Hey guys I'm making some more cool music for you

HEY YOU BETTER WATCH OUT BUDDY

Hey guys! I usually write a big fat novel on here about what I've been up to, but I'm DONE. I QUIT. I quit with the big newsletter-style posts on here anyways. Moved 'em to my Ko-fi and I'm gonna be posting them every month there! For any folks here who read those, I'll still be announcing them here and making smaller posts from time to time.

I'm turning 'em up to 11 though with a bunch of art and fancy stuff, so if you're interested in hearing about royalty-free music and free stuff to look forward to in the future, please take a look!

https://ko-fi.com/post/ZLM-Newsletter-1-May-2023-J3J5KOEJ0

I appreciate all of you and I think you're fantastic!!!!

Hello again! I have some news! I'll keep this post short.

Another Bag of Chips is releasing on April 25th!

If you aren't familiar with this project, it is a follow-up album to the original, royalty-free chiptune album 'A Bag of Chips'. This new album is packed with all sorts of extra goodies that the original didn't have, such as some bonus tracks, looping versions of every track, and more variety in moods for more use cases! It's also more of a retro-modern hybrid. It's focused less on 8-bit chips and more 16-bit sounds, and contains that cool blend of modern synths as well. I'm really excited to share this with you all and I hope you're able to get lots of use out of it!

The album will be available on Bandcamp and Ko-Fi to download in HQ for free!

More about Ko-Fi!

Also, I've started on my monthly songs for the supporters on Ko-Fi! These monthly tracks are just as jam-packed as the stuff I release normally, but are exclusively available to supporters. They are also all, of course, totally royalty-free! I'm excited about these. I'm also always thinking of more ways to provide some extra goodies to my supporters because you guys make my world go 'round!!

Anywho, thank you all for tuning in again! I love you all and I can't wait to make some more music for you!!!

Have a wonderful day!

I finally did it. I caved. I made a Ko-fi.

I've always been hesitant to make something like a Ko-fi or Patreon or anything of the sort. Some of it is that I've been waiting to find an audience for a long time, and that's why I'm only sharing this on Newgrounds for now, but more of it has to to with self worth and the value I place on the stuff I make. Gonna vent for a moment but I will try to be short, and I've got a message in there too for anyone who needs to hear it!

My vent + message:

As a creator, you will always have 'competition'. Or, peers who do the same thing as you. Personally, while I know my fellow musicians are not competing with me, I've always had that sort of headspace and a desire to be really good at what I do. I don't think there's anything wrong with a competitive bone, it's gotta be handled right. For some that means to refrain from dishing punches at other creators, and for some, like myself, it means you gotta appreciate what you do a little more. With creativity, how good someone is at something is entirely subjective. Personally, I feel outshined by so many of my talented peers. This has caused me to devalue my own work a lot. The way I see it, if there are people doing exactly what I do, but better, why do I deserve any more than what I have? Obviously that's some toxic thinking.

Here's the thing. If you are a creator of any kind (or really anyone for that matter), there is going to be someone out there doing exactly what you do, but better. You will not likely ever be the *best* at what you do. The message sounds discouraging, but if you think about things a little differently, this is incredibly motivating, and is the reason I haven't given up on my goals, among other things.

Think about it like this. Think of any famous or successful person you can. They are likely very talented and skilled at what they do, but they are not the best. Especially in the case of musicians (where marketing is everything), there are even some pretty bad ones (in my opinion) that have had some great success. I won't name names, but I'm sure you can think of some. Point is, none of them had to be the best at anything to get where they are. They rose up alongside plenty of other talented peers, and plenty of those peers were doing something very similar, and maybe even better than them. But they still grew, and they grew because people found value in what they did. Likely, they valued what they did too. Maybe they even thought they were the best. The great thing about taste and its subjective nature is that no matter what you are doing, there is going to be millions of people out there who like it. It's just a matter of finding out how to reach them.

I'm not concerned with being the best, or even being wildly successful. I want to support myself by making free music for game developers and music-enjoyers. When I'm not comparing myself to others, I like the music I make, and I have been shown by many of you guys that you like it too! If you like what you do, there is a 100% chance that someone else does too. Do not hold yourself back because you do not feel like what you are making is not good enough. What you make has merit and value, so long as it is genuine and it is your own. If you are proud of your work, if you are happy with it, so do other people. While ultimately being creative should be an individual experience at its core, sharing your work is a big part of it too. Especially if it's how you plan to make your living. Don't give up, and always keep sharing.

