Uh oh I got a bit ranty. One too many prompt to spend $ with FB...ahem.
Reposted from FB:
Since around 2016 Facebook have been gradually reducing who sees our posts. Each time I post i get this ad for FB:
Increase your reach! Boost these posts to increase reach with every A$35 you spend.
$35 to let you know when a gig is on. $35 to post new songs and videos that are no cost to hear or see, but we pay to share?
What happens when you don't pay for each post?
We already know. The number of people who see your stuff drops.
Ah but it's a 'platform' Yep. 'It's private enterprise' Yep.
A dopamine poker machine that uses our own content and interactions as product for advertisers and then charges us to be present.
Facebook tells us we are winning every time we get a little red click and then charges us to talk to the people who already asked to know what we are doing by subscribing to our page.
Like/Subscribe/Share/link/smash that link!! Try and scream the loudest for attention, when there is no Algorithim, as TikTok admitted - someone makes a choice as to what goes to the front page, not some all knowing neutral computer bot.
It's people.
As a band it's out of our paygrade to fix the problems of the world, we're not Wyld Stallyns . We make the nice jangle jangle sounds and talk about what we see and sometimes that gives folks a little respite. So we know where we fit in.
We work with social media where we can and try to avoid becoming addicted to a game we cannot win, without more money than we can make by doing it.
I put this argument forward - If you had a friend who was so insecure that every single thing they said had to be paid for followed by a constant plea for a click, a like, a share...good heavens it's exhausting to even contemplate.
We made the choice at the outset to concentrate on making stuff. That's what we can do with some degree of influence (you'd be surprised lol). Constantly battering Email/FB wasn't the way. Never seemed to be the way. And the more we invested in the platform the more vulnerable we were to...Nice content you have here, be a shame if no one see's it.
These are observations offered withou the need to urge an overthrow of these systems - I reckon they'll die of their own accord, by trying to be the nasty middleman instead of the helpful message board.
In the meanwhile, as always, SUBSCRIBE LIKE SHARE SMASH FRUIT SALAD WONDER CHIPMUNK!!! or not. Maybe just chill and if you're a cellardweller, you'll find us when you want us, we're all up in this internet.
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I might add here in the safety of our long runing website (since 2008!!!! its 15 years of stormcellar.com.au!)... A lot of this stuff is random. That's how things work inthe real world. All the like/subscribe/insecurity stuff that's prompted by social media may not lead to a dang thing.
As Big Daddy once said to me, good advertising kills a bad product fast.
The con is that they don't tell you that. They operate like a lottery without the benefit of genuine randomness.
This also causes Artists to believe that investing $ and time, precious time into building someone elses platform is the way to go - why, look at how much the lottery winners have made!
It's like installing marble flooring in your rented mall shop, adding value to the mall does not mean you own a piece of it.
As I have no good answer on what to do other than to continue doing what we do, without feeling like somehow we are failing by complying with a Casino level con, imma go back to mixing. At least when I spend $35 on filters or plugins I feel like I get an outcome that belongs to me.