WEEKLY LOOP for SEPTEMBER 5, 2021

LIKES

  • “People who still use facebook regularly are scary,” @fiveyearwinterx
  • “Everyone’s about to snap right?” @amil
  • “Can you name a movie you like that features a scene with a payphone that is not The Matrix?” – great thread from @TheCinemaTicket
  • “I think the problem started when we started calling everything content instead of what it is lol,” @erinisaway
  • “i can’t believe we’re all just supposed to keep going,” @hannahgiorgis

TECH LIKES

“BREAKING:  @GoogleAds has terminated its relationship with Gateway Pundit,” @nandoodles

MUSIC LIKES

  • “Most ClubHouse “A&Rs” aren’t real A&Rs and have no clue what they’re talking about,”@djboothEIC
  • “You’re gaining new fans daily, go back and promote some of the Episodes from last week, month, year etc,” @BigSto (great follow)
  • “Artists, it’s easier to sell 200 pieces of merch than it is to get 2 million streams,” @VaniceAlexander

One Turntable Loop Pedal Wizardry

I have a hard enough time trying to grasp making mixes with two sound sources for Goodnight, Metal Friend. But this?

This is bananas.

Start at about the 6:00 minute mark.

Here, Cut Chemist samples a bass line at the 6:44 minute mark, and loops it.

Then he perfectly cuts in a drum loop from a completely different record, and loops that at the 7:00 minute mark.

That just blows my mind.

This set was in support of DJ Mat The Alien, who suffered a really bad injury while mountain biking in October of 2020. The fundraiser (here) topped $200K, and he’s back to making music.

Inheritance, Existence

Via @simonwilliam, Deputy Music Editor at Rolling Stone

Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry passed away this weekend, and above you can see two things in action. Two bold truths in the universe we live in now:

First, “I inherit words, songs, and power.” As an artist, a musician, a photographer – you’ve got the skill. The mindset. The talent. That doesn’t mean riches, or a payday, or even a career. But look at the list of artists paying tribute and respect to Perry in this piece by Rolling Stone; Mike D of The Beastie Boys, Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones.

Second, “the publication that ran that interview is no longer existent.” I’m able to listen to the music of Perry because music is forever. It’s on YouTube, streaming services, it’s in used CDs bins in music shops around the world.

When a URL expires, it’s gone. Yes, there’s the WayBack machine, but for all intents and purposes, it’s gone. Vanished, without a trace (sans the screen shot above).

Do the thing that is your legacy endlessly. Cover your walls in prints, in art, in CDs filled with demos from 2001-2002. Leave pieces of yourself everywhere in whatever medium you can, as often as you can.

Yes, even online. Just make sure you re-up your domain name every year.

Quick Ain’t Always The Answer

We all have the ability to post something on social media, and every post has the ability to change your life.

You can literally write something whimsical and get 100K likes.
Your text can be on TV a few hours later.
A screen shot of your words could be on the late night shows.

It’s alluring. It pulls us in. Even a reply to someone else’s post can make you famous.

Or you can sit down and write. Maybe it’s a 500 word blog post. An essay. A book.

You can write a song. And then another.

Paint a picture. Take a photograph. Or a dozen.

It’s easier to post on Instagram, with a giant 300 word caption with no line breaks.

It’s a bit harder to pull back. It’s a challenge to just use one photo, and write “if you want to know more about how I did this / made this / wrote this, head to my website.”

Yeah. Algorithims sucks. I get it.

But you’re training people to remember that domain name. Start doing that today!

Maybe you notice that artist isn’t posting so much on Instagram anymore, so you check out their site, and see they’ve been posting something everyday for the last two months.

That’s not quick. That’s a grind.

There’s no LIKES on my site. No “shares.” No immediate feedback.

That’s okay. How much is a like worth, anyways? They’re on your site. That’s gold.

Slow down. Build up your site. Pretend it’s a monthly magazine, and you’ve got the cover story, week after week. Write your story, tell your story, share your story, bring others along for the ride.

You Don’t Need Millions

There’s already enough loud mouth podcaster and personalities. We need more people who are their authentic selves.

There’s plenty of room for quiet. Shy. Reserved. Goofy.

Will it attract millions of fans this week? Maybe not. But you don’t need millions.

