IF I'M MISSING I'M WORKING
Invest in work that pays off down the road
Chuck D chimes in on the Rick Rubin thing:
“On Rick Rubin I will tell you this. Art is what you feel no one should tell you what Art should come out of you. He gets that. Many artists want things in exchange for their art from love to money. A whole other thing. Rick feels you out in a sea of others wanting the same thing.”
Then I saw someone replied to his post:
IF I’M MISSING I’M WORKING
I love the power in that. Missing on social media?
Nah, Chuck D’s been working.
Rick Rubin started Def Jam in his dorm room (with Russell Simmons). He’s been working.
Watch this Rolling Stone clip from 2014:
“Nothing that happened was intentional, nothing. Everything was trying to make something cool to play for our friends that they would like. That was all it ever was. And then selling enough records to make another record.”
Believe these two things with me in 2023:
If I’m missing I’m working
Don’t miss me on Twitter, I’m working. I’m writing this newsletter, and helping sell albums with Metal Bandcamp Gift Club (since 2016), and making my Goodnight, Metal Friend mixes, and day job work helping sell vinyl.
Spend all day on Twitter? Nah. We’ve got work to do, magic to create, art to make.
Make cool stuff. Tell your friends. Sell enough to make more.
Keep this on repeat, day in day out, and don’t stop. I’ve been doing this since 2001, before Twitter and long after Musk burns it to the ground.
Because yes, sure, a million views is fun. A thousand likes.
Try getting 1,000 fans on our email lists.
Invest in work that pays off down the road.
Because if your social media posts are seen by less than 3% of your followers, that means over 97% of your fans didn’t see it.
One email a week, which can be a round up of all the social media posts that your fans didn’t see in the first place.
For you heavyweights (5000+ subscribers), maybe publish those tour diaries, studio reports, video shoots, and other “features” in your newsletter for your existing fans, where you know 30-40% of your fans will see it.
If I’m missing I’m working. Let’s work.
LISTEN UP
Out last week, ‘Supraliminal’ by Nothingness is a blast of dense deathmetal wizardry and chaos.
Use ideas from HEAVY METAL EMAIL to sell more stuff, just be sure to upgrade to a paid subscription so I can keep the lights on.
Not the “subscribing” type? I also accept cups of coffee via Ko-Fi, Venmo (@Seth-Werkheiser), Cash App ($ethwerkheiser), or PayPal.
Support bands and labels directly and buy me an album from my Bandcamp wishlist.
P.S. I’ll be in NYC the week of Feb 20th - get in touch and let’s hang.