Final words:

I made a Ko-fi because I want to make music forever. I support myself primarily off of commissions and client work, but ultimately, my greatest desire is to make good music for you and for free. I want to make something useful and enjoyable, and I don't want to hold myself back because I don't think I'm good enough. I like what I do, and I hope you do too. Your support brings me closer to my dream of being self sustained while making free music. Copyrights and royalties make the world go 'round for musicians and labels. While I don't think there's any issue with that, it does make things harder for the many people who need music for their small projects.

About my Ko-fi:

Ko-fi is the first official way you can support me aside from Bandcamp. I plan to add some more to it, because it's brand new right now and barren and sad. But there's still some perks!

For anyone who makes a monthly donation, I'll be making you guys a song every month! There's 2 tiers right now, and I'm still figuring out the logistics. But for now,

For the 'Supporter' tier, you and your fellow supporters will all get a mystery song! I wanna make this more robust eventually.

For the 'Supporter+' tier, you get the supporter mystery song, PLUS an extra song made just for you! It can be another mystery, or you can request whatever you like!

Alright, that's all. I love you guys.

• "Another Bag of Chips" is coming to Bandcamp for free very soon. Maybe next month?
• "New Peach Radio" is also coming to Bandcamp for free soon. This album will be released in two 5-6 track parts separately.
• I will be making a personal EP afterwards. High-effort, wacky, and meaningful to me. It will all still be completely free-to-use.

Hello everyone!

Just to make sure I don't have people reading that don't care, this is just a little* (edit* massive) news blog about me and what I've been up to, as well as my plans and goals for 2023. If you are interested about music and SFX resources, this could be relevant to you! I will be labelling each section, so if you're only sort of interested, you are free to read only the parts that sound interesting!

INTRO

It's already almost Febuary and I don't know where the time has been going. Honestly, you could tell me it's any year between 2020 - 2025 and I'd believe you. I don't even know what time is anymore. There's a song that I wrote last year about this for one of the annual NG audio tournaments, and it continues to be so relevant to me. ANYWHO, that aside, I still want to make the most of the year all around, from Newgrounds activity to my personal life. I will continue to dedicate myself to making free resources (music, SFX, or whatever else) for creators online. My goal is to create a massive library of stuff that really helps people create what they want to create, as best as they can. I have a lot to talk about in terms of how I'm doing this now, and how I plan to keep it up and do even more in the future.

SOUND EFFECTS

I've recently delved into the SFX scene through my freelance work. I've found that SFX are something I really enjoy making! I've worked with several individuals and game companies to put together sounds for their projects, and I'm feeling ready and confident to create some high quality stuff that's free-to-use. I thought it would be pretty sweet if Newgrounds were to add a section for SFX artists on their platform somewhere. I sent Tom a message about it, so we'll see if anything comes of that idea. For now though, I've been putting music and sounds up online for free in a few places. My Bandcamp is usually where I send people for the music, as it contains the highest-quality downloads for that stuff (and the option to pay if you waaant). For sounds, while my offerings are few at the moment, over time I will be offering more! I currently put EVERYTHING on 'Open Game Art' where it can be downloaded for free, and I have a collection there for sound effects, which will be growing over time. I'm hoping I can put the stuff on Newgrounds too pretty soon! I recently posted some free, totally nasty and visceral, bone snapping SFX on there and on YouTube.

FREE MUSIC FOR GAME DEV (or anything else)

As of last year, I decided that every piece of music I release (unless otherwise stated) is going to be free-to-use. That will include my personal tracks, as well as a bunch of music I am making specifically for the purpose of game/content creation. I'll tell you about what's in the works right now.

• Another Bag of Chips

This is a follow-up album to 'A Bag of Chips', which is a collection of chiptune tracks for creators to use in their projects for free. 'Another Bag of Chips' will be a collection of 10 more free tracks made with the same stuff in mind, but with some more diverse sounds and moods, as well as looping versions of every track included. I am very excited to release that, and it should all be finished before June, although I'm aiming for the end of Febuary or early March. You can hear what's currently finished here on Newgrounds until the final release with all the extra stuff is up on Bandcamp.

