Social Media Neutered Your Music

Did you forget that you're an artist?

Friends, it’s the future. We’re all walking around with a film studio in our pockets, a recording studio on our laptops, a global digital distributor at our fingertips and we can order any merch in the world in any quantity, any time we want it.

We have many, MANY tools and mediums that allow us to reach virtually any human being on our planet. We have projectors and holograms and we can email every modern dance choreographer in the world, every museum curator, every college radio DJ. We have bubble machines. You should be inventing ways of making and sharing music that I can’t even dream of.

But no. You’re wasting your one precious life making instagram reels.

I’m not even going to make a case for why vertical scroll social media is a waste of most artists’ time. You can go read some of my other posts if you don’t already know.

But I will say this: if labels are obsolete (are they? I actually don’t know, but they’re less important than they used to be) and artists can make whatever they want, whenever they want, how musicians get conned into channeling their creative energy into something so small and limiting.

How did you all get conned into feeding the beast?

There are so many other options for creative and distinctive ways to reach people that are deeply connected to your music. There are literal infinite ways you could connect deeply with the right fans. Hold a seance. Get arrested at the mall. Make scandalizing merch. Immersive sound bath camp-out sleepover. Jesus, anything.

“Sure, Cass,” you might say, “it’s easy for you to come up with these creative ideas, you’re creative! You’re a marketing person!”

And you’d be totally right. Until you remember the fact that you all are literal artists.

You were born to see and articulate things that other people can’t. You were born to us from the divine with a curly straw that reaches all the way back into the universe’s special reserve of magic.

Anyway, my marketing ideas are beside the point because ultimately, what needs to happen is that you need to step outside of your assumptions. Audit the content you’re making, the shows you’re playing, the things you’re selling, the space you’re inhabiting, the fans you’re serving. These are all extensions of your music. These are all spaces that require your creativity.

You, the most creatively resourced generation of artists need to stop playing the game of the tech bro overlords so you can create the next generation of era-defining experiences.

Like jazz clubs didn’t exist. And then they did. Raves didn’t exist. And then they did.

I can already hear you boo-hooing, “but talent buyers won’t book me to play their venue or festival if I don’t have good numbers on social media.”

Who gives a shit. We’re all going to die someday. Go play a roller rink. Create your own festival. Tastemakers can’t take away your power if you’re creating a sick world around your music that other people want to be a part of. You have the tools. You don’t need the tastemakers.

Why am I screaming? I’ll tell you why.

Because doing bullshit on social media isn’t building you a beautiful career in music!

It isn’t even working!

Because the shitty dopamine addiction social media gave everyone has robbed us of so much. Togetherness, creativity, participation, certainly music.

And the biggest con of all time is that we need it in order to thrive as musicians. As an industry, even.

It’s like in Over The Garden Wall when (spoiler alert) the evil forest spirit convinces the woodsman that his daughter’s soul lives in the lantern. The woodsman works day and night to keep it alive. But in reality, it’s the evil forest spirit who lives in the lantern, not the woodsman’s daughter.

We don’t need social media. It needs us.

It requires a bit of courage, but you can let the evil forest spirit die.

There’s a newly connected world out there and it’s waiting for you to shape it.

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Paid subscribers, on this week’s live Zoom we’ll be diving into how each of you can strengthen your own brand and visibility by doing more of your own special thing!

Free subscribers, please consider joining our ranks - we have such amazing productive sessions. Our group is still pretty small so this is a great chance to get hands-on help from me with your branding and marketing or whatever else is on your mind!

As always, we’re meeting up Friday at 12 noon Pacific. I cannot wait to see you there!

Finally, if you’d like help marketing your own music or music business, find your way over to my about page to learn more about working with me 1:1 or just drop me a note!

Thanks for reading!

Cass