So folks I’ve never tried to monetize anything I’ve done on the internet, and there are two reasons for this. The first reason is the one I tell everyone. I talk a lot on social media about my work as a volunteer at the local domestic violence shelter and member of the sexual assault victim advocate team. I am uncomfortable making any money, even tangentially, from that. So even though more than half of what I post is goofy fun science facts or whatever, I don’t want to stop talking about the important stuff and any financial incentive would muddy that.
Now that’s true, but it’s not the whole truth. The whole truth is that I don’t think that what I create is worth money. I’m amazed people will read what I’ve written or sit and watch a video I made for free. That’s awesome! But it’s not for free. That’s all fake, because someone is making money off of my content already; it’s just not me. I have posts that have occupied millions of eyeballs, which was then followed by an ad for something I don’t care about, which enriched some social media platform.
Because substack allows me to separate what kinds of posts go to whom, I can set up a kind of newsletter that I can monetize without feeling like I’m making money off of someone’s pain. It seems like it could be fun and low stakes and keep me writing. That is, if you all think it’s worth supporting.
So here’s my pitch. Many of you know that on social media I gave myself the challenge to listen to an album a day for the whole year. The spreadsheet I created for this has been populated mostly by friends and followers (265 albums), and I filled it out with the Rolling Stone Top 100 Albums of All Time list. I pick each day’s album with a random number generator and then review it on Instagram.
This all started because I got a record turntable and want to build a collection. My early record purchases have been haphazard, based on impulse buys at the record store or some sale online. I wanted to be more deliberate in my collecting; only albums that are good to listen to front to back. That’s where you all came in.
I’ve been posting my mini-reviews every day as an Instagram story, but I’d like to do a more in-depth monthly round-up. These will hit on the last day of each month. That’s where the subscription comes in. These will be available to paid subscribers and will consist of the following features:
Monthly list of albums listened to with a letter grade
Highlighted favorites
My one favorite album of the month to be added to my record collection thanks to you!
An additional album recommendation from me, that wasn’t on the list and why it’s meaningful to me
I wanted to charge $3 for this, but the minimum is $5. So there’s an annual subscription for $36.
Anyway, that’s the pitch! I just want to be so clear that if you’ve been thinking about supporting someone online through patreon or substack and they’re using the money to feed their family or pay for child care. Please support them. This is just a guy who wants to buy a couple records and have fun in comment sections about music. I’m not an expert! I don’t make music! I just like talking about this stuff.
Free subscribers will get a biweekly newsletter by me as long as there are readers. I’m so glad you’re here! Yay!