Two Years On Substack
My experiences with two candles on the cake.
Two years ago today I started this Substack with positive intentions to share my work via a digitally connected outlet for my writing and with the growing Substack community. Unlike Medium you didn’t have to pay to write and publish your work (simply immoral, like those ‘pay to play’ policies for musicians). For me, Substack was an opportunity to directly enlighten and entertain readers. As a writer and avid reader I believed Substack would offer much.
While I had a subscription model for exclusive works and extended articles, much of my work was available to read for free, or eventually made available for free after a period behind a paid wall. The belief was to share with as wide an audience as possible.
After approximately 50 articles and over 100,000 words published, much of which I’ve received positive feedback on, I must say, to be honest I’m somewhat underwhelmed by the experience here on Substack (not with you dear reader, the platform). This experience has certainly not diminished my healthy compulsion to write, across multiple projects and outlets. Indeed other platforms and outlets have been more effective in reaching audiences.
There have been some great moments and positive experiences of course:
Writing about meeting Robert Smith in The Cure’s Sussex rehearsal space.
Exposing the often overlooked issue of classism in the media and creative industries. A topic I’m passionate about and have personally experienced first hand.
Talking of which, writing about my experiences at EMI Records in A&R, when the ship began to sink, and prior, better times, and how the experience was managing album recording projects on a major label. How and why the recorded music industry sank. Speaking of which, how streaming has killed artists incomes. There’s an article on goth too, and much much more besides on a range of topics available in the archive. Much of my writing has been on art and culture in a technologically changing world.
But I remain underwhelmed by Substack itself as a platform. Substack could listen, consult and make improvements. Their efforts appear poor and very siloed. Their little efforts included a live online chat room with writers for an hour hosted by one staff member, with thousands of topic strings going off in multiple directions, completely disorganised and confusing to follow. The only benefit was conversing with fellow writers about our challenges on Substack. The consensus that united us was that we did not feel listened to.
I find Substack is great for those who land here with high notoriety, a prior best seller, investment and media land clique benefits. Especially those on the Substack pay roll (and good luck to you, that’s great). However, for the rest of us we are still second class citizens. For emerging writers, and certainly those with immense talent, but not the former privileges of pre-existing fame, the Substack algorithm is very unkind and unhelpful. There is a gross inequality between most writers here and the small minority earning what one could define as an income on the platform. As a reader, discovery is an awful experience. I mean, have you staffers actually used the user interface lately? I really hope Substack make better efforts to support the writer community as a whole, rather than the 0.5%, and make discovery on the platform more user friendly.
Building a new economic engine for culture, is Substack’s latest byline, I love the intention, but it needs far more work. You can begin with reconfiguring away from the pain of the forever social scroll design and the bubble discovery algorithms.
I’ve been talking to a lot of writers on here, my experience is very common, it seems a trend has emerged, where for many like me, social media aspects driving popularity here and taken directly from the key players in social media tech largely supercede content quality. It is no surprise either, have you seen social media lately? Substack is a place for culture not ad dollars. There are obviously great exceptions to this that will occur, but the stain of social tech toxicity is certainly present.
I’ll carry on posted writing here. I have quite a few pieces in the works that would suite this platform, but my expectations are lower than ever.
For you dear reader, there will be some quality pieces on the way, including interviews with a range of artists, writers, producers and creative folk delivering great work in a society dominated by the influence of people who don’t respect copyright, culture and art.
Let’s remember and console ourselves with the fact that art, culture and the written word will outlast the legacy of every tech founder in existence.
Let’s make some improvements here on Substack for everyone’s sake, if Substack staff care to listen. A place to go as a sanctuary from other platforms going for the lowest common denominator and the interests of shareholders.
Happy reading. Here’s to my Substack birthday cake with its two candles.
Thanks for your support.