The video above was in response to this wonderful quote I found via Substack notes from Elissa Altman:

If you’re not gonna talk publicly about your work, plenty of other folks will. People can’t fall in love with your work if they don’t know about it.

Tell people about your work in only the way that you can, because if an unpaid intern (or an AI prompt) could write your self-promo copy, you’re toast.

🚫 Hey, new song! [LINK]
🚫 I just posted some new art. [LINK]
🚫 New items added to the store. [LINK]
🚫 New interview – we talked about art stuff! [LINK]

Those can work if you’re Radiohead or Beyonce or Rolling Stone or Best Buy.

Which you are not.

Let’s learn from Austin Kleon, who says to learn to steal like an artist (buy that book right now, dammit).

✅ Look at how Jeff Tweedy explains a new solo acoustic track he posted:

“It’s Super Bowl Sunday, that’s what I’m told. I have tallied the results of all your requests, and opted to do an acoustic version of “King of You” from the album Star Wars. Which was an unlikely favorite. Or at least it got two votes. It’s from an album that’s meant to be full of nonsense, because I think nonsense is good for us.”

No way an AI bot or record label intern could write that. And a lot more interesting than “new song, click here.”

✅ If you interviewed someone, get out of the way and put them front and center, the way Sari Botton of Oldster Magazine does here:

In this instance above, Todd Boss is the focus, the center of attention. Get the heck out of the way and let their words champion the piece.

✅ Artist Marie Enger opens her recent newsletter like this:

“Friends, this week? It fucking sucked.

But my buddy Ray Nadine (who you might know from the 2024 GLAAD nominated comic LIGHT CARRIES ON, Raise Hell (with our good friend and yours too, Jordan Alsaqa), and SOMETHING HAS CHANGED) reminded me yesterday as I was spinning out–

The horrors persist, but so do the little treats.

Then they sent me a slurpee.”

✅ Back to Austin Kleon – he promotes a recent newsletter on Substack notes like this:

“I don’t know what it is about my brain, but as long as I can find the right image to put at the top of the newsletter, the rest just flows out. (I started this letter last week but didn’t finish it — remembering Kate’s image helped everything snap into place)”

Not one of these asks for a click, a signup, or a “buy now.”

They all attempt to draw you in with story, delight, oddities, weirdness – you know, art. Magic!

The newsletter or the song is the vehicle, but the creative spirit behind the work must provide the energy to move it forward.

We need to get away from thinking of our offerings as commodities.

We are not promoting just a new song, a new thing to read, or another piece of content.

You’ve already done the hard part; you’re an artist, photographer, teacher, musician – you know how hard it is to play the piano?! IT’S IMPOSSIBLE, I TRIED, OKAY?

But promoting your work? That’s much easier than trying to sight-read sheet music, which is another impossibility – how does anyone do it?!

Let your creative wisdom inform how you talk about and share your work. Literally spend more than 12 seconds on it, instead of banging out “hey click here” and expecting anyone to give a fuck about it.

✅ BONUS: You can also go in the opposite direction.

Think about how you’d start a comedy show. What’s the expectation?

Even if you’re not a comedian, we’re all so familiar with the process that if we had to, we could at least do the introduction part, right?

“Hey everyone, I’m Seth. So great to be here!”

But it takes an artist to spend the first three minutes wrestling with the mic stand, dropping the microphone, and yelling at the production crew to turn the music off.

But note when the music stops, and Tim Heidecker abruptly says, “Thank you, okay, all right.”

That took some work. That was magic.

Those first three minutes are rough. I got a little bit of anxiety from watching it, but it was like a car wreck; I couldn’t look away.

Like – why go through all that?

Because it sets the stage for what’s to come.

Why did I pack up my camera gear and use a wired microphone and go into the woods to make a video about hyping your work?

Because this is my art, my project, my work.

Some people will get that video. Some people will be like, “That guy is weird, and I’m not subscribing.”

Great. This is what I do, this is how I work. thank u, next.

Make people feel something. Stress, tension, release. The hero’s journey.

These are all things you can learn and study and steal ideas from (and a much better use of your time, instead of spending 2+ hours a day scrolling social media).

Time for another walk in the woods.

Craig Lewis of Running Tales left a comment recently, and I wanted to answer it for everybody so we all benefit (though I did post a note about it here):

How do you practically make that move to talking to those closer to you/simply putting out quality content if no-one is seeing/interacting with it?

If you never post on socials etc, no-one ever sees what you do. If you have an audience already, it’s cool to get stuff out to them and they will hopefully do you a good turn and shout about it for you.

But if you’re still building an audience… back to shouting into the void?

Imagine you play the game, and you get 100 new followers on whatever social media platform. Big win!

