This NYTimes profile on an "outsider" musician is really about...?

Pick your virtue

This is such a weird story, yet it’s really about the creator economy to the most logical end.

What am I talking about? There’s this indie-in-the-truest-sense-of-the-word musician in Massachusetts who got a nice big write-up in the NYTimes because his weird strategy worked.

11 years earlier, Matt Farley wrote a song about the journalist writing this piece.

The journalist, Brett Martin, just discovered the song about himself.

This fact isn’t questioned (why was this journalist chosen for a song?) but I can only guess because the musician deemed the journalist somewhat “notable” but he’s only notable in a very-media way.

Martin has been on NPR, he wrote a book about TV (I liked it!) and then writes regularly at top-of-the-line publications like the New York Times.

This is all fine, well and good, but it’s still an insider-y club of journalists—this isn’t like a bestselling fiction author.

Yet, this random musician in Massachusettes wrote a song about him, hoping probably, against all hope that what happened — a big profile in a national magazine—would happen.

So…was it worth it? Is this a replicable strategy? Is he the epitome of everything that the creator/self-help economy encourages every creator to do?

1. The random musician guy has written more than 24,000 songs

He’s also done 10 movies.

That very few people have seen.

2. But he makes $200k a year

You would think with that many songs he would make decent money. That’s not crazy money, but it’s good money. He doesn’t have the biggest hits so he needs quantity.

3. He hacked the Spotify algorithm

His biggest songs are “poop” songs. Talk about selling out for your art. He also has many versions of similar songs with people’s names in them to try and get a few pennies.

4. He didn’t get attention until this article I guess

The article indicates that he was locally known. But he doesn’t really seem to have any industry backing or acknowledgement.

Should you do this?

Every newsletter I end with the phrase, “keep going.”

That’s what Farley has done with his music.

I can’t tell you if you should do this or not.

It’s about what you’re comfortable with to gain money.

This guy would rather do this kind of music to pay the bills because he wants to do music at any cost.

He may like it, he may not. But he doesn’t mind it.

And that’s the thing—if you don’t want to do it, no matter how much money it makes you, then you probably shouldn’t do it. Especially if you feel some type of connection to it, artistic-wise.

The same tools, used in different ways

This is the hard line for any creative person to navigate.

A hammer can help build a cathedral or it can help build a shack.

You can use a guitar to play covers at weddings or you can use the same guitar to play original music in front of thousands of people.

You can use writing for schlocky advertising copy on Facebook or you can use it to create world-renowned speeches.

It’s just how you use the too.

Personally, I use writing to create SEO marketing articles and then I also write random novels and I also use it to write productivity content and I also use it to write about culture/creativity in this newsletter.

I’m using the same skill in a variety of interests.

Some people don’t like this.

They want “writing” to mean one thing.

Or “music” to mean one thing.

A cousin of mine is in advertising and copywriting. He recently worked on a commercial that only ran in one state. They had to write and create an original song for it, and they hired a studio to help them.

But guess what? It was fronted by a singer and songwriter who had big hits on the radio only a few years ago. I mean like big songs that were played literally everywhere, and I think was nominated for a few Grammys.

They had taken their songwriting abilities and leveraged it in the marketplace.

I’m sure they still have a few original ideas. Perhaps they are a little stuck.

And maybe they can charge higher prices than our friend Matt in this article.

But it’s still music, used for different purposes

So this NYTimes profile is really about…

• You have to make a living

• The digital tools have mashed up all of the opportunities and skills

• The barrier to entry is lower than ever, but that creates more competition because now there are more entries

• It takes a mix to survive

• You’ll have different seasons in your life to leverage different talents/opportunities

• Keep at it? In some form or another?

• Make the sacrifices you’re comfortable with

That’s all I got.

Keep going-

Josh Spilker