I'd like to write a detailed, stream-of-consciousness account of 10 minutes spent scrolling my Instagram feed. The idea is I'd describe every single flashing, fleeting video as vividly as I could – the dumb little skits, the brilliant displays of talent, the nature shots, the sex-saturated scenes, the ads, the camera motions, the blaring captions, the ironic comment sections – and also I'd record my reactions to the videos, and my reactions to my reactions, etc.
It'd be a narcissistic piece of writing, for sure. Feeds are inherently narcissistic; writing about your own seems even worse than starting conversations about your dreams. And now that I've actually outlined the prompt I'm realizing that 10 minutes of scrolling would be way too long to write about, because that's more than 40 videos, and to capture each one to the degree of detail I'd like would put me at a word count somewhere near Joyce's Ulysses¹.
So anyway, I probably won't do it. But I'm telling you about my half-baked prompt idea because I think it's a little funny and to make a point:
Instagram² devalues art.
I saw an absolutely incredible video the other day – I would link to it, but I can't find it now – of this ridiculous musician playing guitar, live-tracked, in a wooden cart pulled across a misty field by a team of horses driven by a hooded figure. It was shot in 16:9 or something, wide-framed, one take, and the production quality was insane. Visually it looked like something from Nolans' Odyssey, and if we can agree on anything about Nolan's Odyssey it's that it looked pretty cool. Plus this guy's songwriting was solid and he sounded great, like a kind of huskier version of Justin Bieber with more guitar chops. What I'm trying to say is that this Instagram video, there's no denying it, was art. It was so good, so captivating, so beautiful. I couldn't believe some person had made it.
And so after nine seconds I scrolled to the next video.
I think two things are true.
First, Instagram is currently the best way on earth to reach new audiences.
Meta is worth, apparently, 1.46 trillion dollars. A chunk of that's due to hypothetical AI valuations, but the backbone of it stands deservedly on the company's ability to monetize attention. The simple fact is that Mark Zuckerberg has built history's all-time best platform for putting things in front of people's eyes.
Second, the format of the platform renders the content of the platform valueless.
I'm hyperbolizing. "Valueless" is an inaccurate descriptor, clearly, since people literally pay for the content on Instagram. But you get what I'm saying, which is the same thing Marshall McLuhan said 70 years ago, which is that the medium is the message.
It is very hard to value any single short-form video, because it is a short-form video and the next one is always a thumb swipe away. Try this: Next time you're on Instagram, give a single piece of content your full, undivided attention for five minutes. Watch the video. Consider it. Reflect on it. Don't swipe away from it. This is a herculean task.
We can't receive meaningful value from anything – people, pets, art – unless we can first pay it meaningful attention. And Instagram makes paying meaningful attention near impossible.
What I'm trying to say is that, when you put a beautiful piece of art into the Instagram feed, you are making your art part of the Instagram feed. You have decreased it's value. You've thrown pearls to pigs.
So what should you do as a musician?
Two things, I think, each of which flows from the two points above.
1) Use Instagram to reach new people. The power and convenience by which this platform can put your music in front of people is historically unprecedented. It's a fine moral and artistic choice to not be on social media, very punk-rock of you, and I commend you if you make it. Also, in terms of reach, you're handcuffing yourself.
2) Get people off of Instagram as quickly as you can. I increasingly think that the whole point of social media, once you've used it to reach people, is to get people off of social media. Yes, this is a bit of a paradox, and yes, the platforms will punish you for it. Do it anyway.
It's not just that social media audiences are un-owned audiences – i.e., that your Instagram followers really are Mark Zuckerberg's audience rather than yours, so one algorithm change could ruin your ability to reach them – although that's true. It's also, and more so, the fact that you can't deeply reach people on a shallow platform.
So build an email list. Start a Patreon. Sell tickets to live shows. Make full music videos and full records. Get people to stream you on Spotify, even. Just get people off of Instagram, whatever you do, because you need them to encounter your art someplace they can properly pay it attention.
I have a friend who's a working artist.
He has 17,000 followers on Instagram. He had 300,000 monthly listeners on Spotify during an album release. Neither number is huge, but both are much higher than zero, and they do both matter. He's particularly focused on the Instagram-follower number right now, because he's had some industry people tell him that one should be bigger. (They're right.)
During his most recent album release, my friend rented a historic movie theater. He sold tickets for the release show, more than a few from Instagram posts. On the night of the show, he turned down the room lights and played the entire 11-song record through the movie theater sound system.
I was in the audience. We sat together and listened, heard all of the production details, traced the threads of meaning from song to song. It's an album about separation and connection, and it came together for me as a whole, as more than a disjointed assortment of three-minute singles, during those 37 minutes in the dark. I cried.
At its very best, the point of Instagram is not Instagram. It's moments like that.
– Jon
Jon Anderson
Founder @ Two Story Media
Surprisingly Good @ Brewing Pour-Over Coffee
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100% Human Guarantee
I wrote this, not AI.
Today's random photo: Alli and I celebrated our 9th anniversary at the beach this weekend! Unfortunately it rained pretty much the entire day, but the evening was clear enough for us to take this picture, and anyway it was good to be together.
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P.S. – In last week's newsletter, I explained why I won't be offering a playlist-building service anymore and how my friend, Jeremiah, is taking it over. You can read that here.
¹This reference is top of mind because I am currently trying to read Ulysses, mostly just so that I can say I've read Ulysses, and good God I have to tell you that it is insane. So far I'm like halfway through and have understood none of it. The words are just flying over me like soft, interestingly-shaped clouds. Does anyone actually understand this book?
²I've chosen Instagram as my scapegoat here, but the points apply similarly to other short-form video platforms – YouTube shorts, TikTok, etc. – so you can swap those in if you want.