I'm a musician and host of The Unstarving Musician podcast. Subscribe for conversations with working musicians, creative pros and industry professionals on the craft and business of sustainable creative careers.
Unstarving Musician | Weariness isn't failure
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Happy Friday! What if the reason you’re ready to quit music has nothing to do with the music? Lynz Crichton joins me for the fourth time on the show. She’s a singer-songwriter based in Nottingham, England, and the creator of Music Marketing Method. The conversation started with an email she sent about a working musician named Matt who’d begun drafting the goodbye message for his website. Here are three insights from our conversation. Weariness Is Not the Same as Failure Lynz drew a line in that email I keep coming back to. Weariness is the exhaustion of trying every day without getting the result you want. That’s a signal you may need to change the approach. It’s not a verdict on whether you should be doing this at all. The Real Problem Is Almost Never the Music When musicians come to Lynz stuck, the issue is mindset, visibility, the relationship with the business side, or the loss of joy in the work. Spending too much time on the business side pulls you away from the music itself. The reset she uses on herself and her clients is one question: what’s my next step? Owning Your Email List Matters More in 2026 Than It Ever Has Social media is noisier and harder to convert. AI is reshaping discovery. Lynz makes the case that deepening your relationship with the audience you already have is now more valuable than chasing broad growth, and your email list is how you do it. 🎧 Where to listen (plus show notes and related links) Want the implementation-depth resources?Liner Notes Insider goes deeper than a podcast episode can. Recent editions have covered things like royalty recovery tool kits, release planning templates, and revenue comparison calculators — the implementation layer beneath the episodes. If you’re not yet a Liner Notes subscriber, the free edition covers highlights from this and 300+ conversations.
This episode is brought to you by Podcast Startup.Whether you're launching your first episode or adding video to your show, Podcast Startup eliminates the guesswork with the systems and strategies I've developed from producing 250+ podcast episodes—without the trial-and-error that cost me months. Learn more at UnstarvingMusician.com/PodcastStartup. 🎧 Episode notes and related links 🔗 Peace, love and more cowbell, P.S. Lynz joked that her answer to "should I ever quit music?" is "never." But the real answer she gave was more honest. Only after the joy is genuinely gone, and only after you've actually exhausted the alternatives and asked for help. Most musicians who feel ready to quit have not done either of those things yet. Support the Unstarving MusicianIf you find value in this podcast, please consider a donation via our online tip jar – click, tip, done. Or visit UnstarvingMusician.com/CrowdSponsor to learn about the many other ways of showing your support. Your support = love 💟 Share this email and/or read it on the web Stay in touch! Feedback, comments, complaints? Reply to this email. I'd love to hear from you. 📭 Where to Listen to The Unstarving MusicianClick here to listen on Apple Podcasts Click here to listen on Overcast Click here to listen on Spotify Click here to listen on YouTube Click here to listen on Pandora |
The Unstarving Musician
I'm a musician and host of The Unstarving Musician podcast. Subscribe for conversations with working musicians, creative pros and industry professionals on the craft and business of sustainable creative careers.
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