Head To The Hills

I used to hate getting my feet wet when running. Now, for this photo, I was standing completely still in this creek, getting soaked, and loving every second of it.

With the pandemic still raging, and idiocy everywhere, I’m withdrawn a bunch from the idea of heading to cities, or being around a bunch of people. It’s just not for me yet.

I got emails from the Broad Street Race in Philadelphia, the biggest 10 mile race in the US, and how they’re making their big return this year! The Philly 10K, the super slick, well organized race through the streets of mid and lower Philadelphia.

Then the 7 day average of new COVID cases just keeps going up here in PA:
500 on July 24th
1,000 on August 3rd (10 days)
2,000 on August 15th (12 days)

So I ordered a closeout bag from Ultimate Direction from REI and started getting ideas to head into the mountains, away from people.

They’ll be a time for densely packed 10Ks again in the future, but for me, right now? Not yet. Do what you wanna do, but for me, I’m looking at some tents and water filtration systems, and looking to disappear into the woods a bit.

Before Giving Yourself Over to Your Job

From an interview with Harper’s Bazaar Digital Director Nikki Ogunnaike:

“My friend Joe Holder is very much of the school where he believes there are all sorts of products that people are buying and reaching and searching for to do their wellness practices, but there are things like stillness, meditation, religion, fresh air, and vitamin D. And I don’t knock anyone — do whatever you need to do to center yourself. But in my own life, making sure that I do something for myself in the morning before I have to give myself over to my job.”

‘Nikki Ogunnaike Wants You to Unfollow Anyone Who Doesn’t Bring You Joy, at The Cut

Even with my years of talking about productivity and using all the cool tools, my morning routine doesn’t exist. Some mornings I just stumble through, other mornings I rush to complete a task that I put off from the previous workday.

The idea though, of “making sure I do something for myself in the morning before I have to give myself over to my job.” The idea that we really do give ourselves over to our jobs, even when working remotely. That’s a real thing. A different headspace.

Online Music Marketing Beeps and Boops

Some bits and boops from pieces I’ve posted over on my Ko-Fi page:

But if you want new people to hear your music, push your music. Not everyone who visits your social media profile is a fan just yet.

Embed the audio right onto social media. Upload a 10-15 second clip. Often. Then, include a link to hear the full song, preferably where they can also purchase it.

Audio First

I made a video describing how to gift someone an album on Bandcamp:

Wrote a bit about hyping your music beyond a commodity item,

You’re not selling MP3s, just like not you’re not selling eggs in the dairy aisle. No one remembers a carton of eggs, but people get lyrics and band logos tattooed on their bodies. 

Honor Your Music

Then wrote a bit about the “pre-release” stage of putting out music, or a fundraiser, and the importance of gathering emails,

Just like handing out flyers to shows back in the day, you should be getting an email address.

Announce your thing, and include a “call to action.” Give people who really care about your thing a link to click, and ask for an email address.

Get Some Emails

I’ve been involved in this “online music” thing for 20 years now, and if you count all the years of playing in bands, traveling to shows, and hanging out with musicians, make it 30 years. But I’ll say this – anyone who says they have THE answer is still full of shit.

Things move at the speed of light, but I know two things:

Write good songs.
Have fans.

I know, sounds stupid simple, but it’s all that fucking matters.

Don’t get me wrong, a “good song” doesn’t mean just something that’s performed at halftime at the Super Bowl. If you like it, that’s a good song.

And if a few other people like it, well, I 1000% believe a few more people would like it, too. It’s a matter of getting it out there, which is where so much of the struggle is these days.

Just posting “NEW SONG” on Twitter once, on a Tuesday at 2:38pm doesn’t cut it (unless you’re Radiohead).

CAN’T LOSE IF YOU DON’T PLAY THE GAME

From Spotify’s editorial and algorithmic playlists:

“In some cases, commercial considerations may influence our recommendations.”

So how do you compete with payola? Don’t play the game.

Link to your own Bandcamp. Share your own playlists. Work with other artists to create compelling art that your fans will devour.

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.

(h/t @cheriehu42)

Teens With Ring Lights

Since I saw this Tweet below I seriously went to sleep and woke up thinking about the phrase “while teens with ring lights are signed for millions.”

Via @DonnaMissal on Twitter

I want to believe, “hey, those people with the ring lights will fade just as quick as they showed up. They’re here one minute, gone the next!”

But that still does nothing to help the artist pay a director, or hell, pay the rent. A few more thousand Spotify streams aren’t going to help, either.

