The music industry needs its own "no-code" awakening

The democratization of creativity might be one of the most clichéd phenomena underpinning the modern music business.

Today, someone with no formal musical background or industry connections can produce, distribute, monetize and market a song from scratch, within 48 hours, for little to no cost. Regardless of whether the output is considered “good” by anyone’s standards, it’s possible, and is already happening to the tune of tens of thousands of new tracks being added to streaming services every single day.

Such high volume is inevitable in a world where audio-streaming and social-media companies are swapping out the term “artist” in favor of “creator” in their marketing copy — opening up their total addressable market to anyone who has ever “created” anything, be that a hit song or an Instagram post. Indeed, the word “prosumer” is back in fashion as a descriptor of how the boundary between producers and consumers is increasingly blurring.

But a widespread, unending debate continues to sweep the music industry about whether this democratization is a positive or negative force for professional artists. Yes, it may be 100 times cheaper to create a new record today compared to a few decades ago — but it’s also arguably 100 times harder for a serious artist to break through the subsequent noise and cultivate a long-term fanbase. Some have argued that producing content for its own sake disincentivizes artists and consumers to think critically about culture, making it more difficult to support truly provocative, groundbreaking work as a result.

Turns out, it’s not just the music industry suffering from this existential conundrum.

From the heart of Silicon Valley — home to one of the most competitive talent pools for software engineering in the world — there is a burgeoning “no-code” movement of entrepreneurs trying to build viable apps and tech businesses without any coding experience. Much in the same way that music’s democratization has left some wary about the future of truly groundbreaking and provocative art, detractors of no-code claim that the methodology is unsustainable and could potentially drive down the value of actual engineering skills.

But the movement’s proponents dismiss this skepticism — instead forging ahead and building communities, platforms and courses aimed at using the power of no-code tools to bring any business idea to life. In fact, the salience of no-code forms part of the underlying thesis behind companies like Product Hunt, one of the world’s most active platforms for launching and discovering new tech products.

As someone who spends a lot of time with both music and tech, it occurred to me recently that asking whether people without experience “should” be making music is like asking whether non-coders “should” be starting their own tech companies. In both cases, “should” is an arguably ineffective framing, because the behavior in question is already happening in full force. And if the answer is “no,” the only path forward is to stifle people’s creativity, which I don’t think anyone wants.

A better question to ask is: What resources and infrastructure can we provide to make sure “no-code” workers are creating at their highest potential and can get as close as possible to achieving their goals? Moreover, how can no-code complement, rather than compete with, the work of more skilled developers?

Today’s newsletter will attempt to answer that question for the music business — which, for a laundry list of legal and political reasons, is not always incentivized to support its “prosumers,” but arguably no longer has a choice. The no-code movement in tech can serve as an effective role model because it has overcome the dreaded “should” question, and addressed the more urgent issues of resources and infrastructure with a variety of concrete solutions.

The “no-code” movement in tech: A brief primer

Generally speaking, the “no-code” movement consists of entrepreneurs trying to build working products without any coding background necessary on one hand, and of software companies offering code-free tools to said entrepreneurs on the other. No-code tools are especially powerful because they enable founders to get to a working minimum viable product (MVP), and hence to a clearer sense of the demand for a product, in record time. An example that crosses over with the music industry is Mike Williams using self-serve tools like WordPress and Sharetribe to build Studiotime, the “Airbnb for recording studios,” in one single evening.

Tech insiders usually make the distinction between “no code” and “low code.” Tools in the “no code” category tend to cater to solo entrepreneurs bootstrapping their own companies with neither extensive coding knowledge nor the help of a technical co-founder. Examples include Bubble (web-app development), Voiceflow (voice apps for Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant), Carrd (one-page websites), Webflow (dynamic website design) and Sharetribe (marketplace hosting platform). In contrast, tools catering to the “low code” tier also count trained developers and even companies with entire engineering teams as their customers, and focus on automating internal business processes and workflows rather than replacing code altogether. Examples include Parabola, Clay, KISSflow and Standard Library.

Online marketplaces like Zeroqode, NoCode and Makerpad have aggregated hundreds of these no-code-friendly tools in a central location for aspiring founders to peruse. Makerpad in particular maintains a comprehensive collection of templates and tutorials as well, for those seeking more structured inspiration from already-existing websites and apps.

What is the equivalent of a “no-code” marketplace for music?

While I was researching the no-code movement, I realized that there was no equivalent of Makerpad for the music industry — i.e. no central, regularly-updated database of tools that offer “no-code” and “low-code” capabilities for music creation and distribution.

I decided to aggregate a preliminary version of a no-code music marketplace myself. When selecting the companies below, I was informed by the same idea I laid out at the beginning of this newsletter: What tools empower everyday people with no formal musical training or industry connections to create, edit, distribute and market a song from scratch?

The list is not exhaustive, particularly in the distribution category, but hopefully helps visualize how a “no-code” mindset could potentially impact nearly all steps of the value chain for digital music and media.

I organized the rows based on the order in which they typically appear in the creative process for a major-label recording artist. You begin by making your own music and/or sampling source material from third parties; send it off to mastering and mixing engineers for post-production clean-up; distribute and monetize it on streaming services; offer the finished work to third-party DJs and producers for official remixes and mashups; and record a music or lyric video. At each of these stages, an artist can now leverage a no- to low-code tool to generate more ideas and MVPs in less time. (I put the Marketing row in parentheses because many of the best no-code marketing tools for artists are not specific to the music industry.)

