NOW LISTENING

I’ve been working in and around music since 2001, when I started my first music blog, and my listening habits are all over the place.

During the day I mostly listen to Radio Tube – Drum and Bass Jungle on Apple Music.

I’ve been making sleepy time metal mixes called Goodnight, Metal Friend since 2020.

Been running Metal Bandcamp Gift Club since 2016. I think we helped sell at least four albums the other day for someone’s birthday.

Been writing HEAVY METAL EMAIL for over a year, just trying to help metal minded folks get back to sending newsletter so they can reach their fans directly.

I still listen to lots of metal – fuck, I work for Grammy award winning MNRK Heavy and three metal publicists who handle everyone from Alice Cooper to GWAR to Lamb of God to Killswitch Engage.

But it’s been fun to take in all sorts of music. Electronic. Ambient. Chip tune.

Life’s short. Listen to lots of music.

LINKS FROM LAST WEEK

All the cool links we share on social media sites will vanish in a few days, lost in a river of toots and tweets.

TOWN IS QUIET NOW

I can never quite remember all the lyrics, but I think about them when I’m out for my night time walks.

Town is quiet now
Like it’s holding its breath
Stone marks the spot
You know who you are
They outlined it in chalk
Word to the wise
And the barman calls time

‘Cone of Shame’ by Faith No More

The whole “town is quiet now, like it’s holding its breath” part. The college kids gone for the holiday, while everything else is just paused. Less loud cards, people, commotion.

Like the town is holding its breath, at least until school is back in session.

We’ve had a lot of tragedy in town lately. A shooting, with the killer still at large. A teenager climbed into a dumpster and was killed. Someone brandished a weapon in broad daylight at an intersection right up the road.

That was all in one weekend.

Then to find out that a Kutztown High School alum was one of those killed in the Club Q shooting in Colorado Springs.

Most nights on my walks the town is quiet, but seemingly things are quite chaotic.

CONTROL WHAT YOU CAN CONTROL

Had a good conversation with someone who knows two very talented artists. And those talented artists know other very talented artists.

These artists are skilled, masterful, great.

But to make a living with any of that talent is nearly impossible. Everything is stacked against the artist.

Music is disposable with streaming music services.
Live music is drowning in rising costs and merch cuts.

It seems like there’s 1% of artists who are making it, then everyone else.

For me it’s control what you can control.

It will never get any easier to reach your fans on social media platforms.
Don’t hold your breath waiting for DSPs to pay out more.

Connect directly with your fans via your website and email list.
Create art worth talking about.
Make sure you’ve got something to sell.

SOCIALLY ACCEPTED TIME SUCK

We didn’t always used to “do” social media, and I think it’s okay that we step away.

It’s quite the distraction. The fellowship is nice, the LIKES, and the support from others is fine and all, but it’s like a campfire, constantly needing fuel, and time, and direct support.

Collectivley we spend 1000s of hours a day probably, shoveling our lives onto multiple third party platforms. It’s like a duty, a part time job.

We could devote that time to writing, learning a new language, talking on the phone, knitting, or a million other things.

But social media pulls us close, with the allure of our friends. How “evil” can it really be if our friends are there?

If I hung out at a bar that welcomed nazis, sexist jerks, and racist shit bags, I know this – I’d fucking leave.

I’m working on that.

LINKS FROM LAST WEEK

What if instead of LIKING stuff and RTing articles everyday on social media we all just started making Link Dump posts again?

SOCIAL MEDIA IS THE FOOD COURT

Photo by Artyom Malyukov

In high school, you needed to be at the mall (this was the 90s, work with me here).

During practice with the first band I was in, I remember walking to the mall on a Friday night. Some of us started driving, so then we piled in the car.

You’d go to the mall to see your high school friends in a non high school setting. See and be seen.

Where my “social media is the food court” thing breaks down is that with social media, movie stars, pro athletes, rock gods, and everyone else are there, too.

An off-hand Tweet could get you on the nightly news. It could get you fired. It could get you laid.

Getting laid was a possibility with the food court analogy, but still.

As the big conversation focus on “where do we go next,” I just see how it’s like growing up, and getting away from hanging out at the mall.

Some people went to clubs, some people went to bars or diners, some people started broom hockey leagues (it me).

We have some Discords, which feel like bars or coffee shops.

And some people are heading to Mastodon, or doubling down on Instagram (owned by another person of questionable character), or god forbid LinkedIn.

This all just feels like moving our hang out sessions from Perkins to Chilis or IHOP, where we keep putting money into the pockets of giant corporations, and where we sign up for their set of rules and regulations.

I saw a group posting about “well, if Twitter goes down tomorrow, you’ll find us somewhere.”

As if buying a domain name for $15 and setting up a SquareSpace site for $20 is some impossible, herculean task.

We all figured out how buy tickets from Ticketmaster and then installed their shitty app and showed them at the venue to get entry, didn’t we? We figured that out.

We figured out how the fuck to make Instagram Stories, and assorted video assets on TikTok and Snapchat.

