Marketing Monday Written by Jon for August 17th

I, like most people on this list, am a hobbyist musician.

Before my wife and brother come at me for applying that label to myself, I'd like to clarify that I don't think being a hobbyist is a bad thing, like it means you're a second-class citizen or an un-evolved Pokémon or something. I think it's a normal, good thing to be.

Most people – even people like you who read music marketing newsletters – don't do music as a full-time thing, and thank God for that. The idea that only expert professionals should make music is one of many reasons why our culture is unhappy, and obviously a song's value isn't determined by the job titles of the people who made it.

All that might be an email for another day, though.

For now, my point in calling myself a hobbyist is mostly to provide context. I'm gearing up to release some new songs for the first time in two years, and I'm trying to think through how I'd like things to go this time around. Strangely, I'm finding that I don't much care how they go, at least in terms of the numbers – which I think is because I'm increasingly happy with being, you know, a hobbyist.

I think all I want with this release is to say something and have some people connect with it. That's exactly the sort of goal I've chided plenty of my clients for having: it's too easy, too vague, poorly defined, impossible to act on. The opposite of SMART, basically.

But I'm a hobbyist. So who cares?

More context: The last time I released an EP, in 2024, I decided that I wanted to get a million streams on it within its first year. I had a whole plan: I wrote a bunch of newsletters about it, kept a spreadsheet, shared the results in a series of YouTube videos, the whole nine yards. I marketed my own marketing, basically. And all that was fine. It was probably a net good for my business, and it was definitely good for my monthly listener numbers (despite the fact that, two years later, the release still hasn't quite hit a million streams). Directionally, the plan worked, even if it failed by the terms of its own objectives. But either way I don't really want to do it again.

Here's where I'm at right now: I care less than ever about numbers and more than ever about art.

Shit, that's cliché. I cringed typing it and I'm cringing reading it back. It sounds like ChatGPT impersonating Rick Rubin. It's stupid, too, given that the thing at which I'm not a hobbyist is marketing, and in marketing success is numbers. They're one and the same thing. All of my services are delivered in numbers: We can get you such and such amount of streams, such and such amount of followers, such and such amount of Patreons, all for such and such amount of money.

And all that's fine, too. Good, even.

I don't think numbers are bad. I think they're wonderful. You can't measure things without them. I guess I just don't want to think in those terms right now, to hold my music up against the digital measuring stick this time around, to worry about how many people are listening to it. I just want to make it and feel it and let it go.

Can you be an artist if you aren't a hobbyist?

I know the answer is yes. I know that. But it's got to be harder. For now I'm glad not to test it.

– Jon

Jon Anderson Founder @ Two Story Media Surprisingly Good @ Chopping Onions

🫆 100% Human Guarantee I wrote this, not AI. Today's random photo: Last week I recorded a song in this field with my friend Zack. It was fun and the lighting was great... but man, the bugs were absolutely vicious.

P.S. – Last week I wrote about how to tell whether Patreon might be worth it for you. You can read that here.

(Btw, I've closed applications for the Patreon-building cohort, but I'll almost certainly be running more cohorts in the future. So if you were interested in Patreon but it wasn't the right time, don't worry; at some point I think it'll be back.)