Dear Musicians,

Dear Musicians,

I wanted to say this with love and respect as I absolutely worship you....but...the amount of stuff you get wrong on almost a daily basis is quite possibly overwhelming. You get so much wrong, and people love you so much, that there is an entire industry built around helping you (often times exploiting you), talking about your art and craft without talking to you, selling you things to make other parts of the economy you have entered better. Look, it is very hard to play a guitar, or drums or a keyboard or whatever else you make your art with, and that mastery alone should be worth something, but its not. Sorry.

I mean what you do have is critics. People you do not know 99% of the time. People who might or might not be musicians. People who want to use your art and craft for their own story telling purposes. Or people who simply want to fill the algorithm on something so they can get clicks. 99% of the time at most levels you have no control of this stuff. But, assume the best, these people speak in whatever terms they want to about art you create in good faith because you are inspired to do so. I cannot imagine how hard it is to click onto the internet, and hit google, and find hundreds of reviews about something you loved, worked amazingly hard on, PAID MONEY to record, and then put it out into the world, and somehow people feel entitled to publish their opinion about your work. Jesus, when I was 15, I thought music journalists had to earn the right somehow to speak about Public Enemy or Black Flag or the Meatmen. In 2024, that is not the case. The democratization of the internet and access to self publishing tools has made it so that some guy in Wisconsin can type into open office his screed about this or that before running to Target to buy a new toaster.

And entire multifaceted industry has been built up to TELL YOU what to do. There are even those in the world who want YOU to PAY THEM so they can tell you what to do. The words like BRAND and PRODUCT and REACH and VIRAL and all the rest of that nonsense shows up in your head before you play as a band. Children are aware of these terms way before we need them to. We are a product before we are a person. We want to monatize before we finish high school.

And holy crap musicians, they want you to do that too.

But, a lot of this is your fault. You talk so much nonsense about not getting your music heard, so much nonsense about the competition of it all, about how it is unfair and all the rest....good hearted people (and predators) are going to raise their hands to want to make it easier and better for you. Just because of the nonsense you say and post. You are a whiny bunch of fuckers. But, the world has skewed itself so profoundly, it is natural that you become an ego twitchy monster with absolutely no cause to be a monster. Your monster hood has no basis in merit. You did not earn the right to be a monster.

But look, you are confronted on every inch of the internet with people telling you how to brand yourself. How to reach more people on the internet. How to get more traction on whatever the fuck you get traction on. And for whatever reason you need traction. There are guys out there who can maybe book a show for you somewhere and you pay them ten percent. Or there are guys who know other guys who can help you buy on a larger tour so you can sell a lot of t shirts and play in front of people. I like both of those guys, because part of what they want to do is to play live, and I worship the act of bands playing live like an evangelical likes going to church.

So look, you suck. Your started with a Squire strat, and then eventually your ego has grown to the point where it thinks you belong onstage in front of people. Some of you are just the worst. But, getting onstage is also SUPER HARD, and I am grateful when you get up there and play songs. The ego and expectation and all the rest, you are easy to hate. Almost all of you fail to understand how super fans see you. You do not see yourself in a guilded tapestry with the icons of our time, with my ability to move from what sonic love to another lifting my heart to the sky. You have no idea it seems about that.

Now, I wonder about this...it is almost universal that the musicians I know do not understand how the fans or the critics see them. I wonder if that is just me. I mean, I wonder if the blues community in South Dakota understands that their harp players are descendents of Little Walter, and when blues nerds bring it up they can say, yes I am. Because about 95% of the musicians I have met have no concept of connection to history. Which makes me think they suck, because I think they have that connection (but this might be about MY SPECIFITY).

So lets agree to do somethings. You and I. I am going to stop reading articles about music business by anyone other than Seth. I will unsubscribe to a lot of substack today, but I think I have to. I already resent musicians, but constantly reading posts by people telling people I resent what to do, that is a fucked up psychological circle.

But, musicians you have to do something for me. Shut up. Seriously, you know how to play a guitar or drums or the other stuff to the point you can build that craft into a song. Holy shit do you know how cool that is? You are a descendent of Paul McCartney and Jim Ellison and Jimmy Page and John Bonham and Ginger Baker. Those are your parents. I love you so much. So much more than you deserve or fully understand. I tolerate all your terrible behavior in hopes I get to hear you play after you found a new Fuzz Face on ebay.

The other thing, just play. Stop with the expectation that you will someday play this place or get this many streams. Just play. Try to find a place in Wisconsin to play at, and I will try to come and see you make live art in front of me. Then I will get you money for gas and maybe you give me a t shirt or stickers. If you have stuff, I will buy it.

You got into this to play. Not to come up with a viral strategy in which you can get more streams and click throughs on whatever the fuck some consultant values. I value your art. If that means you never play anywhere other than your house with your stoned as fuck buddies, I am cool with that. Mainly because it is not my cross to bear. Its yours.

I mean, what do you think the Replacements were thinking about, drunk in the basement as teens. It surely was not how to get radio to spin a record. Be the Replacements in a basement.