Just as there is a “no-code” vs. “low-code” distinction in tech, it’s also worth differentiating in a similar manner for music — between the companies targeting complete musical amateurs looking to release commercially viable songs without the help of a “music-skilled” collaborator, and those targeting more skilled and experienced artists who are just looking to make their workflow more streamlined and efficient. Most of the startups above can be equally valuable for both user bases, but there are some exceptions: for instance, Boomy, Beatwave and Figure seem aimed mostly at the “no-code” creation market, while Splice, Sounds.com and BeatStars cater more to professional producers seeking a quicker route to getting the beats and sounds they want.

The problem: “Rapid prototyping” won’t give you a hit song

As mentioned earlier in this piece, no-code tools in tech are ideal for generating a high volume of MVPs without drilling a hole in your wallet. But beyond that, founders who rely heavily on no-code will inevitably run into issues around originality, differentiation and intellectual property protection. Third parties can easily reverse-engineer a no-code product by signing up for all of the tools the original founder used to build it, making it difficult for the latter to claim any sort of IP.

“Prosumers” who rely heavily on no-code tools to release music will face many similar issues. All the startups mentioned in the no-code music marketplace above are excellent for building prototypes of songs and videos, which can then be thrown onto Instagram or SoundCloud for gathering feedback. But while prototyping is a valuable stepping stone en route to a radio hit, it’s rarely an attractive, commercializable end in and of itself. This is especially the case for music videos, the most iconic of which require painstaking filming and editing work from larger creative teams; apps like Triller and TRASH are great for generating prototypes of music-video cuts, but you’ll need much more help and imagination to make something like “Alright.”

Intellectual-property spats are also inevitable — particularly with the growing popularity of automated and AI-facilitated music creation, which has yet to be accounted for properly in the law. And if every “prosumer” musician draws from the same no-code creation tools, the tools themselves no longer become an effective source of differentiation beyond streamlining behind-the-scenes processes, and marketing chops and a stand-out personality ultimately matter more, not less (hello, Lil Nas X).

What kinds of artists — and companies — win out in a “no-code” music world?

As discussed above, the rise of no-code won’t make proper labels or creative teams irrelevant, but rather make them more relevant for a specific subset of artists with more ambitious goals and commercial needs. But in terms of new companies built from scratch, the ones most likely to flourish from the ground up in a no-code world are no-code networks and marketplaces — the ones that enable users not just to experiment with early-stage ideas for websites, apps and businesses, but also to gather feedback from a forum of like-minded peers.

Facing a noisy world of commodified, “no-code” distribution, music companies could learn a lesson from tech in terms of what needs are still unaddressed for artists. During our keynote at the Midem conference, music-tech veteran Troy Carter argued that the two things artists need the most urgently and consistently in their careers are feedback and a sense of community. These two pillars are precisely where the tech-startup world excels. Sites like Product Hunt and Makerlog not only literally build a community based on feedback from engineers, founders and early adopters, but also give no-coders the exact same support system as more skilled competitors, leveling the playing field in the process.

A few of the closest musical analogs to Product Hunt-type marketplaces, in terms of fostering community and soliciting feedback, are Splice, SoundCloud and BeatStars. All of these companies also have a significant monetization component on their platform, meaning they are simultaneously widening the pie of participating musicians and capturing more of their value — a powerful position to be in when it comes to shaping the future of the industry.

As for which artists will succeed in a no-code world, I predict that those embracing hybrid methodologies in their creative process will hold a particularly high amount of cultural influence. For instance, producer Madlib recently announced on Twitter that he made all the beats for his project Bandana on his iPad. This is certainly not a new story arc: Steve Lacy once made a track for Kendrick Lamar on his iPhone, Prince Harvey recorded an entire album in Apple’s SoHo store and Rihanna’s “Umbrella” was built on top of the free “Vintage Funk Kit 03” loop from GarageBand (and it’s no coincidence that Apple, not Microsoft or Google/Android, is a key character in all of these DIY creative stories).

The way these artists embrace widely accessible, low-cost tools is similar to how many software developers with professional training embrace the no-code movement: both kinds of people are able to do more in less time by combining highly-replicable, no-code tools with their distinct, non-replicable training and creative vision.

Software will raise the floor of creativity — but humans need to raise the ceiling

As a final thought: In conversations about both music discovery and the creative process, we tend to perceive things that are harder to do as “better.” For instance, this Thrillist article from 2016 argues that music fans who came of age in the Napster era were somehow “better” than those who use streaming services like Spotify, because the former cohort had to work harder to dig through the noise and find the music they really wanted. Similarly, we tend to put a higher price tag and perception of quality onto musical works that took more time and/or skill to create.

Contrary to devaluing time- and skill-intensive work, I think the rise of the no-code movement in tech, music and other adjacent sectors will actually raise the bar for innovation, and give more people a chance to surpass it. In particular, no-code elevates and widens the floor of creativity in terms of who can participate, to the point where it will be detrimental to culture to revert back to older ways. Raising the ceiling of what’s possible in culture, on the other hand, will still rely on human imagination and will be difficult to automate and commodify into software. In the words of electronic artist Holly Herndon: “If a computer takes over certain jobs I no longer have to do, that should be freeing me up to be more human with the people around me.”

While music and tech companies are not always the friendliest to each other, Silicon Valley provides a compelling blueprint for how any industry can support creative entrepreneurship and foster community among self-starting builders, without diluting the value of high-quality, hands-on services. Music would do well to look beyond its own bubble not just to prepare for its future, but also to better accommodate its sprawling present.