<
https://www.vox.com/culture/2024/2/1/24056883/tiktok-self-promotion-artist-career-how-to-build-following>
"When Rachael Kay Albers was shopping around her book proposal, the editors at
a Big Five publishing house loved the idea. The problem came from the marketing
department, which had an issue: She didn’t have a big enough following. With
any book, but especially nonfiction ones, publishers want a guarantee that a
writer comes with a built-in audience of people who already read and support
their work and, crucially, will fork over $27 — a typical price for a new
hardcover book — when it debuts.
It was ironic, considering her proposal was about what the age of the “personal
brand” is doing to our humanity. Albers, 39, is an expert in what she calls the
“online business industrial complex,” the network of hucksters vying for your
attention and money by selling you courses and coaching on how to get rich
online. She’s talking about the hustle bro “gurus” flaunting rented
Lamborghinis and promoting shady “passive income” schemes, yes, but she’s also
talking about the bizarre fact that her “65-year-old mom, who’s an accountant,
is being encouraged by her company to post on LinkedIn to ‘build [her] brand.’”
The internet has made it so that no matter who you are or what you do — from
9-to-5 middle managers to astronauts to housecleaners — you cannot escape the
tyranny of the personal brand. For some, it looks like updating your LinkedIn
connections whenever you get promoted; for others, it’s asking customers to
give you five stars on Google Reviews; for still more, it’s crafting an
engaging-but-authentic persona on Instagram. And for people who hope to publish
a bestseller or release a hit record, it’s “building a platform” so that execs
can use your existing audience to justify the costs of signing a new artist.
We like to think of it as the work of singular geniuses whose motivations are
purely creative and untainted by the market — this, despite the fact that
music, publishing, and film have always been for-profit industries where
formulaic, churned-out work is what often sells best. These days, the jig is
up."
Via
Garbage Day: The end of TikTok’s audio golden age
https://www.garbageday.email/p/end-tiktoks-audio-golden-age
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
