That said, I have been involved in “songwriter clubs” which are like open mics, but restricted to original compositions, with discussion of the process in addition to listening to the music. I think pre-recorded material works better there, because the emphasis is less on the performance and more on songwriting.

The drum loop thing sounds like a whole different story.

I remember the keynote when garageband was first introduced. John Mayer was onstage playing, basically suggesting you could use drum loops from GB as your backup band… (and if he had this as a teenager he never would’ve left his room — since it’s so much cooler than playing over records).