This is niche but stay with me
Art as service/business as art
On Monday, I’m launching a new project that I’m really excited about. It’s a…business?
Side note— Did you know that people with ADHD are more likely to be entrepreneurs? The tendency to be an entrepreneur may even be a heritable trait. Shout out to my parents, who ran their own business(es) throughout my childhood.
Some background: Artists feel stuck on social media. I’ll speak from experience: over the years, I have repeated the sentiment “If it weren’t for my music, I would leave Instagram”, and it has felt less and less true every time.
But now I’m doing it! I’m getting out of there. And I want to support other artists to do the same.
I’m starting a ~creative marketing practice~, and it shares the name of this newsletter: Open Chord.
As I move my music business off social media, I’ve been learning so much from amazing writers and artists like Kening Zhu (“Build a World, Not An Audience”? Hellooo?? Yes.), Amelia Hruby, and Cody Cook-Parrott. It’s an exciting moment for the GTFO Social Media squad. It’s catching on! I don’t know of a lot of people in the music space doing it, though. That’s where we come in :)
Here’s the crux: Social media may be the most powerful marketing tool we have, but it’s far from our only tool. It takes us away from real, community-based, face-to-face work that has the potential not only to move the needle but to make us feel like whole-ass creative humans in the process.
Here’s the thing about whole-ass creative humans: they’re 3D, they don’t fit into 4:6 or 9:16, they’re relationally situated, they’re a little messy, they have context.
This transition from person-on-screen to person-in-community feels urgent. There is very little we can personally do to oppose the rise of fascism in the United States or to ease the suffering in Gaza. Resistance is only sustainable if we’re working together as a collective; it’s not something we’re meant or able to take on individually.
How does art tie in here? Being an artist is political, and art is service. (Shout-out to Cody Cook-Parrott; their work has made me think a lot about art as service, and I am so grateful for that frame.) What are you working in the service of?
Okay, phew. Clearly a lot going on here, and these threads will be teased out and expanded upon in the coming weeks.
I have a small favour to ask of you. Could you send this to one person you think might be interested? THANK YOU!
PS- I’ll be sending more info about this on Monday. If you’re like, “I don’t care about marketing at all”, I hear you. You’ll have the opportunity to opt in or out of hearing more about Open Chord. All will become clear in time <3
Happy Gemini season!
You have my attention:)