Category: sethwCategory: sethw

I like this quote from New Creative Era:

THE CREATIVE STATUS QUO HAS MADE US LONELY CONTENT MACHINES
PRESSURED TO POST WITH UNNATURAL QUANTITY AND FREQUENCY
TO PURSUE OUR LIVELIHOODS AND EXPRESS OUR WORK
WE PLAY SOMEONE ELSE’S GAME

I’ve been thinking about that first line a bit, as I sort of felt isolated as a writer, as someone trying to offer up ideas. I feel like it’s me vs everyone, stacking up against everyone else trying to offer solutions and ideas in a busy, hyper-competitive world of music and culture.

But I found some comfort in two podcasts recently, that sort of set me at ease, the first being with Bobby Hundreds on the Tim Ferris show:

The one thing that stuck with me was building something within a community.

Think of artists working together on various projects, like Turnstile working with BADBADNOTGOOD and today releasing this EP:

Working with other creative people is good energy, and good energy spreads. As the effectiveness of social media wanes, think of the creative people you can work with.

Next is ‘Common Shapes’ from Cody Cook-Parrott and their episode ‘The Art of Newsletters.’

Here’s a quote:

“Just hit send. It doesn’t have to be perfect. In fact, I imagine people might see your imperfections and think “me, too. I feel that, too. I have typos. I misspell things.” Whatever it is, let your anti-perfectionism be an invitation to your readers that it’s ok to be clumsy and start anyways. It’s ok to be mediocre and still hit send.”

I’ve botched subject lines, missed typos, and sent emails with broken links – life rolls on. Learn from it, and start work on the next one.

It’s most likely no one died from a tiny error in your newsletter. Let your humanity have some space in your work, in your social media posts, in whatever you do.

Things don’t have to be perfect, they just need to be done / shipped / out the door. And like I mentioned above, you don’t have to do it alone!

Digital Marketing Director (and someone I work with!) Kyle Frey at MNRK Music Group, on the Break the Gate Podcast:

There’s so much power in email marketing today. That’s definitely one of the most slept on areas, especially if you’re developing your own audience or fan base, bands should definitely get more on board with collecting that data, getting those emails. It’s your direct line of communication.

Email marketing is so strong for everything like, single rollouts, just basic communication, album presale, and just having that (first party) data is very important.

Bands, organic soap makers, photographers, any other creative souls – you need a direct line of communication with your fans.

Social media gives you the illusion of reaching your fans, but your posts never reach all your fans. Some of the bigger accounts on socials that are getting results – well, they probably got PAID, FULL TIME PEOPLE doing that work, or some other kind of help.

That’s what I meant when I wrote ‘PART TIME SOCIAL MEDIA EFFORT GETS YOU PART TIME RESULTS’ – you can only do so much an an independent artist. 

And I mean this with all my heart; as a creative person, the hard part is already done.

You write songs, take photographs, win races, teach courses, sell merch – whatever it is that you do – you’re doing it! That’s the hard part.

Setting up and sending out a newsletter? Come on, you can do this. You can figure it out.

You figured out how to do that stupid SWIPE UP thing with Instagram stories, right?

Ask a friend. Watch some YouTube videos. Send me an email (seth@closemondays.com) with some questions, or just book an hour call with me and we’ll this rolling.

We all figured out “hashtags” and vertical video.

Let’s figure out how to send an email to your fans.

From ‘25 THINGS TO SAY INSTEAD OF “NEW VIDEO‘ over at my HEAVY METAL EMAIL newsletter on Substack:

Every day, a hundred bands have a new music video to promote, but these creative, gifted, genius artists only seem to know one way to announce their new creative vision to the world:

NEW VIDEO [link]

Hours of planning, hiring a director, gathering equipment, location scouting, lighting, permits, and a long ass day playing in the woods or in an abandoned warehouse, and when it’s time to announce it to the world – the creative well is empty.

I’ve been at this for 20+ years, first on the editorial side running music blogs like Buzzgrinder and Noisecreep, then on the PR / label side of things.

Every day, a hundred bands have a new music video to promote, but these creative, gifted, genius artists only seem to know one way to announce their new creative vision to the world:

NEW VIDEO [link]

Hours of planning, hiring a director, gathering equipment, location scouting, lighting, permits, and a long ass day playing in the woods or in an abandoned warehouse, and when it’s time to announce it to the world – the creative well is empty.

Now obviously the videos below don’t need my help.

Let these serve as a imaginative starting point for your own creative projects – videos, new songs, new products, whatever you’re offering to the world.

Imagine each of these examples below as an email subject line, or a social media post, with a still shot from the video, and the short blurb as the caption.

1. We just shot a video at Giants Stadium in NJ!
2. Recognize the NYC music stores we hit while filming this video?
3. Hey you! Stop making out in the pit and watch us perform!

1. Boiling heat, summer stench – our new music video has it all
2. Baby goats, a dead bee keeper, lizard ladies and more
3. Put another Barbie on the grill!

1. How many Dave Mustaine’s can you count in our latest video?
2. Mankind has got to know… his limitations.
3. Zero human brains were injured in our new video

1. Most everything on the set for our latest video is from Rob’s house
2. See what it’s like to jump around in our singers house in our new video
3. We paid our friend $50 to walk around LA in a robot suit

These are tongue in cheek, of course, but you have to find the style and vibe and tone for your own work.

Make your announcements as creative as the work you’re promoting.

As is the case with most people that give advice, I’m good at telling people to have websites, while seriously neglecting my own.

So today, Monday, August 7, 2023 I’ve come full circle, having a fresh WordPress install (thanks Tom at I Heart Blank), and ready to get back to it.

Why have a website for your creative project? Why not just have a Bandcamp, or set up several social media accounts?

Well, you can have everything on Bandcamp, but as we saw earlier this year, there was some friction from ownership when their employees moved to unionize. Things worked out, I guess, but still.

And social media platforms are about as stable as crypto currency these days. Hell, Twitter is now X, even though their domain name is still Twitter. Instagram is a half ads, half people you don’t know, and Facebook? Dear lord.

Set up a website. Put all your press and accolades on it. Like I said in ‘DON’T MAKE SOCIAL MEDIA YOUR TROPHY CASE,’

Don’t spend all your effort on the “billboard,” then neglect your own establishment.

Playlist placements are amazing. All that hard work. The song writing. The recording. Years on the road.

All posted on platforms we don’t own, just so 10% of our social media followers can see it.

Websites close. DSPs will fail. Magazines will fold.

So make sure you got screen shots and photos of some of the big cool “earned media” on your own websites, set your domain name to auto-update, and pay for hosting every year.