As an electronic music artist, I’ve watched royalty-free loops and sample packs move from being seen as shortcuts to becoming essential creative tools. For many producers today, they’re not about replacing originality, they’re about accelerating exploration. They allow us to move fluidly between genres, textures, and ideas, and to sketch new sonic worlds quickly without friction.
The way we share music has changed. Digital platforms have removed the old gatekeepers, and new ones have replaced them. Local artists can now release work globally, theoretically build communities directly, and receive feedback in real time. If the music connects, it has more of a chance of finding its audience than ever before, not because of scale or budget, but because of ease of access, intent and quality.
Frictionless creation is often presented as a goal. In reality, it’s a misunderstanding. The actual work is removing the wrong friction so the right ones can remain.
The traditional dependence on expensive studios and hardware has also faded. Today, a modest setup and the right software can be enough to create fully realised work. Tools like Ableton Live, Logic, FL Studio, or Reason allow artists to work at their own pace, without watching the clock or racing against studio fees. That freedom, time, control, and space, has become one of the most valuable creative resources we have.
My process involves a deep foundation in digital media and computer-based production. I regularly draw from WAV samples, MIDI sequences, and drum loops, not as finished elements, but as raw material. On Cosmic Soundscapes Vol.1, I spent countless hours time-stretching, detuning, and re-contextualising samples to form something cohesive and atmospheric. The album explores ambient and chill-out territory, inspired by the vastness and quiet drama of our local galaxy.
The palette for that project came from many places: archival NASA recordings, natural environments, ethnic instruments, and synthesised tones. The goal wasn’t realism, but immersion, to create a sonic journey that feels expansive, reflective, and slightly unmoored from time. That same curiosity later pulled me toward spatial audio, which has become the foundation for the follow-up album, due to be released on my label, BAKROOM.
What feels almost absurd now is how normal it once was to spend £150 an hour in a studio, constantly checking the time, worried less about the music and more about the cost of finishing it. That pressure shaped entire generations of record,s, sometimes productively, often destructively.
Today’s artists operate differently. The internet, affordable technology, and increasingly AI-assisted tools have opened creative doors that were once locked behind budgets and geography. Established artists and newcomers alike can experiment freely, drawing inspiration from samples, loops, and generative systems to spark ideas and push their sound forward.
For me, these tools aren’t about convenience; they’re about possibility. They remove friction, expand the palette, and allow the focus to return to what matters most: curiosity, intention, and the act of creating itself.
Words by C.Boshell
Artwork by BAKROOM MEDIA