Internet – Page 13 – HELLO, I'M SETH WERKHEISER

PRODUCING AND UPLOADING

“That article reads as a kind of elegy to SoundCloud’s heyday, before multiple pivots through chaotic monetization and promotion. At least Bandcamp still works – for now. 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. For a reason to keep producing and uploading, and a place to do it. And, importantly, for listening.”
Peter Kirn at Create Digital Media

I love this so much: “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.”

WordPress can have a steep learning curve, but get a few friends together, figure it out, and we’ve got a new “media outlet.”

I’ve seen some music newsletters on Substack, but I fear shit like that can implode at any point, too. Sure, I’m sure as heck using it, but making sure this blog is updated, secure, and the domain name ain’t gonna lapse.

Like… we need need to stop waiting for the next MUSIC PUBLICATION to figure their shit out, and just make it ourselves, like we used to back in the day.

Our bands couldn’t play the big venues, so we rented VFWs and firehalls and made it happen.

Like, Spotify and Apple Music will not magically start paying artists more.

The big outlets aren’t going to feature you, and even if they do, it probably won’t amount to much because the big outlets have devolved into showcasing death and drama, turning their readership into gossip-hungry zombies.

I’m jaded as fuck at this ‘cuz I’ve seen it devolve for the past 20 years. The fix ain’t waiting for tech-bros to develop new platforms – the power is with the people on the streets and the bedrooms to make it happen.

YOUR NEXT BIG BREAKTHROUGH WILL HAPPEN WITH OTHER CREATIVE PEOPLE

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:

Write a good newsletter to your fans that they’ll want to read
Set up a website and fill it up with all the cool stuff you do
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.

SPORTS ILLUSTRATED GONE

Pitchfork is going away, so why not Sports Illustrated, too?

“The publisher of Sports Illustrated has notified employees it is planning to lay off a significant portion – possibly all – of the outlet’s staff after its license to use the iconic brand’s name in print and digital was revoked.”

Absolutely wild that this wasn’t actually the company, but the name was licensed.

(via, ESPN)

MUSIC IS A BATTLEFIELD

So this happened today.

“Condé Nast is merging Pitchfork, the digital music publication it bought in 2015, with men’s magazine GQ — a move that will result in layoffs at Pitchfork, including the exit of editor-in-chief Puja Patel.”

As Ted Gioia wrote in response, “Put faith in the music, not the business.”

In the early 2000s we had music blogs, today we’ve got AI generated playlists.

Not sure how this gets any better.

ALSO:

“In 2017 Vulture called Spotify’s RapCaviar playlist “the most influential playlist in music.” Among other things, it’s credited for launching the career of Cardi B.

But as Ashley Carman reported at Bloomberg this month, even RapCaviar’s influence is now on the wane. The reason, of course, is artificial intelligence.”

From “How platforms killed Pitchfork‘

AOL MUSIC WEB PRODUCER

In an effort to completely remove myself from social media, I am moving my WORK HISTORY from LinkedIn to my site, which is a platform I own and control. This will help me tell more of the story of my work experience. I hope it’s helpful. Enjoy.

In April of 2006 I started my very first for-real web job, as a web producer at AOL Music. It was just a three month contract gig, covering for someone on maternity leave, with zero guarantee of anything afterwards.

I got this gig because I put my music blog (Buzzgrinder) on my Monster dot com resume, and a headhunter found me. I left a full time job with five weeks paid vacation for this gig, and looking back it was one of the best moves I ever made.

This was someone else’s set up, but I was able to plug in my iPod and listen to my own music while I worked. I wrote copy for weekly new songs and videos features, built and scheduled music main page graphical elements, and wrote daily headlines for Music Main news section.

Some of the people that worked at AOL Music recognized me from the referral traffic that Buzzgrinder sent them, which blew me away.

I remember seeing artists come in and perform acoustic in conference rooms, which was sort of the start of AOL Sessions.

I had typos on pages that were seen by millions. This is where I learned a valuable lesson from a co-worker, when he was sitting beside me while I got “talked to” for my mistake – “we’re not saving lives!”

Oh yeah, I auditioned to host The DL, which was AOL Music’s “music show,” but Sara Schaefer got the job and MURDERED IT. They picked the right person for the job on that one.

My time with AOL Music music last just 3-4 months (I can’t really remember how long it was), but I met a lot of amazing people along the way.

Oh yeah, around this time in 2006 the #1 music site on the internet was MySpace. Wild, right?

SHOW DON’T TELL

I’d imagine one reason people don’t sign up for email newsletters is because if they can’t see your email newsletter, they’re going to assume it looks like all the other shit newsletters out there, so why sign up?

This is why something like Substack works so well. It’s literally the secret sauce. You see what you’re going to get before you sign up.

Not so with Mailchimp or the countless other shit newsletters we sign up for from artists we like.

We blindly sign up and get tossed a product catalog every few weeks.

Meanwhile, the same artist shovels 19 posts a week up on social media, filled with jokes, rants, photos, and stories.

Email subscribers are only worth sales, apparently.