I’ve been thinking a lot about how to reach people online today as a musician. Social media has become an arms race where only the most optimized posts get seen and anything less doesn’t get boosted. It’s become an oversaturated market. I’m currently in an album cycle, so this all seems even more apparent. It makes it harder than ever to tell the story around a record.
So much has changed in only a few years. During the Parallel World rollout in 2021, I had many worldbuilding posts that were just images and text that successfully helped to share the narrative around that album to a wider audience. That isn’t possible today on Instagram, which has since definitively pivoted to video. By the time I was promoting Rollercoaster, breaking through the algorithm had become such a struggle that it became the subject of the songs themselves.
With Forager, I’ve tried to interface with the real world whenever possible. That’s the idea with the Forager Markets I’m putting on, where I’ll be selling a curated selection of vintage clothes and an exclusive vinyl variant of the album alongside other vendors in several cities at free events:
April 25 - Hamilton - Cotton Factory
April 26 - Toronto - Standard Time
May 2 - Montreal - Essai Futile (5413 Blvd Saint Laurent #201)
May 9 - Edmonton - Orange Hall
I’ll also be partnering with Toronto vintage chain Common Sort for some installations at their stores and a curated selection of clothes at each location. Look out for that stuff soon. I’m really excited about further emphasizing the themes of the album through real world events.
Another aspect of this approach is to stop focusing on the broader, more casual audience and spend more time kicking it with my closest supporters. This was something that I did when I streamed on Twitch during the early pandemic. I would DJ and just hang out with folks online. It felt like our own private club.
I wanted to bring that vibe back, so I thought it might be cool to put on a virtual listening party for Forager where you all get to hear the album a week early and I go through the tracks one-by-one. You’ll be able to ask questions about it in the chat and maybe I’ll share some demos and other stuff while we’re there.
It’s happening tomorrow (Thursday April 16) at 8 PM ET and you can sign up below:
Sign up for virtual album release party
Space is limited, so grab your spot now.
Social media and streaming as they are currently constructed are designed to make artists feel like nobody cares about what they’re doing. Spotify in particular will boast about providing the infrastructure that allows me to reach thousands of folks who otherwise wouldn’t get to hear my music. But these are often passive listeners who stumble onto my track on a playlist and never come back to it. Maybe they don’t even remember my artist name.
On top of that, there is no way to contact my biggest supporters on their platform. From this point on, I want to speak directly to people who have chosen to hear from me wherever possible. This newsletter was always the first step in this direction and it’s been such a joy to cultivate this community and discuss what I write here with readers of the newsletter IRL. This kind of thing is an antidote to the uninspiring nature of social media elsewhere and I’m looking forward to coming up with more creative ideas around connecting with y’all.
Forager is out in ten days! Can’t wait for you all to hear it.
You can find me updating my playlists or hanging on TikTok, Instagram and Bluesky. You can listen to my music on Apple Music, Bandcamp and Spotify. You can get Cadence Weapon merchandise here. Pick up your copy of Bedroom Rapper here and please rate it on Goodreads.
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