Going Viral, Then Getting Off The Internet

Last week my boss asked me, “Olivia, did you go viral over the weekend?”

Last week my boss asked me, “Olivia, did you go viral over the weekend?”

Not a usual question to be asked by your boss, and thankfully I’m not the kind of person who is posting, I dunno, content of me swinging toilets at jars of paint in a back alley saying “oh no, toilet!”

No, he had been scrolling Instagram and saw a video that Sheila E reposted: my face, talking about Spotify.

A week and a half ago I’d shared a video on reels where I make an allegory about Spotify and streaming payouts. It’s an explainer about how little musicians get paid from the streaming model — Spotify is like a restaurant where everyone gets paid really well, apart from the chefs. I’ve talked about this before on Substack, when I decided to quit spotify as a listener: …So I Finally Quit Spotify.

Now, this little video really did the numbers. As I’m writing this, it’s been viewed 1 million times. 1 million! I gone viral, Ma!

It’s funny, because when you post something to social media, there’s always a little part of your brain that goes, “ooh, maybe THIS will be the one that pops off.” You hope it’ll reach thousands of people, people who will see your face and think, “I have been WAITING for this person ALL MY LIFE!” and then they’ll buy/subscribe/follow every single thing you have to offer.

I got about 1000 new followers from this video. A lot of comments. Most of them in agreement, some thinking I don’t know how restaurants work, and a couple which were real zingers:

One guy said that if musicians didn’t like how Spotify worked then they should become ‘content creators with no skills, like you.’

Another guy (hmmm. why is it always the guys!) took the time to go to my Spotify profile and point out my number of monthly listeners, and the fact that I have only released 5 songs over the past 5 years.

it’s almost as if releasing music is time-consuming and expensive!

As the comments and shares and likes bubbled in and became a tidal wave, I found myself checking Instagram every few minutes. Who else, who else, who else, I thought.

But the thing was, I was just sharing a point of view. I wasn’t going viral with my songs, or anything I’d actually made. People who liked this particular video weren’t people who liked my music (yet?).

My first real taste of virality, and it was… meh. Kind of annoying, even.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice to have some more followers and friends on the ol’ Olivia Rafferty bandwagon. But as more comments ticked in, people were just either saying ‘I agree with this’ or bickering with each other, as people on the internet to do.

💾 Logging Off

I remember my friend Leo, when we were at Edinburgh university together. My pals and I used to laugh at his staunch belief that the phrase truly wasn’t “go big or go home,” but “go big and go home.”

“First you go big… then you go home!” he’d assert. Granted, this was also a guy who used to say, “how about them eeples.”

Anyway, last Sunday, after going big on Instagram, I then decided to go home. Or rather, go offline.

I closed the app and deleted it from my phone. I stopped listening to podcasts. I didn’t read ANYTHING for a week.

How???? Why!?!?!??

If you don’t already know, I’m going through Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way with a book group. Week 4 involves a ‘Reading Deprivation’ week.

Published in 1992, the book’s interpretation of ‘reading deprivation’ means not picking up a book or a newspaper, or listening to the radio. Nowadays, you can add a lot more things to that list.

In 2024, media deprivation is HARD TO DO. Because you open your emails and there’s 3 new newsletters to read. You sit on the train and automatically put a podcast on. Open your phone to answer a text, and you check your social media while you’re there.

But with everything going on, a week of not engaging with anything sounded really good to me. Exciting even!

On Sunday afternoon I sat in my room. No music, no checking my phone, no opening my laptop. Tidied up a little. Hm. Now what?

When I was a kid, boredom was an unfathomable punishment from the universe. ‘I’m boooooooored,’ I would say to Mum or Dad, as I’d hang off the side of the sofa. Imploring them to relieve me of this psychic pain. The BOREDOM. The AGONY OF BEING BORED. Oh God, I might die I am so bored. Eight years old and BORED. My existence was a stagnant pond, consigned to oblivion.

Then I’d go play with my little plastic animals. Or beanie babies. I’d put on a CD or cassette. I’d draw dogs. I’d play pretend with my sister. Or barbies. I’d go into the garden. I’d look at the frogs or make perfume from rose petals.

