Welcome back to The Club List, a newsletter about making a business out of what you love.

If you’re a musician, please take a moment to contribute to the music streaming survey I’m conducting - especially if you had a song flagged or taken down from Spotify in the last 6 months, or you’ve seen weird activity in your streams. TELL YOUR FRIENDS! 

I’ve read a lot more about this in the last week, and the situation is widespread enough that I want more data. So, the deadline to complete the survey is now Friday, July 12. I’ll be writing about the results in an upcoming issue of this newsletter.

I guested on this week’s edition of Dan Bassini and Andrew Valentine’s podcast Run Into The Ground, and it was a real joy to do. We spent nearly an hour talking about how the first half of this year went for me, which was both funnier and deeper than I expected it to get. And for the real heads out there, we got extremely deep about Failure’s Fantastic Planet at about 59:00, with a shoutout near the end to a few friends I saw them with at an infamously-undersold 2014 show. Some highlights:

• [6:50] The AI offer I didn’t quite refuse, but certainly didn’t say yes to

• [24:39] I talk a little bit about Evil Screen. That’s my second monitor, but it’s also Wikipedia Screen, YouTube Screen, and Focused Email Window Screen. If you’ve ever just wondered why yours is on and blank, well, that’s why I call it Evil Screen. Turn it off until you need it.

• [25:50] Thoughts on leaving my old agency Marauder (all pleasant ones), and the funnier points about explaining it to people

• [27:50] The self-exploration that led to Me In The Club

• [33:30] A little bit on why I started The Club List

• [35:55] Some commentary on artists getting their songs taken down from Spotify, and the pitfalls of relying too much on platform rental

• [40:00] Why marketing funnels are really loops in the infinite-scroll era

• [41:40] The old “distract them with this rubber chicken” ad trick, followed by actual Good Advice at 43:00-46:00 about the fear creatives have of being seen

• [57:30] Huge, nerdy album conversation ensues, but the first two minutes or so are about what led me to loving indie rock

Thanks for having me on, guys! Go follow @runintotheground for more of them.

This week, I have some thoughts about how I see the tension between “content” and art, as well as a decidedly useful tip for adding creativity to your life. Let’s get into it.

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Make Content, But Keep Your Soul

If you create anything, you probably have one of two reactions when you hear the phrase “content” applied to what you produce, in any form.

Either it has no impact on you, or you have a very deep revulsion to the idea and feel it to be anti-art. “How dare my work be qualified in such a way!” you may think. You’re expressing yourself, not necessarily with a goal of mass production or greater acceptance. 

This is largely for those of that second opinion.

Let’s look first at what “content” is from a functional perspective. It’s anything that fits in a container. The contents of a box. The contents of my thoughts. The contents of this newsletter. If you are reading a book, the table of contents will tell you what chapter is where. Does this devalue the writing? No, not if it’s still made with intention.

I do not look at the contents of a book - or of an album, or of a gallery - and see only a container.

None of this seems inherently bad. Does it?

But what I find is that, when “content” is brought up in the context of an artist’s career, the negative reaction you might feel comes from underlying pressures in having the word applied. Making content for social media pages, for example, may not come naturally. Perhaps you’re introverted, or you’re the sort of extrovert that isn’t really comfortable talking on camera unless it means something to you. 

(I am that sort of extrovert. Love cracking jokes, highly value conversation, and not particularly excited to tell TikTok about my favorite three tortas in NYC unless I’m running an account that only focuses on Mexican food or sandwiches.*) 

“Content,” in this context, also comes from an important functional need that people selling your work - or helping you to sell it - tend to have. They need to understand how to package all of what you’re doing into a cohesive whole. How to market it. How to keep eyes moving to you, even if you are on a long break between album releases and tour dates, or between when your momentous graphic design for a client goes live and you get deep in doing projects for three other clients. Songs, videos, images, illustrations, photos. All easily summarized, for lack of an easier word, as content.

And this is where the wheels often come off for modern artists who are otherwise deeply talented - because you often don’t have much help these days, and the need to promote your work is quite different from the need to make it. 

For those where juggling the two comes naturally, congratulations! You might be Lil Nas X. (In my opinion, he’s the gold standard for doing both at the same time as a musician, because sometimes his promotion is also itself the work. Enormous Marcel Duchamp energy.)

But for most people, this juggling isn’t natural. And it starts to feel like a capitalist problem that’s inserting itself into a conversation with creativity, one of the few forces known to humanity that exists beyond any economic structure. I get that. It’s kind of annoying that artists almost always have to be entrepreneurs now to see their work go far.

