# We're not for everyone — and that's the truth Source: https://open.substack.com/pub/metalabel/p/were-not-for-everyone-and-thats-the?r=16nwyb Kiwi News: https://news.kiwistand.com/stories/Were-not-for-everyone-and-thats-the-truth?index=0x66d0264230d45b63455ab2b494450cd39b11dbbc0d419356fad2eef3b18f246dc248b5a3 Submitted by misha on 2024-08-29 UTC, 6 upvotes, 3 comments ## Summary Metalabel's leadership writes that the company is not for everyone, and that embracing this pushes it toward being more itself. The newsletter-style post describes the team as deep in an unfinished creative project due this fall, with its outcome still unknown. It also highlights new releases: Molly Soda's limited run of 100 postcard editions tied to her play Trivial Pursuit, and Do Not Research's two annual publications, 2021-2022 and 2022-2023, now on Metalabel. ## Article Right now the Metalabel squad is in the throes of the creative process of something you’ll see in the Fall. We’re excited about what we’re working on but we’re also in the thick of it. We still don’t know where it will all lead. Some days the not-knowing is agonizing. The first time I experienced the feeling came while building Kickstarter, and it often got the best of me. But having gone through it before, I now appreciate how rare it is to not-know something you care about and are willing into existence with its ultimate outcome truly unknown. Our challenge now is basic — universal even: how to express our ideas in a way that others will hear. Not just the words, but how we mean them. It’s not enough for the facts to translate. Feelings too. Tuning this dial is an act of creativity. It’s that process, neverending, always a surprise, where we gaze into the void past the point of discomfort to bring back truth. It sounds simple but the lived experience is much more humbling. Two weeks ago I got so frustrated with the not-knowing I spent two days mad at myself. We wouldn’t be having these problems if I wasn’t so… heady, so intellectual, so me. I finally got so frustrated I started a document where I wrote mean things about myself and Metalabel, roasting the project. Things like: Metalabel: So esoteric nobody knows what it is Metalabel: That HBO show people you don’t like tell you to watch Metalabel: Yes it’s complicated. But so are you. I was letting out my frustration, but the process felt refreshing. By saying mean things to myself, it weirdly defanged what others could say. Owning my inner critique helped me let go of my fear. So what if we’re not for everybody? So what if we’re deep more than shallow? So what if we celebrate things more esoteric and less commercial? The truth is we’re not for everyone. But nothing is. So why hold ourselves to that kind of impossible standard? Instead we keep learning and re-learning that embracing being not for everyone pushes you into being more you. We’re weeks away from releasing more of who we are. While we’re in the thick of it, this continues to be our guiding question: how much more can we be ourselves? What about you? If you ask yourself how to be more you in whatever you’re in the thick of, what happens for you? Pioneering digital artist Molly Soda returns to Metalabel with a new release: a limited run of 100 editions of postcards celebrating the debut performance of her new play, Trivial Pursuit. Originally previewed at Metalabel’s space in NYC, the play will debut in Brooklyn next month. These limited-edition postcard sets draw from the world of the work. (Collect Molly Soda) Do not Research is a collective platform and publication producing writing, visual work, and internet culture research since 2020. Started by the artist Josh Citerella, the collective project has produced an annual physical publication collecting their works from a given year. This week, Do Not Research has released their two publications to date, 2021-2022 and 2022-2023, on Metalabel. Collect them to explore original research, ideas from the edges, and explorations into the depths of the web. (Collect Do Not Research) AI + Music (originally IA+Música) is the English translation of a new research report into the future of AI and music organized by the Argentinian group FUTURX (participants of one of Metalabel’s very first releases, the ASSEMBLY cohort). It features contributions from musicians, artists, and technologists — including Grimes manager Daouda Leonard — exploring what AI might mean for their craft. Originally published in Spanish, now translated into English, both available on Metalabel. (Collect AI + Music) Over the past week, YACHT: Released their new album, New Release, globally on streaming services (their first fully indie release without a label) Celebrated selling out the first-edition vinyl and cassette versions on Metalabel Opened up a pop-up storefront in LA for a week Put their pop-up storefront on Google Maps and had their fans use it to review their album Launched a phone number (323-379-4418) where you can leave them voicemail They’ve done all of this joyfully with a genuine love for playfully sharing their work. Every time we talk to them and every time we watch them we’re writing notes to self saying “BE MORE LIKE YACHT.” Take notes, folks! (Collect New Release on vinyl) Good luck to everyone in the thick of it this week. Don’t give up the fight. We made a new page about releasing work on Metalabel this week. Check it out here. Peace and love, Metalabel ## Comments **macbudkowski.eth**: It reminds me of the marketing exercise where you write down what users we serve and what users we don't want to serve. For Kiwi, e.g., the users we don't serve are people who just started in crypto. To use Kiwi they'd need to have a wallet. They'd need to know how to bridge to OP Mainnet. And the content that goes to the Hot Feed would be, in most cases, too advanced for someone who just entered the space. And that's perfectly okay :) **naomiii.eth**: This is my sermon for all the "we will onboard billions" projects. Ok but how about we start with 50 people, and also defining who this is not for. The targeting everyone is such a bad strategy as usually what a project stands for gets completely lost. **macbudkowski.eth**: +100, few things in crypto trigger me as much as onboarding the next 1B people.