More or Less Content?

Dear Friends, 

This May Long Weekend has thrown my schedule out of sync and I’m not complaining! I was able to step away from my computer, tend to my plants. As I pulled away dead leaves and faded flowers, I was reminded about how fresh and new something becomes when it is pruned. 

Since yesterday, I’ve been following panels as part of the Sandbox Summit, organized by the UK organization, Music Ally. A lot of the topics are about content creation and making more stuff and doing more online, etc. While the speakers are inspiring, I find that I’m resisting this notion that we should be filling up our schedules and our social media feeds with MORE stuff. I keep looking back to my begonias whose colours are brighter today, after yesterday’s trim. 

We’re under so much pressure to keep putting things out to connect with old friends and new fans. And frankly, the 10-minute talks are dizzying: video premieres, listening parties, NFTs (non-fungible tokens, this will need to be a specific post once I get my head around them),TikTok, influencer marketing... you could create content all day and you might still feel you’re lagging!

So, here are the nuggets gleaned today for putting out content without clogging your feed:

• Jen Darmafall, Associate Director, Influencer Marketing at Warner Records JUST said, “Influencer Marketing - I eat, sleep and breathe it all day!” ...that actually made me a little sad! I was a workaholic for decades and I know how obsessive the rat race can become. Please remember to make time for life’s little pleasures!

• So, first off, let’s stop buying into this idea that our success is based on having a (paid) influencer say our song was cool. Sigh. There is no single recipe that works. Every artist defines “success” as it suits them. “Hearts and likes” do not make a career!

• Use your intention to guide your choices. Is your music career based on performance, recording or fan-centric activity (Patreon)? Depending on your focus, you’ll want to adopt the measures that feed your plan.

• Looking to what other sectors are doing can be inspiring. Tracy Murphy, Senior Director at Pringles shared the #PlayWithPringles campaign which came out of their “test and learn” approach to social media. Trust your audience. And if you try something and it doesn’t work, it’s okay! There’s a 24-hour shelf life on social media a bad idea is forgotten and replaced the next day.
• As Samira Leitmannstetter, VP BOLD COLLECTIVE (Sony Music Entertainment Germany) said: “If you fail, it wasn’t the right idea. But you tried. And in trying, you’re being creative”

• If you really don’t want to do TikTok, that’s okay – you should never feel you’re compromising your integrity. That said, being in that space can serve you so you can find other ways of being there: getting your audience to create content for you, encouraging others to use your music in their creations, etc.

• A key message was to have fun with this! For example, if you like cooking, you can share your recipes on Twitch – which an easy platform for sharing live moments. Will Farrell-Green, Head of Music Content on Twitch, reminded us to stop worrying about how many followers are watching – that 100 people is a decent size – that these are REAL people paying attention. It was a good reminder to remember that our fans are people, not statistics.

• Finally, remember that you can access conferences from around the world. There’s something about the diversity of accents and ideas that opens the mind, reminds us of the great wide world out there! You can travel somewhere new with a search and click!

Decades ago, my father gave me advice about conferences: If you can meet one person and take away one good idea, you’ve made good use of your time. It’s been so helpful for me to get to the good stuff without feeling overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of “ToDos”.

And of course, stepping away from the computer to give your plants a little love will always remind you that “less can be more”... Maybe finding balance is about making sure that as you bring in new initiatives, you ditch some of the older ideas to make room for them!

xo Nat