Category: MarketingCategory: Marketing

I was honored to be asked to be Bree Noble’s podcast recently to talk about musicians trying to “make it all work” in 2025, coping with social media burnout, the vanity metrics, and how to maybe build something sustainable without sacrificing your sanity.

A lot can get distilled to the fact that a lot of what you post isn’t seen by like 95% of your followers. Or the gut-punch that every artist has felt, when you do everything “right” on social media and still get just four likes. As I put it on the show: “You reached fourteen people. That’s disheartening.“

We dug into what actually works, like playing a Tuesday-night show to fifteen people and making fans, or how grabbing a few emails after a set beats begging a platform to show your post to strangers on the internet.

Bree is a legend, and has spoken with so many artists over the years. She talks to Elaine Ryan about balancing gigs and sync work, Marc Christian about booking high-end events, Raven Rae about sustainable music careers – check out all of those interviews here!

A client who has worked with some big names wanted to build their email list, and I gave them this idea:

Think of the amazing people you worked with throughout the years, and think of all those stories you shared, and the memories you’ve made. They’ve got to have dozens of those stories to write, right?

So write that post, with that one person in mind. Then email that person a link to the piece.

This gets you around sending a boring email to “all your contacts” saying, “hey, I have a newsletter now, you should subscribe.”

Write a post that will resonate with the person you’re emailing. Yes, even if it’s just that one person. Email the person the link. Maybe they subscribe, or at least reply and you two catch up, and who knows where that leads?

It’s not always about striking it rich and getting 100 new sign ups. Sometimes the right message to the right person at the right time is all you need.

Originally posted on Nov 24, 2024 here.

From “Gen Z’s College Radio Revival:”

“I’m 21. I grew up in the age of algorithms. The way music is right now scares me because of the rise of AI. Not even AI made music (I hate it) but even just ‘Daily Mix, 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 5.’ It’s not made by someone. It’s made by an algorithm. I wish more of that stuff was person curated.”—Mari McLaughlin, WHRW (Binghamton)

“What attracts a lot of people to college radio is the idea of putting somebody on. Showing them a new song they haven’t seen before, outside of the algorithmic nature of streaming.”—Aidan Greenwell, WRFL (Kentucky)

I wrote “A Blackened Death Metal Band Has A College Radio Breakthrough” back in 2023:

“My understanding is, so the college radio stations started playing us and then one of these kids have like, graduated college and then started their own web radio stations. And so then they’re playing us on those, and then other people hear about it, and they’re playing us on their stations. And then some like real legitimate, like the one local radio station here, the Big Rock one has played us multiple times on it, which makes no sense to me.”

College radio will endure because the experience of music is youthful, it is life. I believe this because I see kids in Nirvana shirts, or hear them jamming Pearl Jam covers. Youthful zest isn’t flowing into Spotify, or other streaming music services, it’s a dead scene driving only by increasing profits for shareholders, and absolute race to the bottom. Meanwhile, “the kids” are still picking up guitars, playing with loop stations, setting up house shows.

Streaming music companies don’t stand a chance.

Great question from Evolet Yvaine via Substack.

Q. I’m just curious if any of your interviews are with fiction authors. Or if you’ve had clients who are fiction authors and how they’re navigating getting off social media.

A. Honestly, no, but I bet if I had some more conversations with fiction writers we’d get a little closer to the answer. Like, there is just so much to explore in this area, and so many beliefs to bust through, and so many ideas to bat around, but it takes time, trust, and some good old faith to see it through.

If you’re interested, you can get a 30 day trial for just $10 and join any of my 3+ weekly Escape Pod Zoom calls to talk about this sort of stuff with other creative folks!

Amelia Hruby of the Off The Grid podcast was our guest on a recent Escape Pod Zoom call, which is 1/3 interview, then 2/3 community Q&A, and that’s where this question comes from, and I think apples to many art forms aside from podcasting!

How did you build the audience for your podcast without social media?

“The way I have built the audience for my podcast has largely been relational. Even in Season 1, I had on guests, and they liked the show, and they told more people about the show, and those people told more people about the show.’

This is definitely a variation of “getting awareness off our plate,” in that maybe we don’t need to spend so much time making social media assets or posting on several platforms to get the word out. This way we’re spending our efforts making great work that people want to be a part of, rather than trying to post our way to greatness.

It’s also important that your podcast has a focus, as Amelia explains:

“I work on a lot of podcasts, and what I will say with so much love to everyone who has a podcast is that most don’t have a clear premise, and they don’t really know why people should listen. Many people make a podcast because they want to make a podcast, which is beautiful. But people listen to a podcast because it’s giving them something—entertainment, education, or in my case, a space for people who don’t want to be on social media but still want to make money from their art. They stay because they feel so seen.”

Get on Amelia’s waitlist to be notified when her new book “Your Attention is Sacred Except on Social Media” is available for pre-order!