Category: WorkCategory: Work

Most of the creative people I talk to about starting newsletters say some variation of the following:

“I’m not that interesting.”

It’s along the lines of, “why would anyone care?” Or, “I don’t really do anything exciting.”

Then I look at their websites, and social media feeds and I have a good laugh.

Social media has us convinced that if we’re not going viral every other day, or our videos don’t get 100,000 views in the first four hours, we must be boring. Washed up. Nobody cares.

Yet these people I talk to are designers with a dreamy client list. Photographers who post breath taking photos. Musicians with amazing music and visuals. Editors, writers, builders, artists of all sorts, minds brimming with ideas, stories to keep you awake til the sun comes up…

But a throw-away social media post on a Tuesday night gets a few likes, and we let allow these platforms to feed us this idea that nobody cares.

Some songs will never see the light of day because they didn’t go viral on TikTok:

“You kind of live and die by overnight virality. That has now created a situation where qualified A&Rs with great ears, who are tenured, who are good with music and passionate about it, can’t really do their job the way they used to,” say Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic over at Rolling Stone.

See that?

TikTok has more sway over qualified A&R folks.

And social media has swayed artists everywhere into believing their work isn’t good enough.

Found this Seth Godin quote today:

“How do I create more value?” is a much more useful question than, “how do I find a better job?”

Find a way to solve a problem, build a solution, create an asset, and you won’t need to find a better job.

I like this quote from New Creative Era:

THE CREATIVE STATUS QUO HAS MADE US LONELY CONTENT MACHINES
PRESSURED TO POST WITH UNNATURAL QUANTITY AND FREQUENCY
TO PURSUE OUR LIVELIHOODS AND EXPRESS OUR WORK
WE PLAY SOMEONE ELSE’S GAME

I’ve been thinking about that first line a bit, as I sort of felt isolated as a writer, as someone trying to offer up ideas. I feel like it’s me vs everyone, stacking up against everyone else trying to offer solutions and ideas in a busy, hyper-competitive world of music and culture.

But I found some comfort in two podcasts recently, that sort of set me at ease, the first being with Bobby Hundreds on the Tim Ferris show:

The one thing that stuck with me was building something within a community.

Think of artists working together on various projects, like Turnstile working with BADBADNOTGOOD and today releasing this EP:

Working with other creative people is good energy, and good energy spreads. As the effectiveness of social media wanes, think of the creative people you can work with.

Next is ‘Common Shapes’ from Cody Cook-Parrott and their episode ‘The Art of Newsletters.’

Here’s a quote:

“Just hit send. It doesn’t have to be perfect. In fact, I imagine people might see your imperfections and think “me, too. I feel that, too. I have typos. I misspell things.” Whatever it is, let your anti-perfectionism be an invitation to your readers that it’s ok to be clumsy and start anyways. It’s ok to be mediocre and still hit send.”

I’ve botched subject lines, missed typos, and sent emails with broken links – life rolls on. Learn from it, and start work on the next one.

It’s most likely no one died from a tiny error in your newsletter. Let your humanity have some space in your work, in your social media posts, in whatever you do.

Things don’t have to be perfect, they just need to be done / shipped / out the door. And like I mentioned above, you don’t have to do it alone!

Ally Crowley-Duncan plays the bagpipe.

She posted a video of herself playing some Metallica songs, and of course an internet ding dong left a comment saying “bagpipes don’t belong in Metallica.”

Then Metallica leaves a reply, saying “this guy doesn’t speak on our behalf. You’re awesome.”

That’s magic.

What I’m getting at is this; don’t leave all that magic on social media, because (ahem) these sites sure didn’t.

Each one of those sites sold ad-impressions against that story. They made money from that magic.

That ain’t wrong or bad, it’s just how the internet works.

And it’s why you should be doing the same fucking thing.

Put your magic on your website, then arrange some of your merch items around it. Or tour dates.

Get enough people to your site, and people will buy something. Fans buying things is good, because then you can pay the rent.

Fill your website and newsletter with your magic; the videos, the wit, the sass, the live photos from sold-out festivals.

Your social media feeds are the party. Loose and free, filled with witty rants, spontaneous photos, lengthy captions.

The likes pour in, and the replies.

Party in the back.

Then you subscribe to a band’s newsletter and get their “email blast,” which is just a few vinyl mock-ups of their album, some text, a button.

No lively text. No attitude. No swagger.

Business in the front.

Don’t fall victim to mullet marketing – make your email newsletter and website as riveting as your social media feeds.

It’s all magic and machinery.

The magic comes first.

When asked for his music business “how to make it” insight, my dear friend says this; “write good songs.”

This is usually followed by “yeah but…”

But nothing.

Write good songs, that’s the magic.

If you’re not in a band, put out a great product, take great photos, write well, release good videos. Whatever.

Next is the machinery; a good bio photo, website, maybe a booking agent or a publicist at some point. An email list, too.

Sometimes you can make it on just magic, or just machinery.

I’ve seen talented acts over the last 20+ years go nowhere.

I’ve seen hardworking color by number acts make it, too.

Magic, art, design – its all mystical, and that’s what we’re dealing with here every single day.