Some of us printed out directions from MapQuest back in the day to get to shows.

We’re smarter than we think.

And if you don’t know how to do it, you can just ASK THE INTERNET.

Google is right there, people.

My headlight burned out. I was able to find three videos on YouTube, for my exact model car, and learned how to change the bulb in 10 minutes.

And if you have a website, everyone can find you.

Fucking EVERYONE.

Not everyone is on Instagram, or Twitter, of Facebook, or Mastodon, or whatever other tech-bro, VC backed bullshit app comes out that exists to harvest your data and sell it to ad brokers.

Will we have all the addictive qualities Twitter, with the pull down “arm” of the slot machine, always able to reload with some bullshit update from a friend of a friend talking about their favorite vegetables?

Most likely not.

And will we randomly be able to find someone who got fired from Starbucks for unionizing their store? Not easily, no, not if we’re all hiding in this digital silos, walled off from the entire fucking internet in some bullshit app.

I’m bummed for Len, I am! But if Twitter burns to the ground tomorrow, how the heck will we hear about this horrid behavior from Starbucks? (here is Len’s GoFundme link, BTW)

Well, I guess we can start with this website: Starbucks Workers United, which looks like it’s run by The Rochester Regional Joint Board.

It’s maybe not updated at the same rate as someone like Len is Tweeting, but it’s there. And there’s room for other people (like me, or YOU) who are interested in this are to start covering it, which is vital since so many newsrooms across the country are gutted.

Someone could start a newsletter on Substack and get 100 subscribers in a week, I’m sure (I searched and can’t find one). Or a YouTube channel.

Build a site, set up an email address for it, and ask people like Len to send you updates here and there. Get the word out that you’re pissed, and want to help.

The same could be done for the tragedy at Club Q, and all the senseless shootings. Or the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Or the local art scene in your city.

Will you be the biggest coolest viral website in the world? No. But it might help a few hundred people unionizing their coffee shop in a small town.

We’ve been spending HOURS every day scrolling through social media, uploading our photos and thoughts and ideas. Imagine if we spent hours learning WordPress, writing newsletters, and editing videos?

Imagine if we started building small teams around big ideas?

Yes, social media was great for a time (by design). Friendships were born, and we learned a lot, and it was VITAL work – social justice, Black Lives Matter, the me too movement, but these CEOs are not going to roll back the clock.

It will never get any easier to get the word out on social media platforms.

All the bands promoting their next show, to Starbucks unions, to the fight for reproductive rights – it was all built on rented property.

We all fell for the promise of eyeballs and audience, like foot-traffic at the local mall food court.

But Zuckerberg and Musk own the eyeballs and the audience. They own the mall, they set the hours, and they keep raising the rent.

From Heavy Metal Email

It’s time to get back to updating websites, and sending out newsletters. The web is free and open. We’re smart, but we put all the power and energy into building our storefront at the mall, and they just changed the hours.

Is “getting the word out” on social media easy? Technically, like uploading a photo and adding some text? Oh yes. Beyond that, we’re fucked.

On top of all this – no one is owed an audience.

Your band has riffs? Man, I got 50 years of riffs. What makes you so special?

You got inspirational words about doing great work? Fantastic, 80,000 similar posts were just uploaded on all the major social media platforms – today. It starts over tomorrow.

But Starbucks unionization?
State wide reproductive rights?
Local and regional show listings?
Development, homelessness, gentrification?
Lack of diversity in the workplace? In politics?
Selling records or VHS tapes from your cool store?

Let’s stop figuring out where we go next, and start building our own thing.

NOT KEEPING UP

One site I hit everyday is Daring Fireball. I switched to Apple computers back in 2003 and haven’t looked back.

John Gruber started the site in 2002, and it’s pretty much been the same every since, from what I can remember.

Grey, rarely any images, and no comment.

I don’t subscribe to his newsletter (I don’t think he has one), followed on a social media network, or added his podcast feed to a podcast player.

But when I want someone’s opinion on Apple stuff, internet news, tech happenings, or other big events, I just start typing “dar” into my browsers address bar, autocomplete fills in the rest, and I hit enter.

Rather than go to one site (Twitter) that funnels 1000 people onto a soapbox I just go to one person for this.

ROUND AND ROUND

I keep watching as Twitter implodes, and seeing Facebook further incinerate its relationship with legit news, and realizing that I’m not jumping to another social media network. I mean, I’m just tapped out.

It’s wild that the boomers latched onto Facebook as hard as they did, which makes sense since so many of their kids got tired of their racist, xenophobic shit, and got tired of hearing how they paid for college working a 12 hour a week summer job, but still… I just can’t imagine being 60 something and going, “you know what? I want to spend more time on a computer.”

So I keep optimizing (read: spending) for adventure. Bikes, more running gear, gas in the car to head to the hills. Even though I have to drive through some sketchy traffic to get to the park pictured above, it’s very worth it. A paved one mile loop with no cars? Sign me up.

Life is here, in front of me, and that’s just fine.