Song Research Loop
When someone says "make it like that song," study the song instead of copying it — turn it into a grounded style direction and a reusable artist entry.
Anyone who starts from a reference — "I want something like [a specific song]" — and wants their AI agent to actually understand what makes that song work, so the new song lands in the right sound without cloning the original.
This is the loop that fires the moment you point at a real song and say "make it like this." Instead of trying to copy the track, it researches it: it identifies the artist and the era, names the sub-genres and the stylistic family the song lives in, breaks down the production and the structure that define its feel, and pins down the handful of things that make it sound distinctive rather than generic. The output is not a copy of the song — it is a clear-eyed understanding of why the song sounds the way it does.
Hold onto the core idea, because it shapes everything: the reference song is a compass, not a blueprint. You are reading it for direction — which sub-genres, which textures, which tempo and vocal attitude, which structural moves — so your new, original song can head toward that same sound. You are never lifting its melody, its lyrics, or its identity. The point of the study is to extract reusable bearings (sub-genres plus a style prompt), then write something that belongs in the same neighborhood as the reference without standing on it.
The loop doesn't work alone. Once it has identified the artist behind the song, it hands off to the Artist Research Loop, which captures that artist as a proper, reusable entry in your Artist Library — so the next time you reach for that voice you don't start from scratch. It also leans on the genre encyclopedia to name sub-genres precisely and place the song in the wider tree of styles, instead of settling for a vague "modern pop." The encyclopedia is what turns a gut feeling about the sound into specific, writable sub-genre language.
What comes out is a grounded style direction you hand straight to a writing loop: the named sub-genres, a pasteable style prompt built from craft adjectives and production language, the structural shape worth borrowing, and the distinctive moves to chase. Naming the real artist and song as study references is part of the work and entirely fine — but the final style prompt describes the sound with craft language and never instructs the agent to impersonate a living artist's identity.
Skills & actions it uses
The concrete, reusable skills this loop calls to actually do the work.
the Artist LibraryThe reusable store of artist entries this loop builds toward — once the song's artist is identified, the voice gets captured here so you never research it from scratch again.the genre encyclopediaNames the song's sub-genres precisely and places it in the wider genre tree, turning a gut feel about the sound into specific, writable sub-genre language for the style prompt.the Artist Research LoopThe required handoff — takes the artist(s) this loop identifies and researches their broader catalog into a proper, reusable Artist Library entry.a writing loopThe downstream handoff — receives the grounded style direction (sub-genres, style prompt, structural notes) and writes an original song that heads toward the reference's sound without copying it.
The loop
- 1
Identify the song, the artist, and the era
Start by pinning down exactly what you're studying. Confirm the specific recording you mean, who made it, and when — because the same title can mean different songs, and an artist's sound shifts era to era. This is also where the Artist Library connection begins.
- Confirm the exact track and artist you're referencing — not just a title that could match several songs
- Pin the era or the specific release, since the artist's production and vocal style may have changed across their career
- Note whether more than one artist defines the sound (a featured vocalist, a producer with a signature stamp) — each is a separate study reference
- Flag the artist(s) so the handoff to the Artist Research Loop knows who to capture
- 2
Place the song in the genre tree
Use the genre encyclopedia to name the sub-genres precisely instead of stopping at a broad family. Specific sub-genre language is what makes the eventual style prompt writable and original rather than an average of everything.
- Locate the song's primary genre, then drill into the specific sub-genre(s) it actually lives in
- Capture stylistic mixtures — many distinctive songs sit at the seam between two sub-genres
- Pull the encyclopedia's vocabulary for those sub-genres (typical instrumentation, tempo, texture) so the description is concrete
- Prefer a precise sub-genre over a vague family — "the room to play" is in the sub-genres, not the headline genre
- 3
Break down the production and arrangement
Listen for what actually creates the sound — the instruments, the mix character, the sonic signatures a listener would recognize. This is the raw material the style prompt is built from.
