Category: Social MediaCategory: Social Media

Love this from musician Phoebe Dubar, who makes music as IKSRE, talking about getting away from social media as best they can:

Hiking, gardening, yoga – all these things are the ultimate antidote to any digital interference. Backyard campfires, playing card games with my husband and daughter, and spending time in our caravan. And physical media music. My CD, cassette and vinyl collection is such a treasured possession.

Again, it’s the act of escaping social media, it’s where do we go? How we we fill the time that we once spent staring at a screen?

“I’ve had to be on a bit more recently with the new album coming out and I can feel it zapping me. It’s wild. But taking my dog for a walk along the beach near where I live, solves that instantly. It’s all a balance, right?

I also stress this with Social Media Escape Club; it’s not all or nothing. Do what feels right, trust your gut. If you’re spending six hours a day on Instagram, and making Reels leaves you exhausted, examine that. Get outside, go for a walk, play some records.

We didn’t just wake up one day and look at our phones for several hours. That took time, and heading in the other direction will take some time, too.

Read the full interview with Phoebe over at Zen Sounds.

Doing things in person, guesting on a podcast, going live – these are things with other people, and it’s sort of the foundation of everything, and it can be terrifying.

Underneath that is tension. As Seth Godin says, “this might not work.”

Why bother going to an open mic night when you can just post something on social media and get 39 likes?

Why gather with other creative people when a vertical video might get 10,000 views?

I think about it like this – imagine if you were in a group chat with Hayley Williams. Right? Or whatever other artist you admire, imagine you got to swap messages with them throughout the week.

The other people in all of this isn’t just for the opportunities is might present, but also in helping build the belief that you belong. That you matter, that the art you make matters, that your ideas and dreams aren’t ridiculous.

Michael Gilbride and I spoke about this a bunch yesterday, about community and IRL gatherings.

Neither of us have all the answers, but when get together with other people we get closer to figuring it out.

If you’re not on social media, it might be hard to keep up with the latest music. And if you don’t use the big streaming services (maybe you’ve ditched Spotify), it’s even harder to know about new releases.

Now, I’ve been neck deep in music since the mid 90s. I started a music blog in 2001, and was the founding editor of Noise Creep at AOL Music back in 2008. I work for a record label and music publicist these days, too. But for me I don’t follow one source, or any sort of news outlets for new music, but rather a combination of the following:

1. Follow music writers, instead of the big music outlets. Back in the early days of Twitter my friend followed the NY Mets beat writers instead of the actual NY Mets account. Following the people listening, writing, living and breathing the thing everyday – those are the people you want to connect with. Gabbie writes New Bands for Old Heads. Kevin Alexander writes On Repeat Records.
2. Listen to the radio. Joi runs The Radio Room. Find radio stations around the world with Radio Garden. I discovered this French radio station called FIP from a virtual co-working call awhile back. Look up some local college radio stations in your area – most have live streams from their websites.
3. Tons of DJ sets on NTS, Rinse.fm, Boiler Room, SoundCloud (their Daily Drops playlists are great), and HOR Berlin (there are a million like these).
4. Go to Bandcamp – see that scrolling list of releases? Click on one and hit play, I dare you. Then start diving into some of the genres via the Discover page, which is how I found the release below. You can also try Subvert.

Streaming platforms lured us with having everything all in one place. Resist the big tech lock-in and entrust a little bit of magic for your music discovery.

Social Media Escape Club isn’t a step by step guide to 10x your revenue without posting reels, it’s a journey with other creative individuals who want to feel better about how they spend their time.

Everything I write and share is from conversations and experiences with real life people making their escape in their own way.

1. People are ditching Goodreads in creative ways, both analog and digital.
2. Nicole Kelner made the Unplug OS app, which “locks your distracting apps… the only way to unlock them is to plug in your phone.”
3. Tracy Stewart left Google Workspace for Infomaniak. I started using cDox (thanks, Bagel) in place of Google Docs and Sheets for my own projects.
4. I’ll be talking with Michael Gilbride on Tues, Sept 22 at 3pm EDT to talk about how musicians can break away from social media platforms and stop playing games with Spotify. Register here via Luma to get a reminder, or just be on Substack at that time.
5. How do you find stuff without being on social media? Deanna Seymour made a bulletin board of upcoming events with people in her orbit. Imagine if we all shared all the cool things our friends are doing?
6. Bookmark this one: Obscure & niche digital resources I use for inspiration, case studies, mood-board building and more from Maria Izvestkina.

Just the fact that we have to ask “is this real?” 10 times a day is a major indicator that things have changed a bit over the years, and also everything costing 40% more than it did 12 minutes ago.

The world is different, folks. You’re doing the best you can.

Do I miss opportunities because I’m not on social media? Probably.

But I miss opportunities when I don’t go to the book event on a Tuesday night, or grab lunch at a small establishment after a run.

I’m not at a coffee shop in Brooklyn right now, I didn’t see a band last night in Nashville, I’m not meeting a friend at their office in LA tomorrow. I don’t have billboards, a podcast, a book, or an active YouTube channel.

As Ryan Holiday writes in “The Discipline Required To Create The Life You Want,”

“When an opportunity comes along or I’m faced with a decision, I ask myself: Will this get me closer to that ideal or further away? Will it give me more of the days I actually want to have, or fewer of them?”

All these social media platforms are an opportunity, just like going to a networking event, or being a guest on a podcast. Each has their own risk and reward.

But if we remove the time and energy required for these opportunities (the things we’re told we should do), we’re left with our work.

I got that Ryan Holiday link from Mario Fraioli’s Morning Shakeout newsletter. Mario coaches athletes, has sent a newsletter every week for over 10 years, and posts an occasional podcast.

“I’ve been approached about helping to build out coaching collectives, gotten offers to partner with more brands and events, and been given plenty of unsolicited advice about how to expand my coaching business or make the morning shakeout bigger than just a newsletter and occasional podcast. I say thanks but no thanks to every single one of these inquiries because the tradeoffs just aren’t worth it to me. Bigger isn’t always better, and oftentimes more is just more. I’m not a rich man by any stretch, but I have the discipline to say no, because I know that what I have is enough.”

Saying no to most opportunities is hard, but it leaves you the opportunity to make better work.