You’ve seen it on Facebook, Tweeted by your favorite producers, and read about it on message boards; Splice is everywhere. As a producer, you ask yourself “should I be using Splice as a part of my production tools?” This is a question we’re seeing surface more and more often lately. Splice had a pretty heavy advertising push as of late to really get their service out there and into the hands of consumers. So what exactly is Splice, who uses it, and is it the right tool for me?
What exactly is Splice? Splice describes itself as a “cloud-based music creation and collaboration platform, which integrates with Digital Audio Workstations to offer automated online backups…with collaboration and visualization of the creation process.” So what does that all mean exactly? Splice is built as an online backup service as well as a platform to help streamline collaboration between producers. More recently, they’ve also built an ecommerce platform for users to purchase various samples and plugins.
So who’s using it? Some of the biggest names that have attached themselves to Splice in some capacity including: Datsik, Deadmau5, Kshmr, and even Tiesto. So do these guys really use the platform? Probably, but it’s important to note that they are being paid by Splice to promote AND use it. They are also making money off of the things they offer on the platform – particularly samples and sound packs. As we mentioned in a recent Deadmau5 article, this sort of partnership is extremely common practice for producers to provide an additional revenue stream; but don’t really let that dissuade you from taking a look.
Should I use Splice and what’s it going to cost me? Splice can be used in two different ways: Free and Paid. At the very least you can use Splice for FREE and take advantage of their cloud backup services and access to some free project files. If you’re looking to take a peek at some project files it’s a much easier way than Googling for hours on end. So what does the monthly plan of Splice cost me? It’s about 8 dollars USD to access their sounds library. This allows you to literally pick and choose individual samples instead of buying giant packs. Some people really like this flexibility – essentially a “pay for only what you use” system. Lastly, Splice also allows you to buy those expensive plugins on a pay-as-you-go model. If you’re strapped for cash and want to stay legit as a producer, this is one of the only services around that allow you to do so.
Anyway, that’s Splice as an offering. We aren’t being paid by Splice to talk about it… yet… so we’re just giving you the facts here and dropping some knowledge. Take a look for yourself to decide if it’s the right product for you. Go ahead and leave your thoughts below.