Author: Seth Werkheiser

Be Where You’re At

It’s okay to not want to get signed to a label. Or be a famous photographer. A big time public speaker.

The big brands, the follower counts, the clout, the hype – it’s not either / or. If you’re not the next big thing, on the cover of magazines and on billboards, you don’t have to fighting to be next.

It’s okay to be where you’re at. It’s okay to have 100 followers. Or 1000.

Hell, you don’t even have to be on social media.

We figured out how to sell a shit ton of CDs and sell out shows before social media came along. We’ll continue doing it long after they’re gone.

People can discover you on Bandcamp or Spotify by chance. You can post a gorgeous photo on your website and someone could post it on social media. A video you helped with on Vimeo can resonate with the world.

So much is right place, right time. Who you know. And if there were a map, everyone would have followed it and become a star.

There’s room for magic, chance, luck. And there’s room for not being a world-wide super star. There’s room for not being the current hyped thing, or buzzing stardom.

Where you’re at is where you’re at.

Daily Loop #44

I haven’t left the house in over a week because of all the snow. The roads are fine, but there’s an unplowed alley to contend with, so I’m just gonna lay low and use what I got in my cabinets.

Today’s loop started out one way, took 14 different turns, and ended up here. It could have taken another two dozen directions, but I wanted to get this out there and work on other stuff. This was primarily made with the Novation Bass Station II, though I’m still trying to wrap my head around everything it can do.

LIKES

“Just maxed out a credit card on a film camera !!! What pushed me over the edge was thinking “who cares about money. We’re all gonna die anyway,” @RitualsofMine

Via @cram_box
Via @LinusEkenstam

Video by Jake Heinemann from Pexels

Daily Loop #43

My cat woke me up at 5:30am, chewing on some plastic bags I left on the floor of my bedroom. Had to shoo him away, and closed the door, but couldn’t get back to sleep. Basically the cat helped me make this loop today, since I was up way too early.

LIKES

“It’s almost like workplaces stopped training people up or promoting people from within or investing in their own employees and ended up creating a structure of incentives that rewards job hopping,” @carolinedraws

By Nguyen Nhut vía @dribbble

Video by Danilo Obradović from Pexels

Daily Loop #41

My first foray into using my new Novation Bass Station II on a track. I have no idea what I’m doing, and don’t really know how to play keys, but here we are. Making noise, making loops, 41 days in a row.

LIKES

“You can’t get enough of a thing you don’t need,” @noampomsky

“Cleanshot is an exceptionally well executed product. Quickly tuned into my screenshot tool of choice. Bravo,” @jasonfried

“I’ve had my photos featured on multiple accounts with thousands of followers. You know what it’s done for my career? Precisely zero. Pay artists their rates or go tf away,” @lyndseymarieee_

Riki via Twitter

Spend the Money

From ‘WHEN TO SPEND ON YOUR BUSINESS,’ from my “day job” (which is Close Mondays):

I didn’t sign up for Basecamp at $100/mo so I make better to-do lists for myself. I signed up so I could assign to-dos for other people, so I could back away from the daily busy work and look ahead.

It’s hard to grow your operation if you’re always in your operation. You need to be able to hop on a 30 minute video call without being worried that you’re inbox is overflowing.

You need to be able to shut things off and go get food without the entire world burning down.

Daily Loop #40

I saw today that Metallica had the top five vinyl album sales, “the first time that an artist has claimed the entire top 5 of the #VinylAlbums chart, dating to its launch in 2011.” Neato.

LIKES

“Slack is critical infrastructure now, but I just spent an hour in there and have no idea what I just did,” @ftrain

“Somebody said these weekends starting to feel like 30 min lunch breaks and I felt that in my soul,” @LifeAsHales

Nick Slater via Twitter

Most People Haven’t Heard Your Album

It’s okay to not have a brand new album on Bandcamp Friday, or ANY FRIDAY. There’s a lot of people in this world who’ve still never heard your album. There’s people that still haven’t heard Metallica’s “black album!”

So talk about the thing you do on social media. Don’t hide it. It’s not “gross” promoting your work. You don’t roll your eyes when you’re painting, doing another vocal take in the studio, or delivering your final design concept to a client, so don’t you roll your eyes when 99.9% of the world doesn’t even know it exists.

You are the caretaker of this art, and it’s not going to market itself. Be proud, include a link, send it to some friends. Don’t hide the potential joy of someones life for another minute.

Also…

I posted this video on Twitter, which has a shelf life of about 10 minutes. Blink and you’ll miss it. And without paying up, most of my followers won’t see it anyways.

But the video lives here, on my own site. We’re all renting on social media, but our websites are our homes. Two months from now it’ll be near impossible to find the original Tweet I made. It’ll be a lot easier for someone to find this video via a link, on the open web, and via search engines.

Daily Loop #39

We had a nice morning of snow on Sunday (2/7/2021). I got outside with my tripod and shot some footage, much to the delight of the neighbors, I’m sure. Then I put together this loop as I was warming up. I guess from start to finish the whole process took about an hour or so. A fun exercise in capturing my own video, creating some music from scratch, and the editing together for the next day (Monday).

LIKES

“Fun fact, my record shop sold 5 @phoebe_bridgers records after the SNL performance last night,” @gileadmedia

“Superbowl commercials: where beer tries to save America in 2 minutes or less,” @PostmodernPoser

Ueno, Toyokawa-shi from Ash + Chess

Daily Loop #38

“No one has talkers block,” says Seth Godin (in 2011). I’ve been on a tear lately with writing, producing, making. Objects in motion, really.

When I think of putting more of me on Twitter, my social network of choice, I just think of all the people not there. And the wide open web, accessible by the other 99% of the world with a smart device connected to the internet.

Lots of thoughts. Lots of ideas.

LIKES

“There’s no reason for an artist to feel like they can’t share “old” work for all of time, while we sit here and actively let art from the dead be our teachers. art is timeless, including yours,” @afroxvx

“Anyone else feel like they’re spending more time on twitter to just banter and have rando conversations like we used to in the before times when you’d run into folks at Phoenix and Pour?” @danmoulthrop

Adam Firman on Twitter
Conor Anderson on Instagram