Heart Open, Hands Out

Or, why a sentence in the Substack might shock some of you

Happy Tuesday to all. Over the weekend, I had a wonderful birthday celebration at the lake with family, including my son-in-law Mark's birthday. Thanks for your many good wishes.

Consider this Tuesday newsletter a quick drop-in to ask for some help today and throughout the week.

You may have wondered why recording artists and authors always ask you to stream, read, like, subscribe, follow, leave a comment, pre-save, and pre-purchase.

Here's why we've always got our proverbial hands out—why we're always asking "please": The entire commercial infrastructure for our work is solely governed by the metrics of clicks and streams and never the quality of the work itself.

You may know all this stuff, but the following sentence might shock some of you.

The vast majority of earnest people who work behind the scenes on our books and music have never read our books or listened to our music. True story.

Why not, you ask? Because it no longer matters to us (in general) as a society. What matters are clicks and streams, subscribes and likes. Data. Metrics. Feeding the algorithm.

Yet, we don't believe this, not really, do we? We're caught in a trap of our own making.

Since the books and music have no use, all the marketing and promotion people have to inspire the gatekeepers are numbers. Data is their story, and there's an insatiable appetite for it (every day) from the gatekeepers. Increasing quantities of something/anything are the only stories anyone wants to hear.

It is almost never about the quality of the work. Algorithms do not care about quality, literature, or music. Quantity is their quality.

You care about true quality, though. I know you do. Or you wouldn't be on this mailing list.

So here's what I'm boldly asking you to do.

Choose one or all, but please do something. Another day, I'll write more about this crazy, back-firing predicament we've created in the world. And how I plan to respond to it after this album and my memoir are out and available. Until then . . .

1. YouTube: Go to the "Turtle in a Chinese Food Box" video HERE (even if you've already been there). Watch/listen, or just let the whole video play to the end. a) SUBSCRIBE to the channel, b) Click Thumbs up, c) Add a comment, d) Copy the Share URL and post it on your socials. Let's get another 1000 plays by the end of the day.

2. Spotify: Visit my official page. Click FOLLOW. Play and enjoy Turtle in a Chinese Food Box. Add the song to a playlist or recommend it to a friend.

3. If you're planning to buy mp3s, mp4s, or lossless files, go ahead and pre-order now. If you're a streamer, pre-add now. Here's a one-click list of digital music providers for pre-add streamers. Pre-purchase at Apple/iTunes and Amazon Music.

Thanks, everyone. Your support is not taken for granted!

cp

p.s. If you are a CD and Vinyl person your dreams are about to come true—still, do me a solid on #1 & #2.