Thank you Harry Hogg, Roger Scott, Jos P, blond-noise, Jeff Long, and many others for tuning into tonight’s live stream!
The platforms are rigged. Someone groaned about figuring out what to post for a Friday release, and I pointed out the math: 10% of followers might see it regardless of effort. It’s not your fault. You don’t suck. it’s just how the game is set up.
Stop sending people to places where you can’t reach them. I made a clear case for directing traffic to Bandcamp and an email list instead of Spotify or Instagram. The fan who clicks “follow” on Instagram probably won’t see your next ten posts, but the email subscriber will probably open your next newsletter.
Two people helped get 150 people to a show. I told the story of Jes Raymond reaching out to a local newspaper and a radio station before playing a town they’d never played before. Direct outreach beat a week of social media posts.
Your email list is the long term project to build. Whether it’s a clipboard passed around at a show, a photo booth that trades photos for email addresses, or a Bandcamp purchase exported into Substack, every tactic I talked about circles back to collecting contact info you actually own.
You don’t a million people, you need the right people. I used the example of a photographer: two creative directors visiting their site is worth more than 500 random views. One person on a nonprofit’s email list forwarded a story to a Pearl Jam forum — and Pearl Jam shared it to millions.