SIGH.

I just want artists to make money so we can all keep doing this.




Use Words as Weapons

When you get press, it can be tempting to post, “hey, go check out this piece of press!”

Really? That’s as exciting as cardboard.

If it’s an interview, use a pull quote. Use the words you spoke which translate your beauty and magic.

  • “Hey, go read my interview over at MEDIA OUTLET. LINK.”
    Bland, boring, literally every other artist is begging for the same thing.
  • “When I got back from a 10 hour hike in the desert, where I hallucinated and spoke with a space ghost, that’s where the album title came from. LINK”
    No one else gets to post that. Your story is fucking unique, take advantage of that.

The same goes for reviews.

  • “Hey, MEDIA OUTLET reviewed our new album. LINK.”
    Again, every other band, artist, writer, etc. wrote the same thing a dozen times in the past four minutes.
  • “An absolute banger album, and contender for album of the year honors already,” says MEDIA OUTLET. LINK.
    Again, no one else gets to say that about their album except YOU.

Big movies trailers use pull quotes, so should you.

Hell, if an outlet crowned your release as album of the year, you’re not really going to post, “Hey, MEDIA OUTLET said nice things about our album.”

Hell, no.

You say, “MEDIA OUTLET said OUR ALBUM is ALBUM OF THE YEAR.”

Social media is a lot like running away from a bear. You don’t have to out run the bear, you just have to out run your friends.

Every day there are a thousand artists posting bad copy on socials, so use a media outlets words as a weapon to cut through crap.

Always Credit People

This is a great bit of advice from artist and illustrator Caroline Harrison:

People putting out music: please remember to credit the album artist on your Bandcamp page! I spent a while down a rabbit hole the other day trying to find an album artist for something that just came out and had to scroll through a bunch of Facebook posts.

Via Twitter

Credit the album artist, the designer, the photographer, the engineers, the producers – all of ’em! Not only is it just nice and proper, but it also helps with organic search!

Don’t make your fans or curious parties dig through months worth of social media posts to discover who made your album art – put that information right where you release your music!

“This has the added benefit of making your bandcamp page more likely to come up if someone googles the artist, so it’s really a no-brainer for musicians to do this,” Jock Sportello via Twitter.

People search band names and album titles and song titles – and all sorts of goodies come up! The same happens when you search for artist names, photographer names, guitar player names, producer names, and everyone else. This isn’t just some “growth hack” to get more eyeballs, it’s just the proper thing to do.

Credit everyone involved, the people who made a vital contribution to the work you’re putting out there into the world. The deserve it.

Plug and Replug

Announce your thing, and keep announcing it.

I always appreciate when people plug and replug their work on Twitter. Never feel bad about it. There’s always some article/book/video/ that pops up in my timeline and I think, “I need to check that out … but later.” Later comes and I can lose track. Your replugging reminds me.

@mattthomas on Twitter

Let’s say you finally get to announce that pre-orders are now open for your new EP. You post it on a Tuesday at 10am. And then…

People who happen to be on Twitter (or whatever other social media network you announce the news on) on Tuesday, around 10am… well… that’s the afternoon for folks in Europe. And just 7am for people on the West coast – sort of early.

So make sure you post about your link a few more times in the coming weeks. Yes, multiple times. For the very reasons listed above.

People might see your link when they’re sitting down to a new episode of something on Netflix. They might be in line at the bank, or waiting for a Zoom meeting to start.

Schedule out a dozen Tweets.
You can do the same on Facebook.
And even Instagram (using Buffer).

Schedule them out, even at weird hours. TV commercials get shown over and over again. You see the same banner ads. The same pre-roll ads on YouTube.

There’s no shame in talking up your thing multiple times on social media.

The Secret Sauce

From my Soft Run newsletter:

The fun was meeting a pal from Instagram. 
The fun was running on some new trails. 
The fun was seeing some great puppers. 
Clapping for a guy riding his mountain bike up a big giant hill.

Always good to remind myself of why I go running at all. It’s not the paces, or the mileage – it’s the magic that I get witness when I do it consistently. That’s it. I would have missed all of the above if I stayed home today.

Getting Out There

Started some weekend rides with my friend who doesn’t really bike much, and been having a blast. Biking is low impact, and there’s ton of rails-to-trails all over PA, so there’s hardly any hills to worry about.

The best part is it doesn’t stop when the ride ends. We get to find food, which is a whole adventure unto itself.