On Whether 2023 Was Musically "Successful"
Evaluating the year that was, and setting goals for 2024
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Over drinks at Skylark, a Park Slope dive, Kal Teaux asked me:
“Was 2023 successful for you?”
I phumphered around for a minute or so, hazarding “Yes”es and “No”s somewhat randomly, searching for a comprehensive answer. Not finding one, I vowed to ponder the question more deeply.
Welcome to my ceremonial year-end post.
The end of an interval invites this question. A phase having finished, our efforts to improve our lives and worlds having borne or not borne fruit, it’s hard not to consider what it was all worth.
But it’s a hard question to answer, in part because it’s hard to decode. Each of us applies it slightly differently: Unmarried couples may apply it to the condition of their relationships; parents hopefully apply it to the conditions of their children; publicly traded companies unquestionably apply it to shareholder return. I, a single, unincorporated musician, apply it to music.
For artists, answering the question is doubly hard because “success” is really a business lens, and art is characterized by the unhappy marriage of business and spirit. At best, art reluctantly submits to the lens of “success”; at worst, it resents it completely. I know many artists who categorically refuse to look through lenses such as these. One friend described herself as allergic to them.
I don’t love to view my art through this lens either. But I do love to practice my art, I recognize that I’m practicing it under capitalism, and I would love to practice it in a way that lets me define my terms of engagement with capitalism. So, with some reluctance, but with an abiding heart, in this post, I ask and endeavor to answer the question:
Do my musical accomplishments in 2023 constitute success?
Methods of Measurement: Material and Nonmaterial
Material Measures
1. Performances (2022 vs. 2023): 6 → 55 (+817%)
Notes:
It’s an imperfect comparison because I wasn’t trying to perform in 2022 nearly as much as I was in 2023.
My goal was to perform three times a month (36 times total) in 2023. 55 performances exceeds my goal by nearly 53%.
But the raw number of performances doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with the quality of the performances — either how I played or what kind of impact they had on my career. The rest of the numbers should help illuminate that.
2. Instagram Followers (2022 → 2023): 448 → 1,052 (+135%)
Notes:
At the beginning of the year, I set the ambitious goal of passing 2,000 followers on Instagram in 2023. This would have roughly meant quadrupling my followers.
According purely to that goal, this was not successful. But, assuming the percentage is repeatable, I’m actually very happy with this growth. If I grew my following by this percentage every year for another five years, I’d surpass 30,000 followers by the time I’m 35. This is on par with the musicians I look to as models for the success I’d like to have in that timeframe.
I also have a clearer sense how to apply my creative voice to social media than I did this time last year. This gives me confidence about my growth goals in 2024 (more on them below).
3. Newsletter Subscribers (2022 → 2023): 66 → 76 (+15%)
Notes:
The net and percentage growth here are both pretty paltry. But as the newsletter was not a primary area of focus in 2023 (I only restarted it in October), I don’t view this as a primary determinant of success or failure.
However, I plan to put more effort into growing this number in 2024, so next year’s data should be more revealing.
4. Monthly Spotify Listeners (2022 → 2023): 9 → 26 (+188%)
Notes:
Similar comment as with the newsletter subscribers: At the beginning of the year, I thought this would be my primary metric of success, but I pivoted away from it about a third of the way into the year. So, using it as a primary means of evaluating success would be a little bit misguided.
However, this is an important number, and both 9 and 26 are effectively 0 from the perspective of managers, agents, and record label reps, whose attention I want to attract.
Monthly Spotify listeners will become more relevant as I release new music (which I plan to in 2024). 2023 was not a successful year from this perspective, but this data will be more revealing this time next year.
5: Operating Expense Ratio (OER): 4:1
Notes:
OER is the ratio of what I spent to what I made. So, I spent $4 for every $1 I made on music.
I didn’t expect to break even this year from a financial perspective. My goal was really just to invest responsibly: to not throw money at meaningless projects and to have some sense of what positive non-financial returns would look like.
I don’t expect to change what I spent very much next year, but I do expect to adjust how I spend it. My goal is to make fewer but larger investments for more meaningful returns.
Nonmaterial Measures
My three most important nonmaterial measures of success are Community, Reputation, and Happiness.
1. Community
I am part of an artistic community in New York, which is enormously valuable for both practical and emotional reasons. Practically, it gives me a group of people with whom to exchange songs, shows, and networking resources. Emotionally, it keeps me grounded; being a trenchantly single person in New York can get very lonely, and my community is probably my greatest emotional stabilizer. So, from a community perspective, I feel that 2023 was very successful.
2. Reputation
Trying to assess your own reputation is a real forest-for-the-trees-type experience. But I think it’s important to try and consider the positives and negatives honestly.
Positives: Solid songwriter, purposeful performer, and hard worker
Negatives: Hypercritical, aloof, and opportunistic
Notes:
It’s interesting that I instinctively chose adjective-noun combinations for the positives and lone adjectives for the negatives. Maybe it’s to give myself confidence that the positives are things I am, whereas the negatives are traits I have, but that I can work on.
