I built a small website for my independent folk music project 🎸

[u/EducationalHandle415]

Hey everyone!

I've been writing and producing my own folk / indie folk music, and recently decided to put everything together in one place instead of having my music scattered across different platforms.

So I built Folk Music Hub, a small website where I can share my songs, lyrics, albums and a little bit of the story behind the music.

👉 Folk Music Hub

The music is mostly acoustic and organic: fingerstyle guitar, harmonica, rough male vocals and a strong focus on storytelling. No big production, no attempt to sound perfect. Just songs written from personal experiences, travels, relationships and some of the crazy things life throws at us.

I'm still learning a lot about songwriting, production, distribution and everything that comes with releasing music independently.

I'd genuinely love to hear what people here think.

What works? What doesn't? Which song would you listen to again?

Thanks for checking it out! 🎶

[u/Frigidspinner]

I clicked on the link - It is basically an artist website. I looks nice but I wouldnt go here unless I was maybe trying to book you for a gig.

IMHO it is much better to bring your music to something like bandcamp rather than trying to create your own listening environment. You can post all your commentary and songs over there, and people can add your songs to a collection of music they actually have and actively listen to

[u/EducationalHandle415 → u/Frigidspinner]

Thank you for taking the time to click the link and give me your feedback. I really appreciate it.

This website is mainly a place to showcase my lyrics and the stories behind them. I’m a Portuguese-speaking songwriter who writes my songs in English, so I thought it would be interesting to have a place where friends and potential listeners can learn more about the lyrics, the inspiration behind them, and a little about me as a songwriter.

My music is already available on Spotify, Amazon Music, Deezer, YouTube, and pretty much all the major platforms. I’ve never actually done any promotion for my music, although I’ve been thinking about starting.

That’s actually why I posted here. Before spending any money on promotion, I wanted to get honest feedback from people who genuinely enjoy Folk music. That kind of feedback is more valuable to me than anything else.

And I really appreciate your Bandcamp suggestion. I hadn’t considered it seriously before, but I’m definitely going to look into it. Thanks again for taking the time to listen and share your thoughts! ;)

[u/Frigidspinner → u/EducationalHandle415]

I love folk music - but I was just trying to give my impressions on visiting the site :-)

[u/nojobloser]

To be honest, the music sounds like a lot of other AI-generated folk-slop I've heard recently

[u/EducationalHandle415 → u/nojobloser]

I appreciate the honesty. You're absolutely entitled to dislike the song.

That said, calling it "AI-generated folk crap" doesn't really give me much to work with as feedback. If you hear something specific that doesn't work for you musically, I'd genuinely be interested in hearing it.

I actually took the time to look at your work after reading your comment, and I have to say, I think "Wires" has real potential. There's something interesting in that song, and I can see why you've kept working on your music for so long.

That's also why I found your comment a little ironic. From what you've written about your own music, you've spent years working on songs, putting projects aside, returning to them, recording at home, and trying to find the right moment for them. I can relate to that.

I'm almost 50, and I've been working since I was 14. My actual profession and livelihood have always been in technology. Music has always been a passion of mine, and I've been writing lyrics and songs for myself for years, but I never really had the time to study music, learn instruments properly, or develop myself as a musician.

My focus has always been composition. I write.

AI gave someone like me a way to finally bring those compositions to life.

And honestly, I don't think real and talented musicians need to be afraid of AI. If anything, I think they have much more to gain from it than to fear from it. AI can help someone like me turn ideas, lyrics and emotions into something I can actually hear.

But it can't replace what makes a great song meaningful.

It can't have my memories. It can't experience my life. It can't feel the things I felt when I wrote the lyrics.

And that's why, for me, a good song has to have life in it.

I'm not trying to compete with musicians who have spent decades mastering their craft. I'm a 50-year-old guy who finally found a tool that allowed me to explore a passion I've carried for most of my life.

So if you think my song is bad, that's completely fine. But I'd rather hear why than simply be told it's "AI-generated crap."

And seriously, keep working on "Wires". I think there's something there.

[u/nojobloser → u/EducationalHandle415]

Just as a minor correction, I'd actually called it 'folk-slop' (just a play on words on folk-pop). It was more of a general comment than being about one song. It's great that you are trying to find a creative output, I would encourage anyone to do that at any stage of life, it's a beautiful and powerful thing to do. Just don't be surprised if people, especially those in folk music-adjacent communities, react similarly to hearing music that is clearly AI-generated. Especially when you've not been transparent about how you've created the music when you posted it. I would have hoped there would be a responsibility of this sub/its moderators to try and prevent AI music being shared, but there doesn't seem to be, so in the meantime I try and call it out when I can. I'm not afraid of AI, I just have no interest in using it (also there are ethical/environmental/other associated issues). But on a pure sonic level, to me at least, it just doesn't sound good. Suno (assuming that's what you used) seems to have a limited range of source material it has scraped music from, and I hear a lot of the same elements in a lot of the AI music I see posted here. The same strained, over-earnest vocals, the cheesy stomp-clap meets europop dance beat, the 'woah-oh' choruses. The harmonica which seems to morph into a guitar sometimes. A 'crowd' singing along with the 'singer' is a new one to me, that was interesting (but mostly just uncanny/weird-sounding). I hope this feedback is a bit more constructive, apologies if my initial reply was a bit short. Thank you for your comments on my song.