Category: CommunityCategory: Community

I first saw Sleevenote on Substack. It’s a new music player with no streaming option, playing only music files you’ve bought and own. From their website:

The time has come to get serious about supporting music makers and valuing the music you love. Audition stuff on your phone and what you LOVE, you buy and put it on your Sleevenote.

I’ve been emailing with CEO Tom Kell a bit, and we’ve definitely hit upon the irony of the statement “nobody buys music,” and that everyone just does streaming now. Says Tom:

The statement “nobody buys music” is not true with the relatively healthy vinyl resurgence. The thing is people aren’t buying things that they don’t need to buy, and when buying vinyl (and to a lesser degree merch), music fans are often compelled by the motivation that they are “supporting the artist” with these purchases, and getting some form of physical and tactile experience (for however fleeting) in response. When subscription-based music access came along it cut the legs off the need to buy digital music, for a like-for-like experience – music on your phone. With Sleevenote, all our efforts are going in to making digital music feel more special, and now our ethical responsibility is, if we’re helping make it feel more special, it should now be worth more, and we do everything we can to put friction in the way to achieve that. In the topsy-turvy digital world, people pay for the removal of friction, ads are added so an ad-free version seems valuable.

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I recently asked “What’d we learn this year,” and Shane Valle offered this inspiring lesson:

“Of the 19 times someone performed one of my pieces of music (I’m a composer) this year, 17 of those times were because I directly reached out to an individual musician or ensemble, not because they were passively consuming or interacting with me or my content on social media.”

Finding musicians and ensembles to approach takes time and effort, and results aren’t promised. Posting to social media is much easier, and gets us off the hook – we get to say “hey, I tried!”

If the work we’re doing is magic, if it has the power to transform and uplift and inspire, then the work required to get it out there goes beyond just the work.

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Maybe quitting social media is more than apps and hacks which lean heavy on the SELF HELP industrial complex.

Maybe quitting social media involves other people who want to quit. Other small businesses folk who want to find new ways to market their work. Other creative people who could use the support of other people who seek the same escape.

Social media platforms isolate us, making us feel like we can just figure out the algorithm, the scheduling, the pacing, the engaging.

Then we try to walk away and look around and notice we’re alone. With more likes or comments, we lose the validation, the comfort, and we go running back. Or we buy a dumb phone, or a device, or set time limits on our apps, or try to go cold turkey.

This is why we need support, we need each other. Tough things are worth doing together with other people.

We have potential fans beyond the social media platforms, we just have to let them know we exist!

1/6/2026 – Rabbit Cavern, “Do you want to be friends with a crow?”

1/3/2026 – Elise Granata, “Flyering as a Spiritual Practice“

12/29/2025 – Mel Mitchell-Jackson

12/15/2025 – Mel Mitchell-Jackson

After listening to you chat with Amelia on Off The Grid I made a bunch for my tutoring offers! Here’s one in San Francisco after a few months of sun and fog fade!

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12/14/2025 – From WBEZ Chigago (link via Jen):

The 51-year-old graphic artist, Derek Erdman, swears there’s no catch behind his quirky side project. Instead, he describes his public art stunts as acts as civil disobedience, or “civil d” for short.

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I’ve learned over two decades of writing online is that the half-way okay blog post becomes a foundation not just for better blog posts, but for better conversations.

The ideas keep coming so we must keep writing.
We become tuned to the frequencies that expand these ideas.

An example; I went out for a donut and iced coffee, and had a conversation with the shop owner which becomes a blog post.

I’ve written probably 100 posts since then, which led to more conversations, a cycle that adds seasoning and fresh ingredients to the next blog post or newsletter, which can’t help but bubble up in conversation because I’m living and breathing this subject matter.

Then, what I’ve found, is taking these conversations into new spaces of varying discomfort bolsters the ideas.

Talking with a friend is safe, but things feel different on a group Zoom call with people you don’t know, or on a podcast, or on a panel in front of 30 people.

I’ve been writing about ditching social media for years. Then I started hosting weekly Zoom calls with readers back in 2023, joined other online community calls, did live stream interviews, and appeared on a handful of podcasts.

Then I did something even more uncomfortable by setting up at punk rock flea market and talking with people face to face about leaving social media.

These conversations, in varying “live” settings, sharpened my ideas and my ability to express them.

This is how Cory Doctorow can riff about horrible corporations for over an hour and make it look easy.

We can all do this if we stop spending five hours a day on our phones.

We lose in followers, but we gain by honing our craft, finding our unique ways to express the ideas and concepts that will resonate with the right people.