Everything But The Art

All the Other Stuff Ya Need To Do During the Week

Feb 12, 2023

This week I completed six paintings:

I made 9 or 10 live streamed videos of the creation and cataloging of these paintings, along with a couple of 60 second “sped up” videos. Most of these videos can be seen on my various channels at:

YouTube Live
YouTube Videos (I hate that YouTube segregates these videos)
My Facebook page for the Mark Rushton Gallery
Twitch (livestreams only)
BitChute
Odysee
Rumble

I do all the live streams via Streamyard.

I make the 60 second videos using Adobe Premiere Elements using the Streamyard files.

The paintings are photographed with my Phone, processed in Google Photos, added to my Airtable database with other metadata, and then all that’s uploaded to the Mark Rushton Gallery’s back-end.

During the week, I’ll use other photos of completed paintings and put them on Instagram either as Posts or Reels.

Along the way, I have to run to Hobby Lobby to buy new ink or paint, pre-cut matboard, and I’m getting ready to order some new 8” x 10” white matte wood frames from Blick.

That’s a bit of work…

And it’s a lot of work processes that have evolved over time.

Along the way, I also experimented with my Poooli Printer to make some “paintings” of fruit for a friend’s book project.

How about them apples?

But wait, there’s more…

I also released 5 new recordings on February 6th. 40 tracks.

This included two ambient album, a 2-track ambient EP, an avant-garde single, and an album of environmental recordings.

You can hear parts of those releases in my Spotify playlist, Ambient Rushton’s New Music Playlist.

While the recordings have been scheduled for weeks, a lot of administrative things have to occur after they’re available.

I have to enter all 40 tracks into my Airtable database. This includes titles, song info, genre, bpm, key, ISRC, UPC, any pitches I’ve sent to playlist curators, and lots of other little things.
Then I add all 40 tracks to Songtrust, my publishing administrator’s database. They make it fairly easy.
Finally, I have to copy and paste various data from my Airtable database into an Excel template for SoundExchange and submit it.
This week, I scheduled a Spotify Marquee for one of my releases. It’s a kind of advertising campaign thing that I’m experimenting with for the first time.
I had to upload the music files and graphics into Bandcamp and send out promotional messages.
I crafted an email in Mailchimp about the music and sent that out.

Because I have new music out, I like to integrate those tracks into public playlists that I curate. I build and distribute 5 new public playlists every day and distribute them to 11 or 12 services. One of the streaming services has exclusive playlists that do well for me, so I like to go in every so often and make adjustments to the song order on the ones with the biggest listenership.

In the meantime, I’m pushing ahead with plans to submit for consideration to sync music libraries. That’s a lot of planning. Ann and I are evaluating the different licensing agencies and libraries that accept the genres I work in, and I’ve started working on building playlists in DISCO.AC for when it comes time to actually begin the process of querying and submitting.

I also visited another artist to talk about marketing.

And I attended a monthly music webinar that I enjoy.

Anything else?

I try to capture a picture here and there, when possible.

As far as the numbers go for the visual art side, IG went up a bit and everything else stayed the same despite posting or going live all the time. That’s fine. It’s early February and I’m in “building up inventory” mode.

On the music side, I never care about what happens out of the gate. Music catalog is all long-term, especially if you’re indie like me. Never give up on your catalog!

Who am I?

Hi, I'm Mark Rushton, a professional recording artist and fine artist who has managed to hang on to creativity.

As a fine artist / painter, I make original abstract landscapes on paper and canvas, limited edition prints, and functional merchandise.

As a recording artist, I've released more than 2500 music and sounds on streaming services since the early 2000s under many different names, including my own. I largely create ambient, beat-driven electronica, and avant-garde music and soundscapes, as well as field recordings and sound effects.

Follow along -

Join my email list: https://www.markrushtongallery.com/mailing-list

Mark Rushton Gallery: https://www.markrushtongallery.com

Mark Rushton Web Site: https://www.markrushton.com

Mark Rushton Gallery Blog:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/markrushton/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/markrushtongallery

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/MarkRushton/videos

Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/ambientrushton

BitChute: https://www.bitchute.com/channel/Wm6OcMlyIThS/

Odysee: https://odysee.com/@markrushton:9

Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/c-1462743