But the next time you post something, only 10-20% will see it (probably).

That’s 10-20 people – out of that 100!

This is why getting “just” 10 new email subscribers is worth celebrating – because you can actually reach them!

So, where do you find those ten people?

• They’re in your DMs, or Discords, Messages – send them a link to one of your latest posts in a cool and chill way
• If you sell something online, you have email addresses! Send them a link to subscribe (DON’T just add them to your list, let them opt-in)
• There are people you talk to every day who have no idea you even have a newsletter (I’ve been doing this one for 2.5 years and some friends still have no idea)
• You can collaborate with someone and make something together, expanding your work to a new audience.
• Ask to be a guest on a podcast (via Astrid Bracke)
• Take online courses relevant to your field and expand your network of cool people
• Start your own online video chats (like Raz from Running Sucks), or Discord hang outs, or streams based on things adjacent to what you do and build a community (musicians do this a lot with video game streams)

These ideas require some thought to get your point across in a way that feels good.

It’s hard work.

But it ain’t “make video content that you hate doing four times a week” hard.

That said, it’d be way easier to forget all this Social Media Escape Club nonsense and upload a new piece of content to social media and get that dopamine rush when it gets four likes in the next 10 minutes.

This is how social media rots our brains.

They’ve convinced us that the only way to market our work is by using their platforms, every one of them optimized to get you to spend more time using their products.

Do you have time for more unpaid work?

Are posts not doing well? Try a carousel (which is more images you have to make).

Are carousels not working? Try making short-form videos!

No, thanks.

The power lies in our networks, our communities, our scenes – things that social media has done its best to rattle apart, but they still exist.

“Are we so powerless to change the current situation that we sit back and hope somebody else fixes everything?

And then what? That person will sell the company to a Nabisco+Tide hedge fund subsidiary, and we’ll be back where we started.

Maybe centralized kingdoms of power and influence aren’t the answer.”

Here’s an example: every week, a friend of mine emails creative people he sees making things he enjoys.

He’ll cold email the person who did lighting on a music video he saw on YouTube, or the person who edited a great essay.

No agenda, no pitch, just an appreciative note to say good job, keep it up.

Does it lead to work? Sometimes, but most often it doesn’t.

Did I mention this friend has a Grammy and an Emmy award?

And he’s not on social media anymore, either.

Don’t just follow other cool artists; BECOME FRIENDS. Creative partners. Support one another. There is strength in our collective magic.

Make cool stuff, and show it to your friends in casual ways without social media.

Get to work.

Tara McMullin wrote a great piece about self-promotion, which you should read.

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I posted something on Substack Notes about the subject, and since it resonated so well, I figured I’d share it again:

Years ago, “self-promotion” meant posting something on a social platform, and most of your followers saw it.

It was great when it worked!

Then came algorithms, and now self-promotion feels like a constant battle.

It’s not you, it’s the system.

You can’t post just once, because 90% of your audience won’t even see it. This is why I’d always tell people, “Promote your new song a few times a week, at different times of day!”

But then having to post, plan, and schedule starts to feel like screaming into the void.

Oh, and then Instagram says it wants videos. Twitter removes links. Facebook and LinkedIn limit your reach when you include a link. Also, don’t say “link in bio!”

It’s not even self-promotion at this point – it’s tap dancing, juggling, or card tricks in the middle of Times Square, along with 900 million other creative people doing the same.

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There were many great comments:

• “It’s not self-promotion. It’s called persuasive technology and it’s used to increase user engagement. We are social media puppets, working for free to increase stakeholder share value.”
• “Honestly, it has just become shouting into the void for me now.”
• “It’s a game of ever changing rules, that’s for sure.”
• “It’s clear that if you’re (on social media), you’ve gotta play the game. It’s kinda no different to the office politics I endure on a daily (workday) basis in this way.”

I was asked a few times what the solution is, and my belief is this:

WE ARE THE SOLUTION.

Do cool things with your friends and put it on the internet. That’s it.

Make interesting things, tell your interesting friends about those things.

Here’s how I grew my newsletter…

One, Ryan J. Downey recommended me to his subscribers of Stream N’ Destroy. I’ve known Ryan for well over a decade, and we know (and work with) many of the same people.

I didn’t ask Ryan for the recommendation, but he did it, and I owe him a dinner, that’s for sure.

I couldn’t make that happen. I would never ask. But hey – make cool things and sometimes people will share the cool things you make with people they know.

Second, Laura Kidd and I had a chat about email marketing on her YouTube channel, which led some of her fans to check out what I’m doing. We were just two cool people talking about a super nerdy thing (email newsletters), but it resonated with some people, and that’s what matters.

Third, I trusted my gut (because I have a cool gut, just like you!) and changed the name (and direction) of this newsletter. What started out as Heavy Metal Email became Social Media Escape Club in October 2023.

