Pure joy.

What I believe is cool is providing something as an act of service from a place of genuine devotion.

The ugly narcissistic buy-in that goes with “playing the game” now with all these media platforms seems to go with the territory, unfortunately.

I don’t know how to get around it.

I don’t think announcing to the world that “I am an artist” is very cool on its own.

Certainly not as a “brand”.

Finding ways to take this thing that is so deeply personal and specific to oneself and making it connect with strangers authentically is what I think makes this all cool.

For sure.

The online and business side of music can get dehumanizing and demoralizing quickly.

I’m trying to have a better attitude about it though.

Because what’s cool about making art is giving someone else an experience.

Hopefully a good or at least interesting one, preferably in person.

Once people share their inside thoughts and art, the possibilities of others cringing at who you are or might be creeps up by a million percent.

As an entertainer, being vulnerable enough to try sharing love and expression is cool.

Being cool by the default of mystique is for cowards.

Maybe it’s better if we adapt to the new ways.

A lot of being “cool” in my experience is the appearance of not doing or saying anything beyond looking fashionable or attractive.

Literally being a poser.

Enjoying yard work is my most pronounced old man trait and I’m done feeling ashamed of it.

Me?
Oh, I joined a gang.
Don’t worry about it.

Every other job that doesn’t compensate over six figures a year seems to be:

Back breaking manual labor with no minimum education requirements.

Or

Masters degree, 7 years experience, 65K, meaningless, soul crushing, want to KYS while driving to work everyday, sleep in a cramped apartment, work.

Beings of pure light puke sound waves.
That’s how music is made.

These are my grotesquely sober thoughts.

Or… I can take the same amount of ability, ambition and effort that it takes to make a single dollar in a creative field, largely on my own, and become a doctor or something.

I think there is a vacuum to be filled where labels used to take risks and I think if @ampwall.com were able to crack how to do that, we’d have something unstoppable.

Instead of “one big union”, “one big label”.

Music artists require support. Money keeps us fed and housed which is essential, but a website that helps us sell music alone isn’t doing anything for professional development or support. It’s not even effective patronage.

There are networks of support that people need to succeed at this work.

A lot of what art is, is fundamentally incompatible with business.

The more “fine” the art, the less utility it has, and less obvious financial value.

Music seen as a product, it’s a time decoration. It’s not obvious how to value that.

Music needs physical community.

It’s like a wine glass tower, the local overflows into the regional, into the national, and so on.

Everything online flattens the concept of community to an international space, which is great for reach and bad for progression.

Ampwall can’t fix that yet.

A platform that eventually provides some consistency with support for music journalism, pop-up physical store locations, live events, on-demand merchandise sales, THAT would be revolutionary.

The capital to start it would be a monstrous and I don’t know if it would be sustainable.

Could be better.

It’s not the worst thing “being a store” as an artist. But maybe every individual artist shouldn’t “be a store”.

Not every artist also want to be an online shirt store by themselves.

It’s cool when people by our rad shirts, it’s an honor. But I don’t want to be a shirt store by myself.

I think a platform that could help connect artists with other creative pros, like graphic designers, film makers, PR, photographers, plus help with marketing, booking, storing and selling merchandise, would be a true cultural force.

A paid “pro plan” gets you advice and practical help from humans.

I do appreciate the @ampwall.com mission statement. I don’t what the fan migration process will look like. I’ll try it though.

I’d like to see paths to infrastructure for music scenes reemerge. An actual system, not everything has to be DIY or accessible for trust fund kids only.