Writer, musician, wizardly guide to platform independence
I am always more willing to give something a listen if it comes personally recommended, from someone I follow, or a close friend.
Steve shared a music recommendation to CB3, and this album that came out in August. Charlottas Burning Trio – what a great name and name mark.
I also appreciate this behind the scenes look here. Always a sucker for pink backgrounds and vibes.
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.
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.
This from Music Business Worldwide:
It was inevitable, but it’s no less eye-popping: approximately 100,000 fresh tracks are now being uploaded to music streaming platforms every day.
That’s according to two of the most influential figures in the modern music business: Universal Music Group CEO and Chairman, Sir Lucian Grainge, plus the outgoing CEO of Warner Music Group, Steve Cooper.
Addressing the Music Matters conference in Singapore on September 27, Grainge said that 100,000 tracks were now being “added to music platforms every day”.
In my line of work I have clients who sometimes release 5+ albums on a Friday, and that to me blows my mind. Five albums isn’t even a tiny blip when you consider 100,000 tracks being uploaded in a single day. Every day.
Saw this on Twitter recently, from Adam Bartlett of Gilead Media (copying and pasting because I don’t trust Twitter embeds will be around forever):
It’s so wild to watch the entire indie label world go from being based around forums and newsletters, to social media, and now on to…what? There isn’t a single platform I can think of that isn’t a complete shit hole right now.
Am I shaking my fist at a cloud right now? Maybe, I guess. But things were definitely cooler before the ALGORITHMS took over and I think that’s probably an indisputable fact.
via Twitter
Adam ain’t wrong.
Back in the early 2000s bands had websites and email list.
Along came MySpace, and lots of folks jumped there, and it became the #1 music site in 2006.
In the same year, Twitter launched. I think Facebook opened up to everyone, too. Bands and labels eventually moved the bulk of their “getting the word out” operations to these sites.
So over a decade of neglecting email lists and websites, as social media sites have revealed who they really serve (investors, advertisers, their boards, Elon Musk), and we’re left with a bunch of “followers” and “engagement,” which is about as useful as “thoughts” and “prayers.”
Email still works, regardless of the few people who leave comments saying “my inbox is a wreck, I miss so much stuff.”
These are the same people who follow 3000 accounts on social media platforms, and are probably among the 70% of the people who don’t see your social media posts anyways.
Start an email list, send to an email list.
“Yeah, but my fans don’t use email.”
Bullshit.
They use emails to sign up for social media accounts. They get receipts emailed to them for concert tickets and vinyl orders.
What’t the alternative? Are we just going to start making more video content for whatever Instagram is becoming? And TikTok?
A majority of bands and labels can’t even figure out how to use Twitter which has been around for over 15 years, but you’re telling me they’re gonna “figure out” the new breed of social media platforms?
Make music videos.
Post your songs.
Release your vinyl.
But for fucks sake put it on your website, email you fans, and go drink some coffee. Use the countless hours of banging your head against the wall over social media algorithms and go write a good song, or strike up a partnership that will go a lot further than a $20 “boosted” fucking post.
One of the things I told a friend was that I knew Taylor Hawkins more for his smile than his drumming. Now, of course, he was a fantastic drummer. But I ever video I saw of him, or photo, he was beaming. That smile was always there. It looks so whole and pure, grateful and affirming.
God dammit, it’s horrible to see him gone from this earth so soon. Just 50 years old.
If I know anything, it’s the intro to ‘Outshined’ by Soundgarden.
I was out running errands recently, and was in the mood for some 90s grunge, and of course went back to ‘Badmotorfinger.’ I asked Siri to play ‘Outshined’ via my Apple Music subscription, and for some reason it played the studio outtake version from the Super Deluxe Edition that came out whenever.
Fuck that.
That got me to dig into an external hard drive and look up the album of my ripped music, and there it was – an MP3 rip of the album I owned in the 90s, and that was the version I needed to hear.
That got me thinking – maybe I should get back to getting my old, ripped MP3s out and listening to music that way. I downloaded Swinsian and kicked the tires a bit.
That was fun for about 20 minutes, but then tracks were missing. Albums were split up because of different words being capitalized. Art work was gone.
Then I remembered what I love doing around 4 or 5pm – not being on my computer.
I’m on my computer most of the day everyday for work, and I don’t want to spend more time in the evening fixing fucking album spellings or artwork mismatches.
That got me looking at CD players again, and I found this amazing beauty; the Yamaha MCR-040, though I’ve seen it named the CRX-040, too.
It’s from 2010 or so, and I love it, and I need to get one, I think.
I’ve been feeling like I need to own more physical media, and I don’t really want to do vinyl, so I think re-building my CD collection is what I need to do.
Oh, this is a delightfully fun ditty. Reminds me of a playful Primus track.
Unfortunately the only way to put a video of mine on this site is to upload it to YouTube, which seems silly, since this audio file actually expires in less than 24 hours, but just posting about it on social media ain’t the answer!
So if you read this blog – I make up these tones and sounds in real time, and stream them on Blast Radio, live to the world. To listen to you need to download the Blast Radio app, but I promise it’s pretty nice. Get it here.
On tonight’s broadcast I had four listeners, which is more than I had a week ago when I started doing this. So I’m just putting this here as a small piece of history. Not really aiming for the stars with this, after all, but I enjoy making these, so if you like them, tune in. Listen here while it’s still live.
Yes, I have downloaded archived copies of each stream, and will be putting them on Bandcamp in a bit. Stay tuned.
I’m going to do a live stream this Friday, January 14th at 9pm ET on both Blast Radio (audio only) and Mix Cloud which will have a video element – bookmark this page here.
My latest mix (#20) was live streamed last Friday. Click below to listen..
I’ve watched a lot of people get into the live streaming thing, mostly on Twitch, or Instagram Live, neither of which I enjoy. Right now Blast Radio and Mixcloud do the job, but my ultimate set up would be something I control, on my own domain name, on my own website.
But that’s a project for another evening.
Found this quote from an artist today while sourcing tracks for an upcoming Goodnight, Metal Friend mix:
“These tracks were originally created as a source of inspiration for both myself and meditative purposes.”
Ran Kirlian
For myself. And meditative purposes.
As I recklessly pay for hosting and domain names and set up a newsletter for Goodnight, Metal Friend, I think that’s the biggest part.
I love my new site (see it here). It makes my eyes light up, seeing all the mixes I’ve produced over nearly two years.
The newsletter on Substack will be partly meditative, too. A log of the journey, seeing where all this goes.
Putting this out into the world doesn’t feel like obligation, like a regimented “content creation” schedule that I must adhere to. The easiest “posting schedule” or whatever is simply sharing what you make every now and again.
A lot of people won’t get it. Some people might. In the end, it’s for me.