It’s been a while since I sat and wrote a week note up – mainly because life has been happening with more rocks than rolls in on a personal front in the last few weeks. I tend to focus very tightly at these times and sharing isn’t always at the top of my to do (breaking my own golden rule about consistency – but hey, we’re only human).

I’ve had some great work recently though – a really interesting and fun training day with British Glass on social media and analytics, and getting stuck into my Digital Engagement Manager contract role with MusterPoint as the social and media management platform heads toward a relaunch. I’ve also been working with a couple of PR clients at Noble and Wild (Little Avis, Ghost//Signals), and heading into campaign with the next two releases from Reckless Yes (Japan Review, Panic Pocket).

So, having caught up a little here is this week’s note. I’ve done it a little differently this week – not sure if the format will stick or if it’s just where my head is at right now.

#weeknotes S03 EP05 – week ending 17 March 2019

Working on

This week I’ve been working on my MusterPoint contract – with a relaunch imminent we’re beginning to build activity on social media as well as doing lots of other digital engagement type work on search and statistical analysis.

I’ve also been doing a fair bit of PR. At Noble and Wild my client Little Avis released single Ghalib this week, while we’re getting prepped for a campaign from Ghost//Signals too. Campaigns have also kicked off at Reckless Yes for Japan Review and Panic Pocket – we’re trying a couple of new D2F marketing activities with these campaigns alongside the usual and the PR as we don’t believe in standing still. Our mailing list is still the workhorse of our mix and we’re seeing a nice flow of sign ups and really pleasing open and CTR. We’re seeing real world actions from the email landing in people’s inboxes – while reach and awareness are great, on their own they don’t keep the label and our artists solvent!

I’m working on product development and ideas across Reckless Yes and Noble and Wild at the moment. Thinking time on this over the last week has been limited but there’s cogs whirring in the background and I’m blocking out time in the diary soon to get some prototypes set up to test out these ideas rather than work of assumption and hope.

Reading

I’ve been dipping into a selection of books on DIY in music and culture as I’m planning a guest lecture for the Pop Music in Society cohort at the University of Derby. There’s much to be learnt from the power of community, and the creativity over commerciality ethos of DIY and I’m finding I’m enthused and revitalised reminding myself of the people and movements who have made a difference in DIY scenes.

I’ve also just started Brené Brown’s Daring Greatly about the power of vulnerability. I set myself a reading challenge at the top of the year (connect with me on GoodReads if you like!) and am already 9 books into the total I hoped I could achieve this year. I’ve loved reading novels and firing my imagination but I was inspired by Christine Townsend’s professional reading rate this week during our conversations and decided to try and add in something ‘professional or personal’ development to my reading list. I’d love to hear your recommendations for reads around emotional intelligence, social media, direct to fan marketing, or the intersection of music and tech – hit me up in the comments, on Twitter, by email or on GoodReads.

Listening

This week I’ve been listening to Amy Winehouse’s Back To Black as I plan the introduction to Classic Album Sundays Manchester which I host on 7 April – tickets here.

I’m also still quite obsessed with the Self-Esteem album, and have been indulging in Hal Blaine’s 1967 solo album Psychedelic Percussion, and as the 20th anniversary of Blur’s 13 ticked round I’ve had that on heavy rotation too.

I’ve also been planning out the next edition of The Rumble, and of course I’ve been listening a lot to the next Reckless Yes releases – Japan Review’s Juno EP (stream in full and pre-order here) and Panic Pocket’s Never Gonna Happen EP (stream first track and pre-order here).

Writing

I’m knee deep in the edit of the final draft of my second novel now. Although the first draft of this one was written very quickly in summer 2015 the edit has been much harder following on from the publication of the first novel in the series last year. Knowing the story and the characters are out there and people are invested has caused hesitation and over-thinking. It’s been a learning curve to coach myself through that and JFDI.

What’s next?

This week will take me to Buxton, Lincoln and Derby for a mix of meetings, gigs and studio time as well as a couple of Skype calls about things as diverse as Indietracks Festival co-ordination and targeted social media.

I’ve a couple of nice writing pieces on – an interview with Sleeper (a teenage dream come true to get to talk to and write about this band, and particularly Louise Wener), further chipping away at the final draft of my second novel, and starting to pull together the first pieces for a new music website I’m working on.

It’s also time to say goodbye to a couple of things – retirement is as important as launch in the content lifecycle and I’m holding myself to account for doing this with my projects. But as something ends new things start and so I’ve built in planning and thinking time this coming week too.

Original source – Sarah Lay

Comments closed