I leaned more into what makes my blood boil (social media) and found even more of an audience for what I write about.

Do cool things, and cool people might find them interesting and tell their cool friends about them, too.

You can wait for Spotify rates to increase, or a new benevolent social media platform to debut, or you can realize you’ve already got a great “social network” of people and fans and friends around you.

Focus on the people who are right in front of you. Delight them, focus on them, and self-promotion will be a breeze.

Lindsey Jordan (Snail Mail) talks to Monster Children about social media in the music world:

“I think that anybody who is encouraging you to make a TikTok hit is probably brain dead. Don’t listen to them. Usually, those tactics don’t work. I’ve never done an actual ‘tactic’ and had it work.”

Experts say not being on TikTok is a missed opportunity, but we miss opportunities every day because we are singular creative beings and must do the dishes or cover a shift at work.

There are people you didn’t reach yesterday because you didn’t display your art in a small gallery in Denver, CO, or play a set in a nightclub in Paris last night.

Sure, “everyone” is on TikTok right now, but “everyone” is also at an art gallery.

Where are you?

Why aren’t you in the same room as the creative people you love? Start a Zoom call if you can’t meet up locally. Imagine the opportunities that could develop from that energy and support!

Why don’t you have a call with that local curator / booking agent / producer this week? You’re probably just two conversations with the right people to get that set up. Opportunity!

Oh, you haven’t talked with anyone about a potential collaboration in the last year?

Here’s a recent example: a client I work with remotely invited me to an album release get-together in Brooklyn, NY, later this month.

I could stay home and create content for LinkedIn… or I could book a hotel room, make travel arrangements, and be around people I already have connections with.

I believe there are opportunities in my already-existing universe, and I don’t need to continuously throw pebbles in the ocean of “social media possibility” to get more.

How many opportunities exist right now in your creative universe? In your own inboxes? In the contacts in your phones? People you bump into at the coffee shop? On Discord?

We’ve all missed opportunities, but maybe it’s time that we intentionally invest our efforts in the opportunities that better align with our own magical journeys.

P.S. thanks Dino Corvino for that Monster Children tip

Peter Kirn at Create Digital Media talks about SoundCloud and Bandcamp, and how they’re devolving into money machines for corporate shareholders.

“It’s a simultaneous reminder that we need to build something new, maybe this time not for the investors, but for the eu-IVs – for each other.”

Let’s stop waiting for the next publication or platform to save us. The fix isn’t waiting for tech bros to share a tenth of a penny more in streaming payouts – the power is with people reading newsletters and creating websites.

“Yeah, but Seth, these things cost money!”

Well, buy a domain name or wait by the phone for the next big platform – I turn 50 soon and I ain’t got time to wait.

The mass scale of social media was a mirage and we all fell for it. Going viral is the draw to get you in the casino, and you pay with hours of your precious life feeding the social monster for your chance at 12 likes.

Let’s start using the internet as a tool to find our freaks and build our communities. Make things and launch projects.

Make the weird shit you want to see in the world, and don’t just do it for likes or shares – reach out to the other weird shit people and start conversations.

It’s like we’re meeting at the mall food court – find your fellow weirdos and then get the hell out. Go to the record store downtown, go to a friend’s house and watch skate videos, hang out at a park – these are all the things social media platforms are afraid of.

Are we replacing Pitchfork tomorrow? No.

Will another site become the new Bandcamp?

Probably not.

But why have we become compliant little pawns in all this?

Are we so powerless to change the current situation that we sit back and hope somebody else fixes everything?

And then what? That person will sell the company to a Nabisco+Tide hedge fund subsidiary, and we’ll be back where we started.

Maybe centralized kingdoms of power and influence aren’t the answer.

Local music scenes seem to get along without local press, huh?

Gallery openings keep happening with zero coverage from local media.

I’ve seen individuals host creative Zoom sessions with 45+ people spanning several time zones.

I see artists speaking directly with their fans with reliable email lists, selling tickets and albums in the process.

Now imagine if all these pockets of culture and art and magic started organizing and working together.

Today, I want to talk about feelings. Specifically, the feeling that you want your people to have when they get an email from you or see something you wrote online.

When I got the idea to start posting metal trivia on Twitter in 2011, I knew I wanted people to feel stoked when answering metal trivia questions on Twitter.

See, I could ask a question like, “in what year did Metallica’s ‘… And Justice For All” come out?” and the answer would be 1988.

But I thought about it, and no one gets excited yelling “1988” in line at the grocery store or hitting reply while at a show.

Could you imagine a heavy metal trivia show on TV in the mid 90s and contestants yelling out 1988? No way.