One of my major personal and professional projects is getting better at accepting imperfection — in me, in my work, and in relationships. I think this would help me emphasize the positives and address the negatives in my reputation.
Overall: I feel that from a reputation perspective, it was a generally successful year, but that I have a lot to work to do.
3. Happiness
As I’ve reflected on this sub-question — was 2023 a happy year? — I realize the answer breaks into three parts:
When working, mostly yes. Nothing centers me more than working on music, be it writing, performing, crafting social media posts, or reflecting. Even non-musical work centers me in the way that errands are centering — they feel like shoring up the foundation of my life.
When socializing, mostly yes. I have never been happier with my social life. New York spoils people with social opportunities; the sheer population density means that there are at least 5x as many fun things to do and people to see here than anywhere else I’ve lived.
When not working and not socializing, mostly no. This is a hard truth, but a truth nonetheless. When the work of a day ends, I’m faced with the reality that my non-working life doesn’t really have a center — no partner, no family of my own, no core of love to rely on.
Overall: My life is a pendulum, swinging between happiness and unhappiness. It would be wrong to say my life is categorically one or the other, because it’s so much of both. In 2024, I'd really like to make the pendulum swings less dramatic, and ideally, to embrace the benefits of partnership.
Onward And Inward: Goals For 2024
Having looked back, let’s look forward.
When I think about success in 2024, it breaks into two categories: Onward and Inward.
I am generally satisfied with the level and type of growth I’ve experienced in 2023. It wasn’t the kind of viral growth that a lot of people are chasing, and it hasn’t yet made me a compelling prospect for people like managers, booking agents, or record label owners — people who can add fuel I don’t have to the fire I’ve created. But, on the fuel of my own hustle, I’ve made gains in several important material and nonmaterial areas. When I say Onward, I mean continuing to invest in the things that made these gains possible, and doing it even more intelligently.
I am not wholly dissatisfied with the way my quality of life has evolved in 2023, but I can’t ignore the fact that there has been a lot of unhappiness and dissatisfaction amid the happy moments. I know that life is defined largely by this interplay, but I also believe that my foundation could be sturdier. When I say Inward, I mean I want to understand the roots of this dissatisfaction and find meaningful ways to address them.
Onward and Inward is also a reminder that, though our capitalist context requires me to think about my career in terms of growth (onward), the fundamental project of my art is emotional connection (inward, not upward). I want to be a conduit for human communion, for people who, like me, enjoy it most under the influence of a hearty stew of language and melody.
So, some of 2024’s projects will include:
New music: The new (as yet untitled) collection, my first since 2018, will feature songs I’ve written and performed in the interval since leaving Nashville — an interval of maturation.
Release shows: I have several New York City release shows in the works for 2024, and am planning others in Dustin-friendly Northeastern cities as well.
Touring: I don’t yet have the wherewithal to embark on a yearlong, coast-to-coast tour, but I will be playing throughout the Northeast, looking for as many intimate, lyric-friendly environments as I can find.
Brand: I have swallowed the tough pill that is branding — and accept that, at heart, branding encompasses the conventional means by which I tell my audience who I am. If I don’t define the message, there will be no message.
Personal work: The biggest nonmaterial project I want to tackle is the inner one: Let people in, find freedom in imperfections, and strengthen my life’s emotional foundation.
And lastly, no year-end note would be complete without some New Year’s resolutions. I’m making mine specific this year. So, my material goals for the material categories outlined above:
Performances: In 2024, I’d like to perform 3-4 times a month (36–48 times total), in primarily listening room settings, with at least 2/3 of those performances not in New York City.
Instagram Followers: I’d like to at least double my Instagram followers by the end of 2024.
Newsletter Subscribers: I’d like my newsletter subscriber count to be at least 10% of my Instagram follower count by the end of 2024.
Monthly Spotify Listeners: I’d like my monthly Spotify listener count to equal or exceed my Instagram follower count in 2024.
OER: I’d like my OER not to exceed 4.5:1 in 2024. (Explanation: In their early days, businesses that become successful (i.e., profitable) start with OERs of anywhere from 2:1 to 7:1. So, at 4:1, mine is not disastrously unhealthy, and there are other investments I’ll have to make in order to scale my operation — meaning the ratio could get higher before it gets lower. But I don’t want it to balloon uncontrollably.)
For the nonmaterial categories, I’m going to set nonmaterial (adjectival) goals:
Community: I’d like to strengthen my musical community in 2024 by giving more to it.
Reputation: I’d like to sustain the positives and untangle the negatives in my reputation in 2024.
Happiness: I’d like to strengthen my emotional foundation in 2024, ideally by embracing romantic partnership.
Lastly, if you’re in the mood for lengthy musings, I ask you:
Did 2023 feel successful for you?
Based on your answer(s) to that question, how would you define your 2024 goals?
Thank you to everyone who has joined me on this experience so far, and I look forward to meeting many more of you as I forge ahead.