Newsletter on Newsletter

Checking in with you.

Hello!

I wanted to touch base with you, the person reading this.

I know we’ve reached Peak Newsletter (I only subscribe to a handful, and still I often don’t have time to read them all), but I nonetheless wanted to take some time to reach out to the people who do read this one.

A brief history of the WP newsletter

Some years ago, I began to notice that a) my social media engagement was falling off, and b) the blog posts on my website were not really reaching people either.

I was working for a digital marketing company at the time, and hearing a lot of rhetoric about how email newsletters were a much more effective way of reaching people than social media, not to mention the already moribund blog format.

Now, a lot (I’d say between 90 and 99%) of what you hear in marketing discourse is bullshit. But, when I tested this out at work, the results supported the rhetoric. 

That’s when I decided to take my dormant WP email newsletter and relaunch it on Substack. I had a few hundred emails assembled by hand from people who signed up at my shows through the years, plus another few hundred from Bandcamp. The Substack interface made it wonderfully simple to combine these and voilà, I had my new newsletter audience.

But, as you may have noticed, I haven’t been super active with the newsletter. The reasons are simple. First, I haven’t been very active with the WP generally in recent years. And secondly, since the people on this list signed up specifically for WP news, it feels weird to use this space to promote my other projects.

So now, as I get the WP rolling in earnest again, I wanted to touch base.

I wanted a picture of myself writing with a quill on a papyrus, but for budgetary reasons, a badminton birdie and a piece of birch bark will have to suffice.

I’d like to hear from you.

If you’re not one of the people who routinely reply to these messages, or a person I see regularly in real life, it’s likely been some years since we’ve been in touch. I’d love to know who you are, where you’re based, how long you’ve been receiving this newsletter, your connection to my musical endeavours, and so on.

I’d also be very curious to know the following information:

Are you interested strictly in the WP, or would you be curious to read more about What Is This Music?! (my podcast and book-in-progress), my occasional writings on other topics, or other projects that might be of interest? 

If I had a tiered subscription, with a free tier and a paid tier that offered exclusive material, early access to releases, and/or other perks, would you potentially join the paid tier for those benefits?

Finally, and relatedly, would you pre-order a new WP album if that was an option? 

(The new WP record is one step closer to completion, with another recording session in the can and a few more super cameos nailed down. I’m very excited about finishing this record and sharing it with you, but the music landscape has changed a lot since my last record came out in 2018, so I’m trying to get a realistic gauge of the demand for a new WP album, and plan accordingly.)

I’d love to hear from you.

In other news…

This coming Sunday, July 25, I’ll be doing my usual monthly DJ spot on the Free Kick Radio Show on CKUT. Check it out from 11am-1pm EST at 90.3 FM in Montreal or ckut.ca wherever you are.

After a hiatus, I’ve started posting new episodes of the What Is This Music?! podcast. Episodes are going to be sporadic from here on in, but I’m enjoying it and I’m quite happy with the latest batch, a trio of episodes that touch on one of the big themes in the What Is This Music?! book.

Those of you who follow the WP on Spotify may have noticed that we had some “new” releases lately, which were actually just our last three records. The reason is that Ting Dun, the mom & pop label which released those records and handled our digital distribution, has closed its doors. (For the record, it’s all love between me and the fine folks formerly of Ting Dun.) As a result, the records all briefly disappeared from the major streamers and I had to re-upload them with a new distributor, hence our Spotify followers receiving announcements of “new” releases. At any rate, nearly the whole catalogue is on Spotify (as well as Apple Music and other streaming platforms) again. A few releases have not found their way there for one reason or another — you can find those on Bandcamp. 

Thank you for reading this, and for supporting my music and related ramblings. I really appreciate it.

I’ll be in touch again soon…

xo WP.