Author: Seth Werkheiser

CHATGPT IS YOUR ONE PERSON WRITING ROOM

Throw it a prompt, get a result, and tweak it. Edit it. Ask it to reword a sentence, or a concept. Have it summarize the last two lines, reword the intro.

Since you’re leading the writer room, you now hack it together with tape and glue.

You’re not just copy and pasting the results into an email to your client, or a pitch to your boss – you’re using your years of experience and wisdom to pull out the best parts, get your mind moving, and hopefully get to a few “light bulb” moments during the whole process.

I’ve been writing online since 2001, and chatGPT is a great automated computerized writing partner, and I’ve used it for my newsletters, small bits of client work, and some emails here and there.

For me, my biggest obstacle in starting any written project is the EMPTY PAGE.

So even if you just use chatGPT to start a written project, it can be huge.

– Write five social media captions about my new music video
– Write how this new video “hit me in the face like a ton of bricks”
– List some keywords I can use on YouTube for my project
– What big technology thing happened in 2007 (see attached image)?

Now, for anything factual (like big technological things in 2007), make sure you fact check! It’s not perfect, BUT, it’s a starting point.

Just like when things get thrown out in a writer room, you’re not going to put everything on paper and publish it the next day.

So yeah… try it out, at least to just get past the “staring at a blank page” problem. Edit. Rework things. Have fun!

NO MAGIC IN ALGORITHMS

The local university has a radio station, and I finally looked it up and of course found HEAVIER in their Mixcloud archive.

Letting a radio show just play can be hard, as DSPs and social media has made me so impatient. But I let it play, and to my pure delight Kublai Khan TX came on, which is one of my client’s bands, and a band I saw a bit ago on tour.

Over the past few years I’ve danced with the magic of the radio, mixes, and DJ sets, watching chemists mix together tracks like potions. I’ve watched hours of ambient drone made in real time using equipment I’ve never heard of.

All this stuff is harder to find, harder to “consume” while on a bus or whatever. But I grew up in a home with a music room.

There was a stereo, shelves of records, and that’s where you listened to music. I have memories of mom dancing to the Rolling Stones, Abba, Kris Kristofferson, and Dire Straits.

Some nights I just never want to go to bed. Hopping from one YouTube video to the next, looking up something on Wikipedia, then digging for a track on Bandcamp. On Spotify. Whatever.

A whole world of music is out there, still waiting to be discovered, and it’s so fun to just dig through so much of when you discover it from other people.

SOCIAL MEDIA REACH IS OVER

I keep advertising in the newspaper yet I’m just not getting customers!
I keep buying banner ads but not getting sales!
I keep paying to BOOST my social media posts but nothing happens.
I keep spending time on social media platforms but not getting any reach!

When do we get the fucking clue? Take the hint.

Social media did not exist to send you free traffic in 2015, and it sure as fuck ain’t gonna make it any easier in 2023 – that’s EIGHT YEARS of beating our heads against the collective desk.

You saying you didn’t see this coming? Please.

Facebook pivoting to video in 2015 fucked everyone. Then oops, “Facebook Overestimated Key Video Metric for Two Years.”

So you think that same company that runs Instagram has your best interest in mind?
Think Elon Musk gives a flying fuck about your upcoming tour or EP release?

Bands and businesses flourished before social media, and they’ll survive without them.

WE’RE TOO AVAILABLE

This from Codie Sanchez:

Each day the average person gets:
• 41 texts
• 100 emails
• 5 calls

If responding to each takes an average of 3 minutes…

That’s 7 hours a day.

Yeah yeah yeah, give or take the three minutes number, but still – each one of those things is a distraction from what you’re doing.

So while it might not take 3 minutes to answer one text, I bet having that phone in your hand leads to checking out Instagram, or scrolling through Google News for 10 minutes.

We’re all too available, too often, and much time is given to being distracted instead of doing work.

Partly why I’m so glad I’m a freelancer and have nearly zero meetings every week.

GIVE ME THE EXPERIENCE

I got into heavy music because a good friend hauled my ass to a sketchy venue in NJ back in 1994 or so. Into Another, Life of Agony, Biohazard.

