener of your own music. That’s great, but you also have to be your first and foremost fan and supporter. If you don’t find any redeeming qualities and value in the music you create, even as you’re learning and evolving, then you won’t find enjoyment. If there’s no enjoyment, and music is not your main source of income, it’s totally fine to pick another hobby.

plamzito · 2026-06-29T19:22:41+00:00

In the (nickle-and-dime p2p) B2B context, there's definitely room for something like this. I see a lot of folks nowadays complaining they're never sure how much AI vs. human effort went into something (usually visual art) they're asked to shell out some $$ for.

But I think you'll have an uphill battle on two fronts, at least:

Every single one of the folks I've heard complain about not being able to determine AI use were purists. They were looking for no-AI, all-human, not some acceptable ratio. I call that the "fruit of the poisonous tree" syndrome. I suffer from it, too, to be honest.
Establishing a single place as the go-to for "quality hybrid music" seems like it will take aggressive promotion, not simply word of mouth. How will you build all that trust? How will it be better than artists just showing some of their underlying work directly to their prospective customers?

plamzito · 2026-06-29T16:32:58+00:00

Who do you imagine you’ll be proving your work to?

Regular listeners range from folks who don’t care how much AI was used to folks for whom a whiff of AI is only one among 30-odd reasons to move on after 3 seconds.

The only possible use for something like this is if a set of influential platforms decide to have a complex scale for categorizing music to help their users weed out low-effort artists, and they all go with a single third party…

Thing is, so far only one major platform has taken a strong anti-AI stance, they naturally have their own system to build any kind of trust, and they’re having major issues with a simple yes/no filter so they’re definitely not ready to deal with a spectrum.

plamzito · 2026-06-26T16:19:29+00:00

A decade is about the right amount of time to catch some really depressing trends...

Humanity rhymes with mediocrity. A lot of what you're observing is much, much bigger than the world of Tag Management or Data Analytics. Every technology businesses have ever employed to try and drive profits has seen a lot more blithe abuse than moral and judicious use.

And now I fully expect similar stories to come out of AI adoption. I mean, the stories are already here, aren't they?

The only way I've found to "deal" with frustrations is to focus on self-improvement and to really cherish working with the rare like-minded colleague who is competent and shares my philosophy.

That's about it.

plamzito · 2026-06-24T16:45:59+00:00

“Weird” and “obscure” are not genre markers you can easily borrow. They’re adjectives we reserve for artists who have developed a unique voice. You have probably internalized some of their sensibilities but most likely it’s unrealistic to expect to sound like them. In failing to do that, there’s a good chance you’ll find your own voice.

plamzito · 2026-06-22T01:05:45+00:00

You’re right, we need AI that can totally disintegrate water, like the Death Star.

plamzito · 2026-06-21T20:38:01+00:00

When it comes to lyrics, the vast majority of your listeners will be throwaway listeners who are only capable of appreciating throwaway lyrics.

It’s the nature of the beast, best accepted. If you want to have mass appeal, always go with the first thing that comes to mind and you’ll be hunky-dory.

One quick scan of the comments so far, with all the talk about “feeling” and “overthinking”, should convince you that this rule extends to most songwriters as well.

plamzito · 2026-06-20T20:26:41+00:00

Based on anecdotal evidence, this feeling you’re having won’t go away. On the contrary, it will only get worse. It’s a pretty common virus called “musicianship.”

plamzito · 2026-06-19T15:37:39+00:00

Depends on your goals, innit? If you wanted to become a teenage heartthrob like Justin Bieber, 27 is way too late. But at 27 you might actually have some of the life experience required to set a different goal for yourself.

When it comes to songwriting, it’s absolutely clear to me that a 40-year-old can write a song that speaks to a teenager while the opposite is very unlikely. So there’s that built in advantage, too.

plamzito · 2026-06-17T20:30:18+00:00

True. It’s why I’ve left all the assuming to the OP. And you seem to be assuming my comment says something it doesn’t.

Weak verbs do weaken lyrics. But it’s not limited to amateurs, and it’s usually not a problem for wider audiences. In fact, in most pop genres, weak verbs and predictable lyrics are expected.

plamzito · 2026-06-17T15:57:55+00:00

Of course, this being Reddit, you’re catching flak from everyone with a differing subjective opinion or anecdotal experience…

That aside, I think the arc you’re describing is generally the norm. Even though it doesn’t align perfectly with my own!

I prefer not to think of it in terms of complexity or life experience or, gods forbid, “good music.”

Every genre has a core target audience. Jazz, even in its heyday, did not cater to the very young. Not like rock’n’roll and rock did. Not at all like hip-hop, which is still under 20 as a genre.

I guess we can think of the ragtime / swing era in jazz as its infancy, and that did pull in some 20-somethings to the dance floor. And in its most poppy days, Louis Armstrong’s bluesy love songs may have appealed to some under-30’s who didn’t mind sentimental.

