Category: NewslettersCategory: Newsletters

Promoting your creative work should be art. It should spark curiosity, wonder, and delight.

Facts ain’t art:

• “We talked to Brad about how the band got started. [LINK]”
• ”Jen tells us how she launched their label. [LINK]”

Yes, you talked to Brad, and they told you things.
Jen talked about the start of their label.

They didn’t just say, “yeah, we started the band in high school, and played a few shows.”

They probably told you about their horrible first show, or that they met their guitar player for the first time at some weird diner on the far end of town.

Jen maxed out two credit cards, and sold their vintage NES collection to finance a record they believed in.

Tell stories, not facts.

Stop posting “NEW VIDEO [LINK]” on social media or in your newsletter.

Post how filming got cut short because a thunderstorm rolled in and all your gear got covered in mud.

• “We had to replace $3000 in music gear after shooting this video [LINK].”
• “We spent 17 hours in the blazing sun to shoot this video.”
• ”This is the same warehouse they filmed the fight scene from the Matrix.”
• ”The cell-phone we used as a prop in this video was actually our bass players from 2002 – who else had one of those?”

Your project isn’t just competing with other bands and labels in your genre, you’re competing with Disney and HBO.

• “Din Djarin found a baby Yoda. [LINK]”
• ”The Roy family run a company. [LINK]”

Unpaid interns can write those facts. That’s safe. That’s easy.

Sell it like a new movie, an up and coming TV show.

No one cares that you talked to someone. We all talk to people everyday.

But stories sell concert tickets, vinyl, recurring monthly subscriptions to Disney+ and Netflix.

Less facts, more stories.

If you give your fans a link, they’ll click it.

Well, hopefully 5% of your fans will click it, but hey, that’s how this stuff works.

That 5% is pretty valuable so make it count.

Like Toby Morse says, “one click, one chance.” No, wait…

See what Tegan & Sara did here in their recent newsletter? A nice personal message from Tegan to their fans about covering a song:

“I love the song ‘Sweet But Psycho’ by Ava Max. I somehow missed out on the moment this song was massive when it was released in 2018, but came across it recently when I was building a new running playlist. The song is a great, classic pop song. Easy to write off. Some of us are inherently suspicious when something is so catchy. But recently, Spotify suggested the acoustic version.”

All that, then a sweet note about learning the song as a warm-up while rehearsing for tour. Ahem, tour. WINK WINK. Tegan & Sara are going on tour.

You click the link, and you can see the dates and buy tickets.

My point is – if you’re an artist that’s maybe not as big as Slipknot, why not tell a story?

• First time on the road? Tell a story about the farthest you’ve ever drive for a show (I drove eight hours into a blizzard because my friend wanted to see Abnegation in Erie, PA. We saw Brothers Keeper in a big warehouse that weekend, too).
• First time selling at a market? Write about your experience of other markets you’ve been to, the people you met, why you started your creative project in the first place.
• Are you a grizzled road dog? Come on – you’ve got stories; TELL THEM. Write them out, make it a video, make an audio clip with your bandmates.

Sure, you could just drop the tour admat on socials and your email campaign, but everyone does that. An unpaid intern can do that.

But, no one can tell your stories.