• New Peach FM

This is an album inspired by the soundtrack of a game called 'Road Trip Adventure' (or 'ChoroQ HG2' in Japan). This was a game I grew up playing, and had a soundtrack that stuck with me hard. There was some unfortunate controversy surrounding the game recently where it was confirmed that the developers had stolen the music from the composer 'Michael Walthius' without his permission or knowledge. I was bummed to hear about that, as it feels like a bit of a stain on the integrity of the game, especially because the music is so beloved to me. That being said, it's still a wonderful soundtrack, stolen or not, and the game is also super fun and charming. I was debating whether or not to redirect the project after the controversy, but since it's old and was never really popular here anyways, I've decided to keep going with it. I've been posting visualizers for all the tracks as I go on YouTube.

• New EPs on the way!

Another Bag of Chips and New Peach FM are my priority projects at the moment, but afterwards, I do have 2 EPs on the backburner! One will be focused on fun electronic sounds and vocals, while the other will be more focused on bombastic digifu sounds. Each EP is going to have 3 or 4 tracks, each with a lot of care put in. I've been neglecting my personal music itch lately, mostly because I have so many other projects and am constantly juggling those with freelance client work, but I do plan to scratch it hopefully sooner rather than later. Also, of course, these EPs will be free-to-use.

FREELANCE

I'm pretty sure a good chunk of folks have no idea that I am mostly making music for clients day-to-day. I'm usually not able to share this music, and even with the stuff that I can, I can't release them under free-use licenses, so I just don't. That being said, there are some places where my professional work can be heard!

• Bitmates

Bitmates is a project I am working on with a very dedicated and talented team of artists and developers. I have had SO much fun working with this team, and I feel very connected to the project. The game is still in-progress, but the first volume of the soundtrack recently released on streaming services like Spotify. This game IS a crypto project, but is one of many emerging blockchain-based games that have a whole lot of care put into it. It will be free-to-play when it launches, and will not require any purchase of an NFT or anything like that. Something I think is cool, however, is that every item in the game will be tokenized, meaning they will hold real value and some cool economies will emerge revolving around those items and trading. It will also play very similarly to Runescape. I'm excited for this one.

• Streamers

I've recently worked with a couple growing Pokémon-centric streamers to create their theme songs and SFX. I always have a lot of fun working with content creators, big or small, because I can very tangibly see the effect that the music has with the community! These streamers are Calm & Collecting & Yellow Yugo. They are both Pokémon streamers on the rise, and they typically focus on hunting for shiny Pokémon! I've really enjoyed working with both of them, and they've amassed some very positive and excited communities!

• Super Choppy Orc

Super Choppy Orc was a really fun project. It's a game that recently released on Steam! While not the biggest release I've worked on, it's still one of my favorites. This is a speedrunning-focused game, and a follow-up to a popular and fun school time-waster called Choppy Orc. It amassed a large speedrunning community back in the day, and is a nostalgic return for a lot of folks. I felt very proud and excited to be a part of it! I've talked to the developer about making a demo for the game and releasing it on Newgrounds, and he said it was something he was considering! So hopefully we get to see that here some day.

Those are just a few of the freelance projects I've been working on lately. While they do take up most of my time, they've been the projects keeping me afloat! I am also usually available for work, too! If you are working on something and you need some music and/or SFX, feel free to contact me! You can view my portfolio here!

OTHER PROJECTS

Freelance and releases aside, I've been doing some other fun stuff too. Some of these things are somewhat under wraps, or are uncertain or have a ways to go until completion, but I can touch on them at least.

• I've been getting into animation again, just a little! I have a really short, 11 second thing on the way to get myself warmed up again. I'll probably release it here, though I don't imagine it'll do stellar. Either way, it'll be fun and it's been a nice return to the craft! I'm hoping to animate some bigger things within the next year or so (if time allows).
• I've also been composing a new cartoon by Jaquin, though I'm not sure how much I'm allowed to say about it right now. I've spoiled that one is coming now though, soo sorry Jaq! He is one of my favorite artists/animators on this platform though, so please check out his art and give him a follow.
• And lastly, I've been working on a game. Well, just started recently. I've been making games for fun for about 10 years now (wow), but every time I get going on something, the ideas inevitably balloon to an impossible scale, and it ends up sitting in the void forever. This time though, I've outlined the whole game FIRST, so new ideas get to sit on the backburner while the essential stuff gets made first. It's gonna be a pretty decent while before I'm able to share more about it with you though, and it's possible it will end up sitting in the void just the same as the others. I have hope for this one though, I'm teaming up with a friend, and I'm excited about the idea. Hopefully I have more to report some day soon. I hope you like gambling.

