We’re Rachel Hurley and Frank Keith IV, co-owners of the Sweetheart Pub. We’re music industry veterans with over 30 years of combined experience in the music business, having worked in licensing, talent buying/booking, label management, tour management, and more. Once a week, we’ll publish a new edition of this newsletter, where we’ll share some philosophy and actionable advice on all facets of the music industry.
We’ve been putting together a weekly playlist of seven songs (just enough to keep your attention) every week — check out The Sweet Spot to hear what we’ve been listening to.
What we’re thinking about this week…
I’ve never been busier in my life than right now. I recently was hired by WMOT 89.5 to run their social media. In a previous life, I was a SMM for Big Star and Ardent Studios. When I started in 2007 the job title was New Media Consultant - because the term Social Media Manager did not exist. So, when the Executive Director at WMOT reached out to ask if I had any recommendations for someone to run their socials, after researching some options, I decided that no one else would be able to do as good of a job as I could, so why not just take on the position myself? It would mean 10 - 12 extra hours of work a week, but I figured if I made some adjustments to my schedule, I would be able to manage.
Rather than the money being a decision factor, the action of having to dig back into social to get back up-to-date on best practices and use the design skills I paid an arm and a leg to get a degree for seemed like a good challenge to take on. And it has been.
Then through my affiliation with WMOT, I was recruited by Music City Bands Together to help them do outreach in order to make their Recovery Concerts for Nashville project come to fruition. This has easily added another 10 hours of work to my already packed schedule, which includes running a business and doing PR for 10 clients (it should be less - but some of these folks will just not STOP getting press!)
All this to say - I am running as fast as I can and I still can’t keep up. So, in order to not kill myself - we’re going to be taking a couple of weeks off from the newsletter and podcast. I hate to do it because we’ve got such good content in the can that just needs to be edited, like interviews with the editors of BandCamp, Spin, PopMatters, The Boot, and Wide Open Country.
But what can I do other than come to you with hat in hand and admit that I have overextended myself and in order to not drop every ball, I must lay down a few.
Thanks to everyone who checked out the Music City Bands Together project I sent out the last newsletter about. Things are coming together pretty quickly and we’ve added some very well-regarded Nashville music industry folks to the Board. It’s been exciting to see all the people who have jumped on board to volunteer their help!
The project is the brainchild of Mark Eatherly from Sow Good who has worked on human rights issues in Nashville for 15 years. He decided to act when he saw that other cities were launching recovery efforts but Nashville, Music City, had no plans.
Music City Bands Together is an initiative to build large-scale, multi-artist concerts that raise money through ticket sales in order to invest those funds directly into Nashville communities, nonprofits, local industries, affordable housing, schools, and much more. For more details, you can review the Full Proposal and the list of beneficiaries.
The initiative has been garnering support in local & national news via NPR's Marketplace Report, American Songwriter, The Nashville Scene, & WPLN News.
We are in search of partner artists and labels who believe in the good that this concert series can do in helping get the people of Nashville back on their feet. We hope that with a groundswell of artist involvement we can make enough noise to influence the mayor and the Event Marketing Fund Committee.
If you would like to help, please Take 10 Seconds to Email Mayor Cooper & the Event Marketing Fund
I've also attached a graphic that you can share with some suggested copy should you decide to support with a post. We need partners like you so please don't hesitate to ask questions.
Thanks for reading, and see you soon!
Suggested Copy:
I’m on board with Music City Bands Together! Are you?
Text MCBT to 22828 to receive a link to send the Mayor of Nashville a pre-populated email asking the city to use their Event Marketing Fund to help the Nashville music community get back on its feet!
Other cities are helping their arts communities - why not Nashville?
Music City Bands Together is an initiative to build large-scale, multi-artist concerts that raise money through ticket sales in order to invest those funds directly into Nashville communities, nonprofits, local industries, affordable housing, schools, and much more!
Use this graphic and caption to spread the word!