What do we turn to when we don’t have the option to turn to someone else’s words, or pictures?

The week that passed ended up being really interesting for me. Here’s some things I did, when I let myself be bored:

🎹 Songwriting

For the last couple of months I have been internally BEGGING myself to write some new songs. I have a whole concept for my next album and it hasn’t really come to life yet, beyond an extensive Pinterest board and some handwritten notes. Thanks to a total lack of distractions and a songwriting session with friend Ed Randell (check out his album here), I managed to double down and write 2 new songs this week.

Not listening to music this week meant I just had my own songs swirling round in my head, and this kind of marination is great when you’re working on something. Often I find myself struggling to find a good melody or lyric for a section of a song, and I just have to let it go. As I go about the rest of my day, my brain comes up with new ideas all the time, and if anything really catches, I get out my voice notes app and sing it down.

💎 Bracelets

Another element of The Artists Way is taking yourself on ‘artist dates,’ which are personal excursions purely devised for joy and creativity. My artist date this week was a trip to Hobbycraft and a bead shop in Greenwich.

It is entirely Taylor Swift’s fault that I have become slightly obsessed with bracelets right now. I spent a lot of time making bracelets this week, thinking about beads, looking at beads, sleeping and dreaming… about beads. And Aragorn from Lord of the Rings.

I have gone a *bit* ham on the bracelets. I’ve graduated from making Swiftie-themed bracelets to making bracelets about gargoyle romance novels, Aberdonian slang, and flat earth jokes. Anything can be a bracelet.

My desk was covered in beads for the majority of the week. Whenever I had a spare moment, I’d go and sit down and make something new. I really really like this hobby and if I didn’t give myself the time to explore it, I don’t think I would have gone as far into it as I have. Next up: necklaces!

🎤 Voice Notes

I usually talk to myself when I’m alone, but this increased A LOT this week. To the point I was coming up with little skits for myself as I was getting ready for bed. It reminded me of what I used to do when I was a kid, I was constantly putting on accents and coming up with characters. I had a ‘radio show’ (see: cassette recorder) where I would bring on ‘guests’ (myself). An old favourite was ‘Cowboy John.’

Anyway, I got caught up in these silly worlds again and started sending voice notes to friends. Particularly of imagined ‘Deal or No Deal’ scenarios. One of my pals replied with, ‘oh god, Olivia.’ Which is exactly the kind of reaction I want.

💿 Single Release Preparations

You might know this (if you don’t I will say it again and again and again until you do!) but I have THE FIRST SINGLE FROM MY DEBUT ALBUM coming out on August 9th. Sorry to bury the lede (people…. what is a lede?) but I will be talking about this a lot so we can come back to it later! Here’s a snippet:

olivia_rafferty

A post shared by @olivia_rafferty

Anyway, I managed to get some stuff done in prep for my single and album coming out this week. I wrote and scheduled three juicy newsletters for when my single drops next month, and got some show dates penciled in. Productivity!

But here’s the thing: I actually spent a lot of my free time not being productive this past week. Making bracelets is not productive, per se. I did a lot of things that just made me feel good, which I think is really important.

We need to remember that extra free time means time to do things you like, rather than time to produce more stuff.

🏔️ A Personality Quiz!

Are you a volcano, a river, a glacier or an earthquake? For fun, I made a quiz based on geology, to tell you a bit more about what kind of creative personality you have.

Go take it here and let me know what you got!

Let’s chat in the comments!

Answer any or all of the below:

1. HOW HAVE YOU BEEN? What is the best thing that’s happened recently?

2. Do you have a hobby that lets you completely detach from screens and reality?

3. Did you take the quiz? Are you a volcano, a river, a glacier, or an earthquake?

4. What music are you listening to right now?

5. Have you seen any of the ‘oh no toilet’ tiktoks and if you have… what does it mean? Are we doomed as a culture?

   

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   Til next time! Be good,

   Olivia 🌈✨🏔🎶