So I asked, “This ‘bass-less’ Metallica album came out in 1988.”

And I could imagine people excitedly tapping their phones and replying, “AND JUSTICE FOR ALL!” This led to people talking about the production of that album, discussing their favorite song, or talking about Cliff Burton (sorry, non-metalheads, if I lost you here haha).

Now, reverse engineer all this for whatever creative project you’re producing.

How do you describe what you’re doing in a way that would make someone feel something?

Say you’ve got a book tour coming up.

• Instead of “BOOK TOUR ANNOUCEMENT,” your subject line could be “Will I see you in Boston? New Haven? What about Providence?”
  Wait, what? My favorite author is coming to Boston? The New England area?! That’s where I am – I better click!
• Instead of “I have a new course,” say, “If you want to learn how to write a month’s worth of newsletters in one sitting, sign up for my new course.”
  People want to save time and make money and make an impact – make them FEEL that.
• Instead of “join my sci-fi community,” say “we’re debating the best / worst sci-fi movies in our Discord and you should join us.”
  People have thoughts about sci-fi movies. I have a sci-fi tattoo. People don’t get tattoos that say COMMUNITY (unless they’re big fans of Dan Harmon, I guess).
• Instead of “come see me at the market next week,” maybe say “my favorite things about setting up at the local market.”
  Sure, you’ll be selling at the market. But talk about all the things people love about markets – the food, the smells, the people, the dogs!

You don’t have to outrun a bear; you just have to outrun your friends.

You need to outrun people writing bland subject lines and boring social media posts. You just need to get people to feel something when they get your emails or visit your website.

Stop being precious and “trust the wildness in your heart.” Get a little wild, or loud, or weird. It’s how you’ve built a following, an audience, an email list.

”Your readers have signed up to go on the ride you decide for them. Be bold and lead the way,” said Nishant Jain of The SneakyArt Post.

Be bold and lead the way, indeed.

Vulfpeck’s Jack Stratton spoke recently about the streaming landscape and how Apple Music could be fixed.

Lots of people are writing about the death of Pitchfork.

Bandcamp saw 50% of its staff laid off last year.

In 2017, Spotify’s RapCaviar was the “most influential playlist in music.” Now, folks at major labels have “seen streams coming from RapCaviar drop anywhere from 30% to 50%” because “editorial playlists are losing influence amid AI expansion.”

There’s a Taco Bell commercial featuring Portugal. The Man – not for their actual music, but as a “feature” to highlight how broke the band was, but at least they could eat at Taco Bell.

It’s almost as if Seth Godin knew what I was going to write about today:

“When things don’t go the way we hope, one alternative is to look hard at the system that caused the problem. And another productive strategy is to figure out what to do with what we get, instead of seeking to find the villain that’s causing our problem.”

Right now, phones can shoot music videos, laptops can become studios, taking pictures with a disposable camera is chic, and we can post everything to the internet in seconds.

But the days of posting something on social media and getting 10,000 people to see it are over. That ain’t coming back.

If you’ve been a subscriber, you know I always say this – it will never get easier to reach your fans on social media.

Don’t blame Spotify, or Apple, or Meta – these are all companies that were built to make money for shareholders. They’re doing their job; are we doing ours?

Are we making the best art that we can?

Are we writing 1000 words a day?

Am I practicing my bass for 15 minutes a day? (No, I’m not)

If you were the lone creative weirdo in high school back in the day, well…, you’d better read some books and find some magazines because you’re on your own.

Now we have websites, Zoom, internet radio, email, and a thousand messaging apps – there’s no reason to do any of this alone.

We know the villains in the current landscape. We know what we’re up against.

Time to stop playing games we don’t want to play (and can’t win), and figure out what’s next.

My three quick ideas on that:

1. Write a good newsletter to your fans that they’ll want to read
2. Set up a website and fill it up with all the cool stuff you do
3. Delete the social media apps from your phone this week

Will that raise streaming rates and bring back organic reach on Facebook? NOPE. But it’s action, something we can do right now, and it’s a step toward new possibilities.

I had a wonderful chat with Raziq Rauf and friends last week (Raz writes Running Sucks, and it’s great), and got to continue screaming this message from the rooftops:

Don’t ask social media followers to subscribe to your newsletter; tell them what they’re getting.

And don’t just say “an interview” or “new music,” sell it!

“Make it easy for your fans to say “yes, I want that.”

Do you want free donuts? Yes.

Do you want more of my art? Yes.

Do you want more photos of my travels? Yes.

Do you want more music? Yes.”

Get fans to your site (or newsletter).

If they subscribe, great.

If they don’t, they don’t.

Sure, with a zillion followers, you can ask for the subscribe and see some success, but explaining what fans will be getting is a lot more fun.