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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
“A record that pulls in influences from all over, and ends up showing just how cohesive and inspirational heavy music can be.” 10/10
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.
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.
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.
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.