Via @BigSto

But don’t think you’re going to get 2,000 fans until you get 200, or until you get 20.

Learn how to reach and be real with 10 people, 20 people.

You don’t have to be a mega star to DM a fan and send them free stickers. Or leave them tickets to your next show.

Do that shit now.

Do the shit that doesn’t scale. Do the shit that the big artists can’t. Connect and build your audience. Fuck “recommended if you like…” stickers and curated playlists.

Find you 10, your 20, and build from there.

Produce on Socials, Archive and Elaborate on Your Site

“Nobody uses websites anymore,” says everybody who reads news, interviews, and reviews on websites. And buy tickets on websites. Watch videos on websites. Buy albums on websites.

Give people a reason to go to your website.

No one goes to your site?

Probably because there’s nothing on it but music player embeds and old tour dates. Thrilling stuff!

As a photographer, artist, musician, producer – you could be filling your site with thoughts, ideas, behind the scenes, stories (you have so many stories).

Tease all this on socials, then include a link to read the full thing (just like every media outlet does).

Here I wrote about the band that changed my life. I could have just wrote a quick tweet about that, or an IG story… then it’d be gone in 12 seconds. But it’s on my site, waiting to be read. Like a book to be checked out at the library.

No, it’s not going to get 10,000 views. But maybe someone who shares the same story will email me about it. That’d be cool.

I’ve gone back through some of my “twitter rants” and turned them into blog posts. Like this one: Most People Haven’t Heard Your Album. I even took some time and made a video to go with it. And elaborated on some of the things I Tweeted.

We’ve all got YEARS of things we said that could easily be turned into blog posts.

Top albums. Fave shows. Funny stories. Wild adventures.

Stop giving all of that to social media, and building value for mega corps. Put it on your own site and link to it, over and over.

Use social media as the billboard, and get people to your site.

Use the Press You Get

Via @BigSto

This over and over again, “use the Press you ARE getting.”

Don’t just say you got a review somewhere – use the words that the outlet used to describe your music.

If a major media outlet said your album was an album of the year contender, say that. Scream that, post it, screen shot it, put it in your bio.

We’re On Our Own

Via @laurieallee

This is what I feel.

We’re approaching 30,000 COVID deaths here in Pennsylvania, over the course of 17 months. That’s like 1,750 per month. So, approaching a 9/11 death-toll every single month for over a year.

No memorials. No healing. No moments of silence. Nothing.

Sure, the IRS keeps knocking. Local hospital network keeps emailing me for donations. Remember when car insurance companies gave us automated discounts those first two months? HAH.

Through all of this I am reminded of one thing, very soundly; we’re on our own.

Your Music Is More Than a Stream

Tweet via @iamcartermoore

I get the above sentiment for bigger, more established acts. Hell, I see and work a lot of the press releases involved (see, Close Mondays), but I don’t play an active part in how that system works. A bit above my pay grade, actually!

But my guiding principle over the last 20+ years as been, “I just wanna help bands sell albums,” and really my heart is for the artists who are still honing their craft, while trying to pretend to be a social media and online marketing expert at the same time. It’s a tough gig.

That said, it’s better to make a weekly podcast than a monthly one.
As a photographer, it’s better to post a photo once a day, than once a week.

Not so much for the “oh, look at me” factor. But the feedback loop. Putting something out there more often just means more rolls of the dice. You just never know who might see or hear or listen or consume your art, but if you don’t put it out there, you’re taking yourself out of the game.

That’s not to say you should be feeding the social media machines at every moment.

Buy a domain name and post your photos from a recent trip.
Start a micro-niche podcast about a subject matter you care about and upload twice a week.

And again – I know a lot of musicians in the game aren’t ready to just start posting new songs every day or week, but there’s just so many ways to get your music into the world without resorting to a Spotify link.

Experiment with video software and start uploading them with your music to YouTube.
Make pretend commercials.
Make fake scenes from a movie with your friends and use your music as the back drop.
Work with people who make fun animations or videos, and let them use your music.

Keep putting up shots, and get away from the decades old convention that music only comes on albums, and that soundtracks and commercials are only for big artists on labels.

Make your music more than a stream, and build it into a bigger project.