
While not as sophisticated as an MPC, it is the first foray into digging for sounds for many users. YouTube shorts also allow users to sample audio from any video on the platform. TikTok revived sampling with duets, essentially allowing users to sample any other sound and layer on their own audiovisuals on top of it. When creators are conditioned to associate successful and widespread sounds with memes, then this inevitably shapes the music they create and the sounds that they sample. Tools that capture and play with sounds are the next step for creators who have used TikTok and YouTube Shorts to sample audio from memes and viral videos. Many new creators will turn to samplers, like the MPC One or Native Instruments Maschine, because of their ease of use and integration with Splice. The company released a sampler from earlier this year, which was a welcome addition to the platform and has been followed up by multiple sample pack releases. Bandlab is a key example of a business that is publicly committed to democratising music-making. Loop-based interfaces also make production easy enough that users can create a song and record without having any knowledge of music theory. The last two years of pandemic-driven disruption in the music industry may just have created a window of opportunity for real change in the fight for gender equality. Instead, you can get some of the best sounds by the best musicians, from platforms like Splice and Tracklib, who recently raised $12.2 million to bring its pre-cleared sample platform to even more producers. You do not need to be able to play violin or saxophone to use that sound in your production.

Sampling makes music production more accessible. However, it is the aesthetic of modern music shaped by sampling that is really showing how music is changing from both a creation and consumption standpoint. Sampling is returning as an increasingly popular format of production, as shown by the popularity of samplers amongst producers. However, licensing and copyright have long stifled innovation and made sampling largely prohibitive.Īs a result, many producers turned away from sampling over the past several decades, but this is now changing. Sampling is nothing new – recording and reproducing existing music is what facilitated the rise of hip-hop in the late 80s.

Second-hand gear marketplace,, provided some insight into the products driving the creator boom – and two, in particular, stand out: the MPC One and OP-1 samplers.

The creator tools business has been one of the biggest winners of the pandemic, as people turned to music-making in record numbers.
