Community is more important than ever in this overly connected, but increasingly segmented world that we live in — even more so with music. It almost no longer matters if that community is physically connected anymore as well.
Being part of a community is one of the best things you can do to build relationships with other like-minded people. It is also an important aspect of networking and growing your influence as a musician or producer.
People have moved on from IRC and facebook groups to a platform called DISCORD.
If you haven’t heard of DISCORD, it is a server-based chatroom where you can talk with people in channels, similar to Slack for the business world. People can use text or voice to have live conversations, share your work, and get feedback, or even start collaborations. As a bonus, it is free to use.
Discord Servers for Musicians and Music Producers
Here is an ever-growing list of the best discord servers I have found around the internet focused on music and music production. When I say best, I am looking for a tight-knit community of active users, good server administration, and many community-led events such as collaborations and contests. So here are the best discord servers for musicians, producers, and songwriters.
1. WeAreTheMusicMakers
About The Server: This musician Discord server is an off-shoot from the largest music community on Reddit, r/WeAreTheMusicMakers. This is one of the largest Discord music communities that I have found, and while the largest doesn’t mean best, it has over 6,000 members of musicians all over the music-making spectrum.
Community: This is one of the more robust servers as it isn’t targeting a certain group of musicians or genre. There are many people here that will be able to help you with theory, sound-design, mixing, production, and songwriting. This is my go-go community to ask my more general music questions.
What Makes It Great: This is one of the more diserve discord communities of musicians and producers ranging from all skills levels and various genres. Also, every month they have a competition that is a unique challenge and will get you out of your production or songwriting comfort-zone. Here is an example from Nov. 2020:
2. We Suck At Producing
About The Server: This is a huge server with over 18,000 members and 3,000 people online at the time of this writing. It was created by the producer and creator of the Youtube Channel “You Suck At Producing”, which has a great series on producing in Ableton and has gained him a large following.
Community: The people in sever are generally more interested in producing electronic music in various genres – think synth wave, loft hip hop, future bass, house, etc, but any producer is welcome in this community.
What Makes It Great: This server is well managed and has a very active community that has one of the best feedback critique systems I have seen on any forum, group, or discord server.
- Feedback / Roasts: In most places, the feedback section is usually a dumping ground of posting your music into the void and not getting any response critiques. This server has very strict rules on posting and requires you to give good feedback before you can post your music. They call it it getting “Roasted” and Underbelly will critique or…roast some of the best tracks posted on the livestream he does every Sunday.
Here is an example of feedback someone got for this track when I checked today:
- Challenges: They hold monthly production challenges on various themes and genres. Here is an example of one of the latest challenges:
3. Music Production
About The Server: This server is also affiliated with a reddit channel, r/MusicProduction. It has over 19,000 members and about 4,000 people currently online.
Community: This is a community of hobbyists, professional musicians, and enthusiasts to talk about music production, ask questions, collaborate, and share tips. All music creators, not just producers, are welcome here.
What Makes It Great: This discord community also has a great feedback systems which pretty much guarantees that you will get some feedback if you post your music. It is all done though a bot which tracks who has received or not received feedback. Also, this community seems to be a little more noob (beginner friendly). So don’t feel stupid asking any questions here.
4. Lo-Fi Hiphop
- About The Server: Lofi has been on the raise the past few years and there was bound to be a discord server for it. This server is about 1,000 members strong.
- Community: Even though this is a smaller server targeting a fairly niche genre, this community is very active. If you are interested in making beats, especially lofi beats, then you need to join this community. But even if you are not, the people can help you with general music production and other things. The admins here are very active in trying to make this a great community with live streaming, events, and beat battles.
What Makes It Great: This server hosts a beat showcase every Sunday. This is a giant Discord livestream where everyone in the community can listen to your submissions.
- Beat Battles: This is a way for you to create short beats by flipping a sample provided by the person starting the beat battle. Here is an explanation from the admin:
So the way beat-battles work is that at any time you can ask people to participate in 25 minute beat battles. The person that is asking to do a beat battle HAS to be the one that has the sample. Don’t get people in here and not have a sample or ill smite u to hell. After the people are here you have 25 minutes to flip said sample. After that you have 5 minutes to upload. Once everyone is uploaded you begin sharing what you created. After everyone has shared you vote who had the best beat.
5. EDMProd
About The Server: This server has over 11,000 members with 2,200 currently online. This server was created by ill-Esha, a Canadian based artist. This is the official partner sever to the subreddit r/edmproduction.
Community: The community here is all little smaller and is very welcoming to new members.
- What Makes It Great: They have a QnA every few weeks with some pretty big names in the music industry with artists such as Haywyre and music-audio companies.
Other Servers to Check Out
- Andrew Huang #803 – This is Andrew Huang’s discord channel that is filled with other people interested in music production.
- Beet Battle – Up for a challenge? Then you should join the Beet Battle server. They host 48-hour long challenges to make the best beat by flipping asample that is provided.
How To Become A Part of a Discord Server Community
You want to joined a discord server to be in a community of like minded people with similar goals as you. You are going to have to put in some work at joining in conversations and making friendships just like you would in real life.
I don’t recommend trying to be an active member in all of these discord servers I recommenced. That would be difficult and ultimately a waste of time. This is what I recommend that you do…
- Join all of the servers that you are interested in.
- Lurk through the channels and conversations
- Keep a mental note of the servers that seems the most enjoyable for you
- Then limit yourself to try to be active in 1 or 2 of those servers. By active, I mean joining in conversations, asking questions, giving feedback, and participating in events.
- Of the many servers you joined, you can stay a lurker or leave the ones that seem like they are dying or not your cup of tea.
Final Thoughts
I have found online chatrooms like these to provide a great opportunity to build friendships. I remember back in the day when I was playing games, I was always in IRC with people discussing the games, and it ultimately led me to build friendships and feel like I was in a community that I still fondly remember to this day.
Are you a part of a great music production discord community that would be a great addition to this list? Let me know in the comments, and I’ll check it out!