It's funny how a bunch of these streams have actually become communities in and of themselves, with people coming in, chatting about life, work, heartbreak etc. while recommending new artists to check out (esp. if you are a fan of indie music, these live chats are gold). Most of them are also actively administered and have very little tolerance to bullshitting/harassment so they end up as a great place to hang out. I usually pair RainyMood [1] along with one of these streams while working and that has a very calming effect and is a great multiplier for my productivity.

Truly reminds me of a IRC groups I hung out on a decade ago, and this is the closest to a Web 1.0 forum-like environment built around music.

More power to such great communities.

[1] https://rainymood.com/

That's such a great idea with rainymood pairing, thanks for sharing!

Love synthwave, it is fantastic for focus and is very upbeat. Plus I dig the art style and the whole 80s neon motif in general. Good stuff.

Plus! It makes me set same goals in my life. I must now save up for buying a Ferrari Testarossa.

It’s kind of a weird car.

https://youtu.be/K1jB4vYji6A

Personally I would not buy it.

But some people may find the quirks of it charming I suppose.

Somehow I already knew it would be the Doug video coming into it, he is fantastic and such a great guy too!

However, the Countach is where it is at. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOQC24gAghE

Haha yeah that one is great :)

Very cool video :)

V A P E R W A V E A E S T H E T I C S

From my little slice of amateur producer internet there's also dramatic controversy around the genre. Issues such as how much sampling can you slap together and still call it your own piece, excessive vinyl effects, arguments about track lengths and loops, what it even means to be lo fi. It's fun to watch and results in great music! And also hence why lofihiphopbeatstostudyto has pretty much infinite material to work through.

Near the start of the corona lockdown, Will Smith published 1½ hours of chill/lofi hip-hop by various different artists on his channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rA56B4JyTgI He even did a Will Smith/Fresh Prince-themed take on ChilledCow's aesthetic. Pretty good stuff.

If you want download and run in your local player - https://www.fesliyanstudios.com/royalty-free-music/downloads...

I listened to the first one on that list "chill gaming" and.. part way in ... it skips! is that part of the experience?

I enjoyed the Switched on Pop episode on Lo-Fi. I don't listen to it a lot, and I didn't know much about its origins, but I'm a big fan of J Dilla and Madlib, who they cite as major influences on the genre.

Strong rec for J Dilla's album, Donuts.

https://switchedonpop.com/episodes/why-lo-fi-is-the-perfect-...

+1 for ChilledCow

I pretty much have that or my other favourite channel (The Jazz Hop Café) open all the time https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi8wqezBudeAiTdKOX571ug about once a week or so a new video compilation is uploaded.

Also, the Death Metal Relentless Doppelgänger: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwtVkPKx3RA

This is one I’ve zoned out to several times,

Space Trip: https://youtu.be/wOMwO5T3yT4

> The most famous channel of it that I know of is ChilledCow

Does anyone know the business model? I'm getting adds for this one on instagram.

Spotify chill-hop/"music to study to" playlists are popular and people listen to them repeatedly and for long stretches of time which makes them lucrative for streaming revenue.

I know someone who runs a chill-hop "record label". Their most popular songs get on big spotify chill-hop playlists and have ~10 million spotify streams. This equates to around $50-70k USD. Most of their releases have a fraction of this but it is worth it for the odd hit.

My guess is they give artists exposure in exchange for a share of the profits through their channels. I don't know if they can monetize the free stream on YouTube, but they also stream on payable streaming services and sell albums on Bandcamp.

They do sell merch, although I don't know how much that's likely to bring in

I can readily admit to looking for random 1-hour videos of Lo-Fi music on Youtube that really do sound like what I'm able to "create" with this player.

OP, thanks for posting this!