> AI couldn't make my friends smile at me as I play them my music I've made, that's quite literally priceless.

Can I ask how you share music with friends? I guess this is part of my problem, I don't really have anyone I could share with or collaborate with. The few people in my life don't listen to the type of music I like.

I ask them to come over, then I ask them "Hey, mind if I play this for you and you tell me what you think?" basically. Alternatively, send it as a .mp3 via Whatsapp/Telegram and ask for feedback, but that's almost never as fun or useful.

Best way to meet like-minded people is to go to music events where those people are, always a ton of music makers around those, usually also by themselves, sometimes in the back or on the side to the speakers. Most people in such events are OK with being approached by strangers :)

I have "friends" purely through common interest in music, and the same for bicycles too.

My oldest/life-long friends have very different musical tastes...and some can't even ride a bike :)