OTHER STUFF

• Voice Acting

It's been a very long-time dream of mine to be a voice actor, and sometime soon, I'm going to whip up a demo reel to stick on Newgrounds. I'd love to act in your animations, and I will lend my voice to your project no matter what it is (I may eat those words later). Obviously for free! Anywho, if you need a voice actor, I'd love to help you out.

• Newgrounds Features

I have this new hobby of writing incredibly long feature requests to Tom through the forums or messaging. I think about this site all the time and am always having new ideas. I love that Tom will read anything. It's very clear how much he cares about this site and its community, and it feels so great to be a part of it, even if I'm not really doing anything! Some of my absolutely genius ideas include: An SFX section on the audio portal, April Fool's Day loot boxes and profile cosmetics, blog post scheduling, better playlists, radio features, and surely some more.

• Digital Fusion

I've been getting closer with the digital fusion community over the last year or so, as I find the music really resonates with me, and is what I love to make. It's been awesome to see the community appear on Newgrounds too, and I look forward to seeing it grow! If you are a digital fusion composer, please message me. I have some opportunities and plans for seeing community growth on Newgrounds on the horizon.

• How to support me?

I am sometimes asked how I may receive support or tips for the stuff I offer. I very much appreciate those of you who have reached out about that! I don't usually have a great answer, as I don't have a Patreon or donate button or anything. I think, though, the best way you can support me is via Bandcamp, where while all my music is free, anyone is free to pay what they want for the offerings on there. Additionally, and preferably, you can support me for free just by sharing my music around with people who may need/like it and following me online! While I always appreciate some monetary help (helps me eat!), I find that having people around who find what I do to be helpful/enjoyable is my favorite. Especially if you comment and interact and all that. I love hearing from you guys, and I've been very touched by some of the messages and comments I've received! I've been working on my Twitter and YouTube presence lately. Or if you must throw money my way, consider commissioning some music!

SUMMARY

If you've made it this far, you are insane. Thank you for that, really. I hope my ramblings were enlightening or helpful to you in some way! If you want to talk about anything, need advice or help, need music for your project but can't afford it, or like tacos and want to rave about them, I would love nothing more than to talk to you! This year, I plan to lift up the community however I can. I am working towards financial independence with my music, and once I get there, making free music for you guys will be what I get to do for as long as I can!! I love you all, and I thank you very much for the continued support, kind words, and listening! And a special thanks to Tom Fulp for reading so many of my ramblings over the last few months, and always making a point to respond in great detail! You (and the team) are a huge part of what makes Newgrounds one-of-a-kind, and a platform I want to see take over the world some day.

Best wishes, all!

-Zane Little

HEY!!! I LOVE YOU!!!!

Here are some updates just for you:

Starting with the biggest news!

From here forward, all audio I upload to Newgrounds will be free-to-use. I'm excited to share my music with you, and I'd like to make it as easily accessible as possible! In fact, everything I've uploaded this year is free-to-use, barring my first track of the year. It's been published to streaming services already, so I can't change it.. That being said, I plan for even music I publish to streaming services in the future to still be free-to-use and available here on Newgrounds. That means you can include it in your projects anywhere without asking! Just go for it! (That includes Geometry Dash!)

and for the small news..

I've created a bunch of playlists to make listening to my music on Newgrounds much easier. All organized chronologically and sorted out just for you! Whether you're an artist, developer or just a listener, there's a playlist for you! You can check 'em out here: https://zanelittle.newgrounds.com/playlists

In more playlist news...

I've written a giant big fat post in the forum about some ideas for playlist features on Newgrounds. If that is something that interests you, you can read it here: https://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1512183

I made a plugin for FL Studio!

In my birthday blog post back in August, I revealed and released my FL Studio plugin "Console-ify". If you are a music producer looking for new sounds, check it out here: https://zanelittle.newgrounds.com/news/post/1298474

aaand finally....

I exist on the internet.

While basically everything I do outside of Newgrounds can also be found on Newgrounds, I am hoping to one day make my way in the world on music alone. The best way to support me is to follow me on the platforms you use most! If that's Newgrounds, then I appreciate you already being here!! You can find me everywhere from here: https://linktr.ee/zanelittle

I appreciate you for reading! I love you even more now. Say hello and I'll say it back!!

And I have a GIFT for YOU!

