Okay, no #CriticalRole lo-fi musicians in again, but I think I more fully see what CR is going for overall & when they don't quite fit (but should probably get their own episode to promote them to the community if there's no copyright problem they're avoiding, which I'll get to).

First the creative reasons: these playlists are designed to be study music more than listening music, i.e. music the brain ignores with most processes. Whereas the lo-fi sampling Critical Role or any speech is more about active listening.

The voice samples CR has added to their playlists are very short interludes of new or rerecorded quotes so they all have the same sound quality, levels, and tones for smoother listening. They're designed to not interrupt the flow. The tracks themselves are all instrumental.

So in some ways they're taking the same general idea the Critter lo-fi artists are (which is not novel) and stringing it way out to the ultimate smooth state. Which isn't higher quality or anything, it's just a slightly different aesthetic of equal value.

They're also shaping these playlists as a reflection of the lo-fi styles the characters would chill to. Jester's was the popular style of strong steady beat lines and floating grooving melodies on top. More hip-hop influences (very much emulating ChilledCow's playlist style).

Empire Kids it was lo-fi jazz. Much more complex beats often changing. Music was contemplative in a more active way and much less mellow way. Less about feeling the pulse to the world as making active connections and dialogue while studying.

So in a way these are an iteration on the character playlists they've done in the past. What lo-fi represents these characters? Which music explicitly about them is not quite in the spirit of because he reflects our understanding instead of adding to it.

So that's the aesthetic angle, but some (all?) of those artists are doing good all-instrumental lo-fi and should be considered. Which brings up the other reason they may be ignoring Critter lo-fi music: having to settle rules for copyright vs. free use that may be thorny.

Sampling has some legal murkiness to it. It's often considered fair use, but it's a grey area & courts have differing definitions of what constitutes free use vs. needing clearance. Like a lot of fanart, especially what's sold commercially, CR is mostly looking the other way.

But if they use any of the CR lo-fi, they'll have to clear it with the Critter artists, which means Critter artists will also have to clear the copyright questions with them, in writing, and Critical Role will be forced to draw up rules for where their line is.

There's a high probability they come out of that looking like the bad guy hostile to fan works, & they've built a large fan community around supporting fan works, so that could be disastrous. Or their rules open their copyright claim to actual exploitation by malicious people.

If they ignore it until there's a big problem they're forced to address, they can keep building their reputation & audience in a positive way as long as they can. Like N. K. Jemisin's excellent thread about why she needs people to stop sending her fanfic. https://twitter.com/nkjemisin/status/1253027892616929281?s=20

Critical Role has always had a complex relationship with fan works. They love them and want them to flourish, but they also put them (and fan artists) in a precarious legal place. They don't read fanfic (for the same reasons N. K. Jemisin doesn't).

Fanart & Cosplay they verbally support the whole community but favor showcasing more canonical work than transformative (which as the writers of the show trying to keep their own massive story in their heads with few errors as they create it weekly in improv makes perfect sense).

Wholly original fan music they've supported, including getting permission to use Colm McGuinness's fan music officially. But actual cut up sometimes long samples of the show in music shared or sold is much grayer, and I can see why they don't want to give an answer.

Because they don't want to say no to any of it, and if they open that can of worms, they have to officially say there's a line somewhere and there will be people who hate that line. So that may be another reason we never see them officially support the Critter lo-fi.

This is all speculation. I'm not them, and I don't know what they're thinking. But these are the two reasons that makes the most sense to me. I don't think they're shunning Critter artists for quality or because they don't approve of their work personally.