Sample Libraries Are Making You A Bad Producer
You’re making a song, but something is missing. You just need a little something that’s going to take it to the next level, but what? And at what cost?
A shaker? Some hi hats? Maybe a little guitar riff underneath?
Not a problem, just open up Splice, search for whatever it is you need, find a close approximation of what you think you were thinking of; drop it in your session and you’re all done! Sound familiar? That’s because this kind of ‘workflow’ is becoming increasingly common, with up and coming producers doing less production and more keyword searches.
What seems like a pretty harmless, time saving process on the surface is actually detrimental to a producers work and their artistry. Not only that, they run the risk of blending into the crowd really, really quickly. And finally of course, there’s copyright issues. We’ll get to that in a moment, but let’s just say that ‘royalty free’ isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be.
Let me explain.
For the purpose of this analysis we will be focussing our attention on Splice, the cloud-based music creation and collaboration platform, though there are many others out there. In fact it’s worth noting at the outset that this is less about bashing Splice (or any sample library), and more about inviting you to be a better music producer. Splice is the best example, as it is the most widely used.
For context, Splice was founded by Matt Aimonetti and Steve Martocci, and includes a sample library and audio plug-ins, which you can access for about $7.99 a month. According to data published in 2021 by Bloomberg, there are now 4 million people in the world using Splice, which is pretty damn impressive — way to go Matt and Steve!
The user experience is seamless, allowing musicians to simply drag and drop any sound they want, into their session to help complete their music. Or is it helping producers arrange other people’s music? I digress.
By choosing this ultra-convenient method of work, music producers are saving themselves a lot of time, but could be unwittingly sacrificing one of the most important things an artist has: Their skills.
Let’s say for example that you wanted a hi hat pattern in your track; something that grooves. What would serve you better as a music producer, in the long run: Searching ‘Hi Hats’ in Splice and dropping a sample into your project, or inputting the MIDI notes yourself, finessing them so they sound just the way you want?
Or how about a guitar part? Do you search for something that kind of fits the vibe you’re after, or do you actually learn to play the guitar? Or get another musician who can, and get them in on your session?
Splice might be a time saver, but are you really learning anything about music production? Are you putting any skills to work?
I’ll let you think about it.
But now let’s look at the originality aspect. As I mentioned, Splice has 4 million users globally, accessing 400 million different samples. In the United States, there are 27 million people calling themselves a musician. Granted, not each of them are likely to be using Splice — some of them might not be producers, but you can probably see where I’m going with this. Take into account the number of working producers globally, even with the overwhelming amount of samples available on Splice, the chances that the sound you love so much is being used by another producer is very high.
In my line of work, I have been fortunate enough to work for a streaming company, and as part of that role, I spend a great deal of time curating playlists and looking for new music to feature, and I can tell you from personal experience that those Oliver samples everyone loves: they pop up a lot. When curators of any music streaming platform are looking to feature new music, and they hear a sample that they recognise (and trust me, they do recognise them) your music immediately gets canned. And can you blame them? And it’s not just streaming services: Labels, radio stations, sync licensers — they’re all looking for something fresh and new. To save themselves time, sync licensers, who pitch music to everything from tv shows to feature films and even video games, will often ask artists at the outset whether they have used a sample library in their work. If you have, they’re likely to opt for something original rather than deal with any potential legal issues.
One of the most popular producers supplying samples to Splice is Oliver. They’re the duo behind some of the most infectious sounds on the internet, and have sold 4.9 million packs through Splice (that’s a little over the total user base of Splice). Everyone from Dua Lipa to Justin Timberlake added a little bit of that Oliver sparkle to their tracks, along with just about everyone else.
Food for thought.
Keeping on the topic of originality for a moment, I’d like to share the story behind Simon and Garfunkel’s song ‘The Boxer’. The classic American folk song features a booming snare drum, something that at the time wowed audiences for being so wildly different and unique. Splice wasn’t available to Simon or Garfunkel in the seventies, so to get such an awesome sounding snare took an incredibly unorthodox approach. The sound you hear on that record is actually a live recorded, real life snare, played over a boombox that sat in the base of an elevator shaft. The engineers then went to the top of the elevator shaft and recorded the sound, then applied even more reverb in post production. Now I’m not saying you need to start throwing things down an elevator shaft, but when was the last time you recorded anything so out of the box?
In an industry where success demands uniqueness so much, why would you dip into the same toolbox that everyone else is using?
And finally, there’s the issue of copyright.
Splice offers every user royalty free music, but what happens if you were to use the same bass line that someone else used? Or the same drum pattern? Not only that, the other producer released their finished song, using the same samples you did, before you. When you release your song, which unmistakably shares the same part, you’re hit with a copyright strike and the song is removed because, as far as the copyright bot is concerned, you stole someones piece of music. Unlikely? Well this actually happened to a producer by the name of DJ Pain, who had his song removed from YouTube after it violated their copyright policy — going against that royalty free ethos of Splice.
Splice and every sample library like it are undoubtedly extremely useful tools for music producers, but by taking the fast and easy approach, music producers are sacrificing their skills, their artistry and the thing that makes them unique. In saving time, music producers are sacrificing so much more, and risk sounding just like everyone else.
So be different. Go out and make new sounds, or learn a new instrument.
Throw that snare drum down an elevator shaft!
Be something unique!
And with that, farewell.
I would also like to make clear that this is in no way a dig at Splice.
In fact to be completely transparent, I have been subscribed to Splice for some time. Ask me about their Rent-To-Own feature and I’ll give you a very different story.