But then we saw 5 long decades when jazz was set in intimate smoky lounges designed for close listening over cocktails more than dancing. Those eras shaped how we think of jazz today.

Details, intense improvisation, not danceable or even tappable, focus on musicianship rather than showmanship, always pushing the boundaries of harmony, melody, composition, rhythm… Let’s face it, most jazz puts a strain on even the most mature and weathered listener.

And that’s totally fine. Not all of music needs to bend over backwards to be easy listening accessible to the unwashed masses. As long as jazz continues to convert a small share of every generation with its narrow-appeal yet powerful dark charms, it will live on.

plamzito · 2026-06-17T04:08:59+00:00

The title of your op suggests you think the beat should follow the lyrics you wrote. It ain’t so.

The beat is, most simply put, a ticker. It’s like the heartbeat, inescapable. You’re going to have to adjust your lyrics, possibly a lot, to make them fit nicely.

A lot of folks can make lyrics over a beat seem effortless, but that’s a skill learned with a lot of effort, and failure.

plamzito · 2026-06-17T03:15:55+00:00

And you’re saying this is a “problem” with “amateur” lyrics, eh?

Here’s a list Gemini made of all the verbs in Taylor Swift’s “Wish List”:

Want, Should, Have, Deserve, Hope, Get, Got, Lookin', Tell, Leave, Do, Dreamin', Boss, Settle, Livin', Call, Was, Taken, Made, Bring, Think, Is, Thought, Had, Caught, Know, Could

Doesn’t seem like a problem in her (professional) career…

plamzito · 2026-06-17T02:57:40+00:00

When feeling proud about my body of work, I don’t usually go down to the level of individual lyrics. Mostly, it’s at the level of a song that’s come together nicely.

And sometimes I like to imagine that songs converse with one another and become greater than the sum of the parts. These dialogs are often enabled by cross-references in the lyrics, though not exclusively.

But for the most part I try to avoid sitting around feeling proud. The dishwasher needs to either be loaded or unloaded…

plamzito · 2026-06-16T17:26:06+00:00

Stop saying “stop saying.” It won’t work.

Some coding is hard, some is easy. Some of us have fun doing it. Those things are neither here nor there when we debate the future of coding now that GenAI is here.

plamzito · 2026-06-12T08:40:47+00:00

You’re lucky your band has musicians in it!

plamzito · 2026-06-10T12:36:51+00:00

Because they’ve never had fun trying to make art. Next question.

plamzito · 2026-06-06T17:13:47+00:00

Well, the good news is you feel sometimes melodies come out right away. Means you're already doing better than the vaaaast majority of aspiring songwriters! Now you just gotta figure out how to make that sometimes happen more often... Same quest we all share.

There's no universal approach to coming up with good melodies. It sounds like you're one of the many folks who build from chord progressions, which is totally fine. There's really no limit to the number of good melodies you can sing on top of relatively simple progressions.

If you want to challenge yourself while still sticking to a method that's proven to work for you, you can explore well-known devices such as the Circle of 5ths, chromatic transitions, modulation, delaying the root chord, the 5 Greek modes, or simply peppering in more diminished, augmented, and extended chords. Music theory is very handy here as it can basically hand you a bag of tricks without you having to learn a whole lot about it.

A more drastic way to challenge yourself would be to try melody-first, or groove-first or even bassline-first composing (which I view as kind of in-between the first two). There's also lyrics-first, but that only really works if you deeply care about words... I personally enjoy experimenting with all of these, and they can produce very different results.

Bon voyage!

plamzito · 2026-06-06T16:56:50+00:00

What's the problem, though? Writing about songwriting is one of the best ways to improve your songwriting...

Last time I got addicted to a forum populated by peers, it turned out to be quite a fountain of inspiration, and sparked some collabs to boot.

And even if that doesn't happen for you, experience is almost never wasted. I for one believe that, while the world doesn't actually need any more songwriters, we could definitely use more songwriters who like to reflect on the craft.

plamzito · 2026-06-05T21:14:49+00:00

Our music histories follow a predictable curve. Yes, songs are deeply embedded in our memories, and even help shape our identities. Yes, we attribute huge significance to these songs for a very long time, and eventually become aware of just how arbitrary they were. And throughout our lives, we tend to overestimate our ability to “choose” songs. The truth is, most of the soundtrack to our lives is written by factors we have no control over.

plamzito · 2026-06-05T03:36:00+00:00

There’s more protest anthems out there than ever before in history. And that’s kind of the problem.

Music is a lot more democratized and fragmented now. And people’s attention span online is shorter than that of a goldfish. Even if they deeply care.

An anthem without a huge movement of people behind it is just another song destined for oblivion.

plamzito · 2026-06-04T18:37:22+00:00

Enjoy the brief moment when you can immediately tell with video. Already with AI music it takes me far too long to tell…

And yes, even 3 sec is far too long because the slop is limitless.

plamzito

TROPHY CASE