- Name the core instruments and the 3-5 that carry the track's identity
- Describe the mix character: warm or bright, dense or spacious, lo-fi or polished, dry or drenched in reverb
- Capture the vocal treatment and delivery — sung vs rapped vs spoken, intimate vs anthemic, layered vs solo
- Note the tempo and groove feel, and any signature production move (a specific drum sound, a sample texture, a synth patch)
- 4
Map the structure worth borrowing
Outline how the song is built section by section, so the new song can borrow its shape and pacing without borrowing its content. Structure is a reusable bearing; lyrics and melody are not.
- Sketch the section order and where the song's energy peaks and drops
- Note structural moves that define the feel — a long intro, a pre-chorus lift, a stripped bridge, a key change, a sudden drop
- Capture the rough length and how front-loaded or slow-building the song is
- Borrow the shape and the pacing logic — never the actual lyric lines or topline melody
- 5
Pin down what makes it distinctive
Separate the generic from the special. Most of a reference song is shared with hundreds of others; a few choices make it itself. Name those, because they are what "make it like this" actually means.
- List the 2-4 things a listener would point to as the song's signature
- Distinguish the genre baseline (shared with the whole sub-genre) from the distinctive choices (unique to this track)
- Decide which distinctive moves are worth chasing in an original song and which are too tied to the original to reuse
- Keep this honest — chasing the signature is fine; reproducing the song is not
- 6
Hand off to the Artist Research Loop
Pass the identified artist(s) to the Artist Research Loop so the voice becomes a reusable Artist Library entry. This is a required handoff — the Song Research Loop finds the artist; the Artist Research Loop captures them properly.
- Send the artist name(s) and the era you studied to the Artist Research Loop
- That loop researches the artist's broader catalog and writes a reusable Artist Library entry — not just this one song
- The result is a library entry you can reach for again without redoing the research
- If the song's sound comes from a producer or featured voice as much as the lead, capture each as its own entry
- 7
Produce the grounded style direction
Synthesize the study into the deliverable a writing loop can use: the named sub-genres plus a pasteable style prompt built from craft adjectives and production language. This is the bridge into the writing loops.
- Name the locked sub-genre(s) and any deliberate mixture, drawn from the encyclopedia
- Build a tight style prompt: genre front-loaded, then 3-5 instruments, the vocal mode, one emotional anchor, a length target
- Describe the voice with craft language and adjectives only — never name the living artist in the final prompt, and never instruct impersonation of their identity
- Carry over the structural shape and the distinctive moves worth chasing as notes for the writer
- 8
Hand the direction to a writing loop
This is a research loop, not a writing loop — it produces a direction, not a finished song. Pass the sub-genres, style prompt, and structural notes to a writing loop, which writes an original song that heads toward the reference's sound without copying it.
- Hand off the style direction to a writing loop to write the actual original lyric and final prompt
- The writing loop owns the words and the hook; this loop owns the sound direction and the artist capture
- If the first take drifts from the target sound, refine the sub-genres or the style prompt rather than copying the reference more closely
- Keep the reference as a compass throughout — the new song should belong in the same neighborhood, not be the same house
Then run it again for the next song, chapter, or track.
You end with
- A clear identification of the reference: the exact song, the artist(s), and the era you studied
- A precise placement in the genre tree — the named sub-genre(s) and any mixture, drawn from the genre encyclopedia
- A breakdown of the production, arrangement, structure, and the 2-4 distinctive moves that define the song's feel
- A reusable Artist Library entry for the artist(s), captured via the handoff to the Artist Research Loop
- A grounded style direction — named sub-genres plus a pasteable style prompt in craft adjectives (no artist names) — ready to hand to a writing loop
Skip this loop if…
- You actually want a copy or soundalike of the reference song — this loop deliberately extracts a direction, not a clone, and won't reproduce its melody, lyrics, or identity
- You're not starting from a specific reference song — if you already know the sub-genres you want, go straight to a writing loop
- You want the agent to impersonate a living artist's identity rather than write an original voice in the same stylistic neighborhood
How it connects
Requires
Run these loops first — this one builds on what they produce.
Pairs with
Commonly run just before or after this one in the pipeline.