If our parents knew where we were at, they’d be furious. That was an experience. A life changing event when I was just 17 years old or so.

And 30 years later I just went to a show with that same friend.

So yes, we’re making videos and writing newsletters and putting out vinyl and tapes, and that’s all well and good.

But there’s only so far that online marketing can take you.

Those social media posts are stacked up against long drives, truck stops, and scary venues as a teenager.

It’s not about the product, it’s the experience.

DO THINGS YOU ENJOY

Saw this on Farrah Storr’s newsletter, an interview with Emma Gannon:

What’s one thing you wished you’d never done?

A Ted Talk. I was nervous for three months in the lead up to it and then came crashing down afterwards post-adrenaline. I’ve come to terms with the fact  I don’t enjoy public speaking in that way. 

What I love about this is the permission to just not do something.

Hustle / freelance / self employment cutlure would have us do everything as a means to promote and market ourselves.

But using the example above, at what cost?

Three months of being nervous? Being distracted with the worry of the upcoming event? Then the crash afterwards, once it’s all over?

No thanks.

Don’t want to start a TikTok? DON’T.

Don’t want to post on Instagram anymore? DON’T.

Don’t want to start an email list? DON’T.

Do what works for you.

YOU NEED A PLAN

@Gen_Erik on Twitter

Love love love this quote:

“What you need is a strategy to grow your fanbase. And as you’re growing your fanbase, you keep making music and improving your craft.”

If you write shit songs and get on stage and notice that no one is interested in what you’re playing, you’re going to make adjustments.

You work on your craft, develop your skills, and learn how to put on a show. This can take years, but that’s how it’s done.

This goes for writers, photographers, artists, whatever!

Goals are great, but what’s the plan?

MEG WHITE RULES

Imagine waking up and posting garbage like this:

The audacity to post “Meg White was terrible” to the entire world is beyond comprehension.

Meg White won four Grammy Awards
She’s in Rolling Stone’s ‘100 Greatest Drummers of All Time’ list
She’s a 3x Platinum selling artist.

You know what most normal people do when they don’t like something? They don’t think about it.

There are 1000s of bands and albums and song I don’t care for. Think I’m going to spend energy and time and effort and mental bandwidth letting the world know?

Nah.

This, though? This new album from Carmen Jaci is amazing, and I just pre-ordered it today (it’s out March 30th, 2023).

LET YOUR FANS KNOW THEY CAN BUY YOUR MUSIC

Last week’s Spotify garbage announcements led to a lot of artists and bands and musicians speaking out in anger.

I get it, I really do, but also 90% of those same artists have multiple links to Spotify in their bio, on their feeds, on their websites (if they have a website)…

“Weird. I only link to Spotify on all my social media platforms and website posts, and yet no one buys any of the music from my Bandcamp because I never link to it or mention it, shhh it’s a secret I guess. So frustrating!”

Yes, I get it… making a $1 on Spotify is hard. But… I make music that sounds like a running dishwasher mixed with a 10 year old AC unit, and…

Like, I am not a full time musician by any means. Most of my friends don’t give a crap about the music I make. But like… my music isn’t available on any streaming service, and I made $30 last month, which is good for some groceries.

Yes, it’d be great if Spotify would pay more, and it’d also be great if people bought CDs like they did in 1998. But that’s NEVER coming back.

Some people value music, and will pay you for it. A lot of people won’t.

Don’t fall for the, “well, everyone just streams music.”

You’re not making music for everyone. None of us are.

So at the bare minimum let your fans know that they can support you by purchasing your music.

SPOTIFY’S STREAM ON MUSIC IS HORRIBLE

Imagine being one of the biggest music companies in the world, host of some of the most amazing music in modern history, and… this (the second one down) is the track you’re using for your big roll out:

It’s not just me, I swear:

Like… HOW is that the sound bed to your big new feature roll out?

Oh, that’s right – when your mission as a company is to replace all human-made music with AI bullshit so you don’t have to pay out to actual humans, this is what you get.

Look – Spotify as an app, a service, all that – yeah, it’s great.

But it’s also the worst.