So, my way of personally poking at that - and making sure a creator can keep their soul - is to emphasize community.

When I do an initial consultation for an artist, manager, designer, or business owner, one thing I love doing together is building a content calendar. I won’t go too deep on this, because I want it to be in their spirit and true to them - so we’ll usually just go over categories of posts, ways to do them, and good rhythms for them with a few sample weeks involved. I keep this as simple as I can, but I have an entire category I added at some point that I just call “community” posts. And they’re everything.

If you make cool stuff, you probably follow other people who make cool stuff. Try stopping periodically and telling your audience about that cool stuff they make.

Talk about new songs you love, that you didn’t make yourself.

Show a design inspiration that isn’t about you.

Mention a cause you care about.

Tell people about the party down the street in a couple days.

Share something you think is awesome that has nothing to do with what you’re doing.

Don’t just share it in your Instagram story and let it disappear in 24 hours. Make it a whole post. Speak it into existence. Talk about it for a second.

You’re learning constantly. So, let your audience grow with you.

At the end of the day, I find that we’re all slightly a product of our communities. We’re all telling flips on a story that came before us. Folk tradition suggests songs and stories can and should be passed down, and expanded upon.

That collective thinking is closer to where your soul is. The second you realize promoting your work does not have to equal individuality at the expense of the heart, a whole lot of other doors open.

*My favorite three tortas in NYC are at Plaza Ortega in Bushwick, Tacos Matamoros in Sunset Park, and Acapulco in Greenpoint, since you asked.

One Thing You Can Use Today

Mark your progress.

It’s easy to get bogged down in the wild to-do lists we have, or are assigned, or give ourselves. So, mark your progress.

Take a moment to note up to three things you’ve done in the past week that were, on some level, a progression. This can be an achievement you managed at your job, something you created, an article you read, even a film you watched that was new to you. Maybe you had a positive development in your relationship with a friend or loved one. Maybe you tried a new recipe. Maybe you’re a creature of habit usually, but you went to a new place and enjoyed it.

Don’t mark more than three. Just give yourself the Cliffs Notes. Simple summary, for anyone who wasn’t right next to you the whole time. (Who ever is?)

Now, review the list.

If it was creative in some way, circle it.

If it marks a life change, underline it.

Do it again next week. You may even want a notebook that’s only for this. I’m the sort of person that loves getting a new notebook and pen when I want to push my brain in a fresh direction. You do you.

A month from now, look at this and consider the patterns.

My suggestion when you review this: if you don’t have much to circle, you should either go find more stuff to underline, or consciously do more things to circle. Sometimes you change your situation, sometimes you change yourself. One will likely come easier than the other.

And if you have lots underlined but not much to circle, go easy on yourself about that. Let things stabilize, and then lock back in. You’ll notice this stabilization, if you keep doing this.

List of Clubs

These are the kinds of clubs I’d like to be in around NYC! Wherever you might find music, art, or a compelling experience under one roof, that’s a club to me. I only list clubs I’d enjoy going to. If I list a client, you’ll know.

Saturday, June 29 + Sunday, June 30 - The Tuck @ Nowadays (some ticketed portions, some donation)
It’s Pride Weekend in NYC. There are a solid dozen dance parties that will be extremely good, and plenty of very commercial events too - but this is the thing I’m most excited for on Saturday. The Tuck is one long weekend fundraiser for GLITS, and it starts with an all-ages event 12-4pm Sat and eventually segues into a shorts-focused trans filmmaker-centered movie night called T4TV. T4TV was organized with Lilly Wachowski. Say less.

Saturday, June 29 - Tower Records & New York Music Month Block Party (RSVP)
If you weren’t around for the heyday of Tower Records, you may not appreciate how cool it is that they’re back and actively working with musicians they like. 2-6pm is the outdoor portion, then there’s an indoor portion 7-10pm. RSVP before Friday and opt in, and you should get notified about whether you’re good for the night party. That’s always a good thing to get notified about in life.

Sunday, June 30 - NYC Pride March (free)
I’ve lived here for 14 years and have never made it to this once. I’d like to change that this weekend.

Thanks for reading! And now, an image of me in the club…

The Club List is a newsletter from MeInTheClub.com. All issues are available at TheClubList.net. To inquire about marketing services for your work, contact [email protected] and include "Services” in the subject line.