3. Here’s how you do that helping thing.
4. Where’s Dad? And where’s my song??
I’m a fanboy of Mad Records Collective. They have their heads on right, know what their values are, and have a remarkable community of musical artists inside. They have recently partnered with the gifted and prolific music journalist Chris Hedden to grab three artists’ tunes and feature them in a write up called Good Music Monthly. I am so flattered to be in the company of these amazing music-makers - j.pastel, and Graham Ormiston with For What Joy. Just a GREAT couple of tracks to check out - so rich and full and….then my tune. :) HERE you go. My tune is from the EP that’s out on the streamings and here on the ‘Stack - My Gift to You.And I’m actually going to be Talking Music with Chris Hedden LIVE here on Substack on June 18th at noon! Whaaa? Yeah. I am definitely stretching myself these days!
Some of you have been following the PayMusicians build for a while now. You’ve seen the landing page (just got an update!). Maybe filled out the survey. You know the concept: a simple, direct way for listeners to support the artists who already matter to them.
The core idea hasn’t changed. But the approach has.
Heads up… incoming reality check, people!
The original vision was so elegant, right?
Subscribe for $5. Pick five artists. A dollar goes directly to each of them every month. No algorithms. No discovery. No noise. Just quiet, consistent support for music that already means something to you.
I still love that vision. It’s clean. It’s true. And I will continue to (obsessively) work towards that. It’s what PayMusicians is going to be.
But…MATH.
My pickleball friend and psychic tech mentor Bharat Chopra (check out his Pickleheart project for our local public park’s site!), pointed out something I couldn’t argue with: If 50 listeners each nominate five different artists, I’m doing 250 cold outreaches to musicians I’ve maybe never met. Hmmm.
I was following my heart in to the deep end of a pool in a jungle that…finish the metaphor for me, please.
So I’m adjusting the approach. (But not abandoning the dream!!)
Here’s what’s actually changing.
Instead of building the automation first and hoping the community follows, I’m building the community first.
PayMusicians is going into a nomination phase. Before anyone subscribes, before any money moves, I want to know which artists you want to support. Tell me who should be on this platform. I’ll reach out to them — not with just a cold email from a stranger, but with: “Fourteen people who love your music are already waiting to support you directly.”
That just makes better sense. I don’t need a flood for Phase 1 - I need a nice, cool glass of water. And I need to make sure the application works. Beta vibes.
(And yes, I will indeed be grinding on the automation dream in the meantime — that will be Phase II…!)
Why I’m telling you this.
Because you’ve been here from the beginning. Because some of you filled out that survey and told me this idea resonated. Because if anyone is going to help shape what gets built, it should be people who already understand why it matters.
And some of you did shape it. You said you wanted to choose your own artists directly in the survey. And that adjustment is actually lining up with where I need to start.
Music creates real value in people’s lives. The people who make it deserve direct, human support from the listeners who love it.
That hasn’t changed. The first step just got more honest. I wanted the whole flight of stairs. That will come as I continue to build - and my screwdrivers will have motors that spin like a whirling dervish in a.… stop me.
Nominate an artist. It takes thirty seconds. Tell me who should be on PayMusicians — the indie artist whose record you’ve played a hundred times, the musician whose shows you never miss, the songwriter you love who needs to know folks have their back.
We’ll take it from there.
NOMINATE AN ARTIST → HERE
(And if you’re a musician reading this — yes, you can nominate yourself! We’d love to hear from you too.)
PayMusicians is in development. This is the first public step!
We’re building the roster now, one nomination at a time.
Ok, I hear you! Dad is just fine. Birding his brains out. He saw seven Great Blue Heron nests with babies in them this weekend. So don’t worry about him, he’s good.
That being said, YES - I want to get him into some recording sessions soon. I’ll keep you abreast. Robin red abreast. (I know, I know.)
And here’s the promised sing-along! This was written and performed at a recent political fundraiser for Creatives for Democracy. Check us out. We flip state houses blue. Lyrics in my last article, but you’ll get it - you just sing along for the title line: “One Step at a Time!”
See what I did there? See how that ALSO pertains to my new focus in the PayMusicians project? And, honestly, everything in life?
Work hard, sure, but change comes one step at a time, people! (New Pickleheart hat from Bharat’s site…!) Woot!
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