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New Age Music – A Genre Without Remixes

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One thing that makes New Age music different is the almost total lack of remixes. While similar genres such as chill out and electronica have a massive selection of remixes, years go by without a single song being mixed by another artist in New Age music. Why is it so?

First I will start by showing some of the few remixes that are available, illustrating the fact that music in our genre is indeed «remixable» (if that is even a word). Major artists such as Enigma, Enya and Deep Forest have had their songs remixed by other artists many times. I have made a Mixcloud podcast called «New Age music Remixes», which you can check out below. I must also mention Secret Garden’s «You Raise Me Up». This is one of the most recorded songs in the world. That is pretty impressive for a New Age music band!

These tracks aside; New Age music is a desert when it comes to remixes. Just like chill out and electronica, New Age music is highly sequenced music. It is easy for an artist to send a file containing the needful samples and notes to another artist for him or her to do a remix. Indeed, 90 % of the artists use the same software synths (Omnisphere, Serum and Native Instruments Komplete), so to get started is no problem at all.

I believe the reason for the lack of remixes is the focus on original music. It is so hard to establish yourself as an artist that making remixes simply is not on your to-do list. There’s no obvious market for such remixes when the market itself is so small. But as always; if you make a remix and it sounds amazing, people on sites such as Soundcloud and Youtube will «raise you up», to quite the above mentioned hit by Secret Garden.

If you are an up-and-coming New Age music artist, it is not a bad idea to «play around» with the music of established artists. If you contact them with a clear vision of what you want to do, they will most certainly provide you with samples and other necessary files. Piano based music is always easy to re-record, since all you need is the sheet music – which many artists sell on their websites.

I don’t think remixes will be «the next big thing» in New Age music, but it would be nice if we at least got a few more remixes. That’s not a lot to ask for…

Picture by Altafulla – Bigstockphoto