Yvynyl: Dear Readers and Listeners

Mark over at YVYNYL recently posted a lengthy piece on his struggles maintaining the site. It's been about 3 months since his previous post and he laments that he just hasn't had the enthusiasm to keep posting. I can certainly understand his position.

Bits of his post, which I recommend reading in full, point to the somewhat passive nature of his platform of choice - Tumblr. He posits that the community isn't as engaging anymore as people just tend to scroll, like and repost. You could substitute just about any other social network there and have similar feelings. It's not a great motivator to think about your work just being part of an infinite scroll of something more interesting but there's also an argument to be made that it's better than not being on a network at all.

I don't know the answers to Mark's inquiries of how to find passionate music fans and blog readers. I think sites like Instagram and Twitter have their downsides but, by and large, they put your work in a place that it can actually be seen. I also think it's clear that the era of the Blog has well passed. Not that there aren't successful blogs, I just think they are supplemental now - not primary destinations.

I don't have a grandiose point here. Much like Mark, "I just need to write this" as a means of sorting through the thoughts. At the end of the day, I think there's a real struggle to find the balance between Doing The Work for the pure pleasure of doing it and allowing yourself to Let It Go, as you don't have to maintain every project forever.

Go give yvynyl a cruise through; maybe find some new music and give Mark a tip of the hat.