I've been working on an FL Studio Patcher plugin for a little while now and it is ready to be released! Basically, it can simulate the sound of an old Game Console or TV and there are a lot of options to tweak the sound however you like. For my birthday, all I want is to hear someone use it. It's totally free and all that, and great for people who like to make video game music. I'll be making some demos that demonstrate some creative use of the plugin, but it's already in some of my tunes.

The only tutorial I have right now is this one I put on Twitter (it's not great), and if you prefer to figure it out solo, the download link is here too.

"Tutorial": https://twitter.com/zanelittlemusic/status/1562868279122673666

Download: https://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/dab6bc5e2d83efd3a5f1eca786177761

Please enjoy! It will make me HAPPY!

And please send me a link to your track if you decide to use this plugin so I can listen to it with a big fat smile on my face.

Dailiez:

Some folks have been keeping up with 'Dailiez' which was a little project I started to make one song a day. It was mostly a way to challenge myself, get free-to-use music out to people who want it, as well as just get more crap on Twitter. It's been a lot of fun so far, and if you're interested in checking it out, here's all the tracks here on Newgrounds! (Be warned, some tracks are better than others.)

https://www.newgrounds.com/search/conduct/audio?sort=date-desc&match=tags&tags=dailiez

The News:

'Dailiez' will be ending on day 30. One month really isn't all that much time, and I know I've been well outdone before. Luckily the streak wasn't really the point. I did want to do this longer though, but I'm currently not in the best situation at the moment to produce good music for Dailiez every day, which was the original goal, but one I've sort of let go of lately. It is not easy to produce finished songs for clients and listings on top of a daily song, and while I've tried to blend those things together, it's not always super doable. It also hurts to release music that I know isn't great sometimes.

All this being said, I do have plans for Dailiez to return in one form or another. I have some ideas in mind, and some that will not flood my feed with low-effort music every day. This first 30 days could be considered a test run. "Vol. 1". I am looking forward to bringing back Dailiez when the time is right. For now, Volume 1 is available here on Newgrounds for listening/downloading/GD, SoundCloud, Twitter (+BTS), Bandcamp (hq downloads and of course free-use!), and possibly YouTube soon. I'll include some links to those at the bottom of this post if you are interested!

What I've Learned:

I guess the question of making a song every day is not whether or not you can, but whether or not you should. I think for new musicians, this answer is absolutely yes. You don't have to share it or do anything with it, just DO it! It's fantastic practice, and wonderful discipline for people who struggle with musician's block. Forcing yourself to do this will make you more comfortable with getting started on new tracks, will make you more familiar and efficient with your DAW, and will likely force you to try new things which in basically all cases means learning new things! Finding a way around a busy schedule has its benefits too, and will get you to create music in situations where you may be limited or unfamiliar. The longer you go, the stronger a musician you will be, and I believe that fully!!

In my situation, while I do feel I have gained from Dailiez in some ways, I am already someone who makes music every day. It is my job. If one thing may change, it may be that I will try to make music on days where I wouldn't have normally done so! In this case, I've found myself creating a lot of music in a day in addition to the daily track, and it is usually not priority #1. The result is sometimes something rushed or incredibly short, or just lacking as I have often exhausted my musical juices for the day. I do think the challenge was beneficial though, and I've taken the opportunity to experiment in a lot of places I haven't before. I am certainly a stronger musician for it.

Conclusion/TL;DR

Dailiez is ending on day 30, and will make a comeback someday in some way. For now, volume 1 is available at the links below, are all free to use however you'd like, and can be streamed and downloaded from Bandcamp and Newgrounds! If you are a new musician and you are interested in making a song every day, do it.

Thank you for reading, and thank you to everyone who's been riding along on the daily train! It's been a blast! I will have some new awesome stuff for you guys soon.

Where to find Dailiez:

Newgrounds: https://www.newgrounds.com/search/conduct/audio?sort=date-desc&match=tags&tags=dailiez

Bandcamp: https://zanelittle.bandcamp.com/album/dailiez

SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/zane-little/sets/dailiez

OpenGameArt: https://opengameart.org/users/zane-little-music

Twitter: https://twitter.com/zanelittlemusic

Hello! I have some good news for Geometry Dash level creators who've been wanting to use my music!

Due to a recent name change on Newgrounds, my music after a certain point hasn't been available on GD as my page was unlisted. Luckily though, that has been fixed!

Thanks to https://paintingorange.newgrounds.com/ for getting my page whitelisted again!

All my recent music (post-name-change) should all be available for use now! Happy creating!