MarketMusic of the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fandom
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Music of the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fandom

The music of the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fandom has developed into a large subculture, often referred to as brony music, since the show's premiere in 2010. Fan-created music has become one of the most prominent aspects of the brony community, encompassing multiple genres and styles, such as classical guitar, rock, and electronic dance music. A number of brony artists have achieved significant followings both within and outside the fandom, with several tracks going viral and gaining recognition from mainstream music publications. According to a 2018 study on the brony fandom, 70% of respondents reported that they listened to brony music daily.

Overview
The musical subculture of the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fandom emerged almost immediately following the show's premiere in October 2010. Within two years of the show's premiere, the fan music scene grew substantially, with the fandom news website Equestria Daily regularly featuring new songs and albums. Many fan-created compositions were inspired by the show's own music composed by Daniel Ingram, the show's composer. As the brony community grew, music creation became one of its most prolific creative outlets. Pony music videos (PMVs) In addition to creating original music, the brony fandom produces numerous "pony music videos" (PMVs), analogous to anime music videos (AMVs) in anime fandoms. Like AMVs, PMVs typically feature clips from the show synchronized to music, often accompanied by visual effects, transitions, and sometimes original animation. Ponies at Dawn (P@D) Founded in 2012, Ponies at Dawn is a compilation album project featuring music from the fandom. The label has released 31 compilation albums, each featuring tens of songs. ==History==
History
2010–2019: My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic era The My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fandom's musical output is considered unique in its enormous volume compared to other fandoms' musical subcultures, In 2011, EverFree Radio—a brony music stream—identified nearly 5,000 pony-related songs, and subsequently streamed brony music 24 hours a day. In November 2011, Ken Ashcorp released the song "20 Percent Cooler", a reference to Rainbow Dash's catchphrase from the episode "Suited for Success". In December 2011, a number of brony musicians collaborated with the charity Bronies for Good to produce Smile, a charity album that benefited Children's Cancer Association, which raised $21,000 in less than a month. A brony music festival called Ponystock is featured as part of the convention Everfree Northwest; which featured popular fandom musicians like Silva Hound (who would later go on to write fan songs inspired by Hazbin Hotel, including "Addict"). Everfree Network, a brony media network, compiled more than 4,800 pieces of fan music by over 500 different musicians. Throughout this period, the brony music scene witnessed the rise of numerous influential artists spanning multiple genres. Electronic musician duo The Living Tombstone initially gained popularity making remixes of Friendship Is Magic. In a 2012 interview with Rolling Stone, Ingram acknowledged the vibrant fan musician community, noting that "YouTube views of works by The Living Tombstone, Alex S., Eurobeat Brony and more" were "rivaling those of label-signed musicians." Other notable contributors include Replacer, whose song "Finding My Way (Back Home)" gained popularity for its emotional depth, and performers like DustyKatt and Mic the Microphone. In November 2017, Ule Lopez of Geek Reply placed the two-part fan song and animation The Moon Rises (Remaster) and Lullaby for a Princess by Ponyphonic as number 1 on his list of the best brony songs of all time. As part of a fandom endeavor, by September 2019, over 730 gigabytes of brony music was archived in The Pony Music Archive. 2020–present: Post-My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic era Following the conclusion of Friendship Is Magic in 2019, brony music evolved from remixes of episodes to songs that often have minimal direct references to the show, with some brony musicians using the fandom primarily as a creative outlet rather than drawing directly from show content. One of the earliest examples was the explicit pony music video Pony Zone, which used AI-generated vocals of Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy. In June 2021, The Living Tombstone remix of the 2012 song "''''" by Odyssey Eurobeat went viral on social media. The song is themed around the eponymous character from Friendship Is Magic, a mischievous draconequus known for causing chaos and disharmony. Several users who used the song in their videos reported that they had been previously unaware of its My Little Pony'' origin. As of June 2021, the song had garnered over 47 million views on YouTube (and as of July 2025, over 84 million views) and had been used in over 500,000 videos on TikTok. wearing a costume of GIR from Invader Zim. In the same month, fandom musician Vylet Pony released the song "", an anthem encouraging people to "embrace the cringe" and celebrate their authentic interests without shame. David Hall of Firebird Magazine praised the song and called it "a song filled with love from the very top of its sugary synth lines to the deepest parts of its pounding bass, playfully weaving in references to Parry Gripp, Ray William Johnson, and Skype notifications so that you can’t help but smile to while listening to it." In February 2022, music critic Anthony Fantano featured the song "i've still got something to teach you" by Vylet Pony on The Needle Drop, Fantano's online music reviewing stream. The same year, Vylet Pony's album ''can opener's notebook: fish whisperer'' reached the top of Rate Your Music. In February 2024, the NBA's Portland Trail Blazers played "ANTONYMPH" during one of their games. In a August 2024 weekly music review on The Needle Drop, Fantano praised Vylet Pony's song "where do we begin?" and called it "very sweet on the ears and adorable as hell." In November 2024, Vylet Pony released the progressive rock concept album Monarch of Monsters, which has been described by Bonnibel Rampertab of The Daily Campus as her "most ambitious work thus far." As part of a concert at HarmonyCon 2024, PrinceWhateverer performed alongside fellow brony musicians MelodyBrony, 4everfreebrony, and Whirlwind in the rock band My Little Romance—a parody of My Chemical Romance—and debuted a cover of "Welcome to the Black Parade." My Little Romance subsequently released an album that features My Little Pony themed parody songs of the album The Black Parade. The final performance of My Little Romance took place at GalaCon 2025. In 2026, two members of this band were joined by DBPony formed a new band Green Hay—a parody of Green Day—and released a new album parodying American Idiot. In March 2025, BABSCon—a brony convention in the San Francisco Bay Area—dismissed its music concert coordinator Pinkaboo three weeks before BABSCon's final edition, which prompted all of its brony musicians to withdraw from the official concert and organize an alternative event called Pinkaboo's Neighhem that was held immediately after the end of the convention. The alternative concert, which received its funding from 15 (the creator of 15.ai) and a GoFundMe campaign, drew over a thousand attendees (over half of BABSCon's attendees), and took place at the Fox Theatre in Redwood City, California. BABSCon replaced the cancelled concert with a performance by Mystery Skulls. which reached the top of music aggregate website Rate Your Music. The over 90-minute release featured collaborations with various artists (such as the narrator of Disco Elysium) and incorporated samples from video games like Call of Duty: Black Ops II, Fortnite, and Deltarune, as well as references to 2010s Internet culture and tributes to Skrillex. Amelia Zollner of Ringtone Mag praised the album and described it as "almost definitely Vylet's most ambitious album yet," though she acknowledged that some critics dismissed it as "meme music" due to its heavy use of irony and video game samples. Kieran Press-Reynolds of online music magazine Pitchfork gave Love & Ponystep a 7.8 out of 10 and praised the album's combination of electronic dance music with My Little Pony. == Reception and analysis ==
Reception and analysis
In a 2012 interview, Jayson Thiessen, the supervising director of Friendship Is Magic, commented that many of these fan productions approach the quality of his studio's work, and suggested the possibility of crowdsourcing some aspects of future production, while the show's composer, Daniel Ingram, often features fan-made songs on his personal webspace. A 2014 entrepreneurial case study identified brony music as an underserviced but growing market catered to by non-mainstream groups. == List of brony music concerts ==
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