Latte Chill Music

Category: Wiki

  • Free music samples – where to find them?

    free music samples

    Free music samples are essential if you are into lo-fi and chill beat making. Generally we visualise old vinyls being recorded and chopped up for your next dope song. But it is not that simple.

    Mind royalty and copyright

    To begin with, if you wish to live off and share your beats on Spotify, Apple Music and other stream platforms, most likely you will not sample vinyls. The reason is quite simple – that vinyl is an artistic product of a fellow musician. Simply using it as a sample without the artists’ consent is stealing. Some on the other hand is doing so, after all if you chop it well, YouTube ID might not notice it. Oh well.. Let me share you different (and more legal) aspects in this article so you can make sure, that your lo-fi beat is 100% legal.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wL0JocrISKI

    Free music samples #1 – Music Radar

    Music Radar is a great place offering up to date news with regards to music, instruments and much more. As a side project they are featuring free samples in tens of genres since ages. Personally I wish to put them as number one source as they are perfect for starters. You can find easy to use samples either you are to produce your first beat with DAW, smartphone app or physical sampler.

    Click here to get 75k+ free samples

    Pro:
    – easy to overview/search
    – clear description on legal part for every sample
    – huge database

    Con:
    – Might find the barrel after a while in terms of quality (depending on your genre)
    – No way to set up an e-mail alert on new samples, have to check the page regularly

    Free music samples #2 – Bedroom Producers Blog

    Clearly the most well-known blog for home music producers. Though I have to say, recently more and more beat makers to go out for more inspiration. Regardless, I believe this blog is kind of a must follow page. They have tons of interesting articles (maybe too much, depending on how much time you have). But perfect if you are into DAWs and sample collecting. You can read about great VSTs, check the free/lite versions. And occasionally find some free music samples. Again it is also genre-less. But well, let us be honest: lo-fi is a small genre and we can implement other genres (hip-hop, jazz, lounge) into our beats easily. So worth following!

    Pro:
    – Many articles, regular updates
    – Free samples almost every week
    – With RSS you can track new posts easier (plus mail subscription is also available)

    Con:
    – Linking to other pages – have to be careful with copyright / check details
    – Many articles – maybe too much time to time

    Free music samples #3 – Upstream Squad

    Update 2023 – this site is not working anymore 🙁

    I found them recently. Upstream Squad is a great growing page offering large variety of VSTs and free music samples. What made them different from Bedroom Producers Blog that they had a great weekly update newsletter introduced maybe even earlier. What does it mean? I am usually not checking my mails during the weekend. Being someone working with digital marketing round the clock – weekends are more like internet detoxing. Therefore I start my weeks with Upstream Squads weekly top 3 samples and instruments. These newsletters are my perfect boosts for Monday. I guess a subscription to their mails will only offer you more samples.

    Pro:
    – Regular/weekly updates
    – Great newsletter
    – You can track your downloaded materials if you create a free account

    Con:
    – Linking to other pages – have to be careful with copyright / check details
    – A bit limited in terms of samples compare to the previous 2 sources

    These are my best places to get free music samples. I hope you enjoyed my article. Please note that this article is not paid. I am not receiving anything from the pages above (besides the free samples ha-ha). My point is that my purpose was to support upcoming lo-fi and chill-out beat makers to produce better songs. Any comments are welcome.

  • Latte Chill on Amazon Music

    amazon music

    Fun fact about me on Friday: I am available on Amazon Music. I wonder if you knew about it. In this article I will share some information about this side of Latte Chill project.

    Amazon Music as stream platform is my second trendiest channel outperforming Apple Music from my perspective.

    How to get into Amazon Music as a musician?

    There are several ways, some costs more than others. I use a cheaper solution called DistroKid. It costs me rough 35 USD a year to upload any music on the biggest stream platforms. This way I am available on Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube and many other.

    If you use my link above by the way, you will get some dollars off through my referral program.

    Anyways, just to prove how fully I am present on that channel, see my Amazon Music Player below with 700+ songs.

    Does it worth using Amazon Music as an artist?

    It believe it always depends on how established you are. I mean I was able to turn this project into a positive (profitable) one in a year and a bit more. Some, who are into music with vocals can do it in months however. It depends a lot on where do you live and how many people will follow you. To my point.

    What made Amazon Music different was the fact that I was not focusing much on this channel as it is not widely available in Hungary where I live. So it is not like I did not want to. The contrary, I saw my stats, it was a logical step. I couldn’t.

    I mean I harvest a lot with my YouTube reach, Spotify playlists etc, but Amazon. It is more tricky.

    More of a passive channel

    So at the end, it became a passive channel for me. I wish it changes quickly in the future but it is a bit more Western Europe oriented from my perspective.

  • Popular lo-fi music topics II.

    lo-fi music questions 2

    To my greatest surprise my previous article on misc lo-fi related myths, questions and topics was welcome. So here I go again. Fully subjective, based on my opinion and of course preparing some desktop research for you if the topic requires.

    Is lo-fi music good for studying?

    This is an interesting question to start with. According to an article published on Vaughn College. Funnily according to the article the imperfection like low hums and fails help the brain focus better. The article also suggests to create your own lo-fi playlist if you are unhappy with the ones you can find. Furthermore suggests not to forget classical music either. My personal opinion is that taste matters a lot. Someone who is not fan of classical music, Wagner won’t be the optimal choice for study music.

    What is lo-fi music genre?

    In short lo-fi music stands for low fidelity music. A genre emerging from the past and living its renaissance nowadays. It offers that great old vinyl warm with hisses and cracks. It offers a peaceful vibe. Furthermore it tends to be not perfect. If you wish to read more, check my longer post on this topic.

    How to make lofi music free?

    Well, it is not easy! I mean, the best way doing any type of music is using what you have. That means a laptop or PC (minimum). Some luck so you can download Ableton Lite from somewhere. There are tons of DAWs out there but to my point of view this is the best to start with. Then you will need some free VSTs like Izotope Vinyl and finally some free samples.

    If any of those above was not clear, find my extensive article on the topic. Sorry, not aiming to redirect but this one is a long story. The best way currently (check the date!) would be to buy Koala Sampler on your iPhone (yes iOS only!) as if I recall well, you get Ableton Lite as a pro bono. That would cost you a couple of bucks and ta-da you have both a DAW on your PC and a dope application in your pocket. As for therest (Vinyl, samples), the post is your guide above.

    Do plants like lo-fi music?

    Absolutely! I have couple of plants at home by the window. Sadly, they cannot run away (unlike my hedgehog) so they listen to my beats when I create them, when I master them. When I work on lo-fi music videos etc. And they seem to be happy. Though I guess it is also important to give them light, feed them and all other things that are important for a plant.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFPL9w26zT4

    Where did lofi music come from?

    From planet Mars. No! I believe this question has many answers. First, lofi or lo-fi itself is coming from “low fidelity” and refers to a type of imperfect music quality. On the other hand many people mix it up with chill-out music, that is more referring to a type of a mood. What many expect from “lo-fi” music, when they search for the genre on YouTube or other stream platforms.

    Why is it important? Because lo-fi has many-many sub-genres that may not be that slow or peaceful. Nor instrumental. As an example, lo-fi hip-hop is not meeting these cases. On the other hand this genre is coming from J Dilla and Nujabes. Therefore the US and Japan.

    So, I would say. Generally lo-fi music is coming from the past. It offers us a bit of look-back in sepia. It will never be perfect, but this is how we love it. On the other hand depending on which vinyl (real or virtual) we choose, we may enjoy house, hip-hop or chill-out either.