Make things, show it to your friends, like Rick Rubin says:
“Some have already criticized Jesse Welles’ output as being too much, and this batch of previously-releases songs won’t help his case. But what Jesse Welles is doing defies all conventional norms. No artist or songwriter has ever been responsible for such a voluminous amount of output that still resonates widely with the public like Welles does. It’s unprecedented territory that calls for extraordinary measures to chronicle it, like releasing a 63-song album.”
I’m sad when I click to listen to someone’s latest offering and I’m left with a long narrow list of digital music streaming providers and download partners.
Now, a “landing page” with lyrics and photos and other “on brand” delights would be so appealing, and it’s not that hard in 2025.
But instead, a legion of talented music makers are content to do what everyone else is doing, sending their adoring fans to faceless corporate data collection services instead of pulling them further into their own creative world (and capturing a few email addresses in the process).
Here’s a (admittedly costly and privileged) thought: Instead of downloading your Kindle books and hacking the DRM from them, use the titles as a list to go buy from your local book store. Or, cheaper option, to keep an eye out for in a Little Free Library.
Back up the digital with the physical.
I’ve cancelled Disney+ because I watch the same old Star Wars movies, and the price keeps going up. I thought, gee, just buy those movies digitally via Apple or Amazon, so I can just stream them whenever I want, right?
But maybe I should just buy a blu-ray player and the actual discs. That way, if the internet goes down or I somehow lose access to my accounts or digital files, well, I can still watch those movies.
I thought this too with digital music – I was digging around for a media player that isn’t Apple Music, and oh my god, everything is atrocious.
But instead of re-building a system which keeps all my files inside my laptop, why not try to buy the CDs (and cassettes)? I can even burn digital files to a CD and play them on my CD player.
If you’re an artist, and you’re shoveling everything onto social media, you’re missing the fuck out.
Every smart phone ships with a web browser.
Not everyone has a Facebook account anymore in 2025.
No one in the U.S. can install TikTok right now.
People are ditching Instagram and Twitter because of reasons.
You might not realize this, but some people fucking love music.
Like, that get band names and lyrics tattooed on their bodies. They wear nothing but band shirts. They dig through bins at record shops. They go to shows on Tuesday night.
The people who just load up automated playlists? Those aren’t your people.
Give people who discover you the ability to fall in fucking love with what you do.
If people find your music on YouTube, or Spotify, or Bandcamp, they can click on a URL and be on your website.
But if you website is just everything you already have on YouTube, and Spotify (a bunch of embeds), and a link to Bandsintown, well, what’s the point?
Wow, news and offers, huh? Sounds thrilling.
People still buy vinyl and CDs and cassettes. Yeah, a lot of people stream music these days, too, but fuck them.
Let people fall in love with you.
Give me a fucking bio. Where are you even from? What other bands were you in?
Stop posting every god damn bit of promo, behind the scenes, and assorted other photos on social media platforms and put that shit on your website.
Let people fall into your world and get lost in how damn cool you are.
Uploading all your cool vibes and good taste to fucking Facebook? In 2025? For 96% of your “followers” to never see?
In this economy?
Save your 5,000 word essays about how Chappell Roan is wrong and buy a fucking album or a hoodie from a band you like.
Sunday nights are for digging through external drives and playing MP3 files of pre-release versions of songs from albums released in 2003.
“Since September, the 24-year-old Polish Canadian woman has held a daily “listening party” on her Instagram and TikTok pages, @soundwavesoffwax, to explore decades and genres of music that her father, Richard, loved — punk, disco, pop, jazz, techno, new wave and ’60s psych rock. The project has exploded online, resonating with more than 460,000 followers combined so far — and she still has nearly 10,000 records to go.”
It’s sad that those vinyl records will outlive those social media channels, though.
Finding the delightfully weird is a challenge without social media, but also its own reward. I spent about 10 minutes digging through Bandcamp before I found this little gem. Look at those colors. Hit play and dream of color patterns. Why not?
Since cancelling my YouTube Premium subscription, I’ve had to find alternative ways to listen to my ambient music for work and sleep. Thankfully Focus Soundscapes isn’t just on YouTube, but they’re also on Bandcamp.
I don’t have a membership to Spotify, Apple Music, or YouTube Music now either, so last night’s run on the treadmill was a challenge. Thankfully the Bandcamp app did the trick, and I was able to pull up the albums I’ve purchased over the years and continue running.
Now I need to find a straight MP3 player app for my iPhone, or maybe look into a dedicated MP3 player that isn’t tied to the Apple iOS ecosystem. Man, I just want to plug things in and move files around, you know?
“indie artists like me can’t afford tо ignore and abandon Spotify, nо matter how much we despise it. If I want tо book a live gig, a promoter will check my streams first. If I want tо get label interest, A&R will glance at my numbers before deciding іf I’m relevant enough tо even respond to.”
This is also true for social media – some media outlets won’t feature you if you don’t have a big enough social media following. See, they think when they publish your feature, then you’ll share it with your big social media audience.
Which is fun, since we all know barely 5% of anyone’s audience will see that feature from the band’s social media feed.
But then, with Spotify numbers – they can be fudged, right? You can artificially boost those numbers. Make a song called “lofi-beats playlist” and hope for the best.
Right now Spotify is for the masses. Easy to consume. It’s a never ending buffet, and while your music is on the menu, you’ll never make enough to buy groceries for the week.
