Category: CommunityCategory: Community

I saw someone saying that writers need to make more video and audio because people love watching video and listening to audio.

I don’t care what “everyone” likes, but I’ll say this – in this modern age of AI where “anybody” can write a newsletter, your voice is more valuable than ever.

I’m not saying you need to start a YouTube channel or a high-production podcast, but I bet your readers would love to see you and hear you.

Again, I don’t care what TikTok or YouTube people are looking for, or what “content they like to consume.” I’m talking about the 35 people who subscribe to your newsletter.

There are many ways to do video and audio that don’t require dancing, talking into a camera, or buying a $350 microphone. You’re a creative person. Now is the time to find a creative way to share the parts of yourself that AI can’t replicate.

Make a video this weekend. You don’t need to upload it anywhere, or show it to anybody. But make a video. Watch it. Listen to your voice – YOUR VOICE. The one that OpenAI would like to train from.

Make a video so two weeks from now you can come back to it and feel something. Make another one. Someday share it with someone.

Do this because AI slop will continue to fill the internet, but your readers might find peace and calm in hearing your actual voice. The future of your work depends on the trust you build today.

Caroline in the Garden explains in ‘Stop being ‘demure and mindful’ when sharing your creative work’ how she tried something new to get people to a recent show:

“I made a list of every single person I had ever interacted with that seemed remotely interested in hearing more about my music. Then, I contacted them directly via emails, text messages, DMs and face-to-face. I was going to make sure that everyone I could think of was invited, personally, by me to my show.”

We covered this in our recent Escape Pod Zoom call, about talking to people in person, and texting people about our upcoming events.

And this isn’t just about getting people to your events and shows. Do this for new things you’ve got for sale, a new course you’re offering, or a group Zoom call you’re trying to put together.

We talked about this in yesterday’s Escape Pod Zoom call (next one is Sunday at 10am ET), about making videos to showcase our work.

This doesn’t have to mean making dance videos, or shouting directly into the camera, either. Check out the work of Noah Kalina, Taylor Pendleton, Softer Sounds, and ISETTA FILM, and see how they tell stories in their own unique way.

And when I say make a video, I don’t mean produce a fully-featured clip and upload it to YouTube. Set up your smart phone, or turn on your web cam, or make some voice notes talking the thing you do. Do this today. Tomorrow. This will help you when you get interviewed about your work, or someone asks you about your art at the local coffee shop.

Practice talking about your stuff.

It’s not just about walking away from social media, but where we’re walking to next. As I’ve been saying, social media loses power when we build community in other places. The following is by Heath Racela from ‘I Won’t Tell You to Avoid McDonald’s’

“I can spend the next four years shouting about each and every little decision, or I can spend that time working on building the alternative. I’m not exactly sure what that looks like yet: is it an alternative to the corporate media? Is it some alternative to our current political system? Is it just simply being engaged in mutual aid at the community level? For each of us, it will look different, but I think small, local community building is going to matter much more in the coming years.”

More from me:
COMMUNITY WILL BEAT THE ALGORITHMS
YOUR COMMUNITY WILL OUTLAST ANY PLATFORM
HOW TO FIND COMMUNITY
COMMUNITY WITHOUT PLATFORM

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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