Keep It Small, but Keep It Going

"Keep it small, but keep it going."

Those are wise words that went from Pete Seeger to John Mellencamp, from John Mellencamp to me, and now from me to you. That's the whole chain of custody. I'm just the latest guy holding it.

So what does it actually mean? I've been chewing on it for a while, mostly because it describes Loudstakk better than any mission statement I could write.

Loudstakk is small

Let's face it. Loudstakk is a small company. It's me.

My reach on a post is probably about 1,000 people on a good day. I'm not exactly a magnet that draws attention everywhere I go.

I'll start some new video or content series thinking this is the one, and three episodes later we've gone from top to flop and I'm already doing something else.

But being small lets me do one very important thing: keep it going.

Small means I can change my mind

If I decide next Tuesday that every MIDI Pack needs a new cover, I can redesign every damn MIDI cover. Nobody needs to approve it.

If I think a tool should exist, I can build it because I think it's the right way to do it. Not because an investor told me there's a gap in the market. Not because a board decided we need to hit a quarterly target. Not because somebody looked at a spreadsheet and discovered Deathcore is up 17%.

Sometimes I make something because I wanted it myself and couldn't find it anywhere else. That's probably one of my favorite things about being indie.

It also means I can say things a little more broadly. You can't exactly cancel something nobody is paying attention to anyway. Not that getting cancelled is some grand ambition of mine. But there's less pressure to turn every thought into a carefully focus-tested corporate statement. I can write about AI one week, Deathcore the next and Pete Seeger the week after that, and somehow this is still technically a company blog.

Sometimes I choose to make it smaller

I recently deleted almost 7,000 people from the Loudstakk mailing list.

Why? Because why the hell would I pay a premium every month to keep thousands of people on a list I either can't reach or who don't give a damn?

On paper, a gigantic mailing list looks better. "Look! Thousands of subscribers!" Cool. But I'd rather have a smaller list of people who actually open the emails, read them, click on things, reply, buy something occasionally or at least remember what Loudstakk is.

Not every number needs to go up just because somebody decided bigger numbers look more impressive. Sometimes cutting the dead weight is what lets you keep the thing going.

Small victories still feel like victories

This might be the part I like most. When you're small, the little things don't disappear into statistics.

Someone sends me a riff they wrote with one of my MIDI grooves? That's a person. Somebody tells me TRVE Drums ended up on their new record? That's fucking cool. Someone buys something I spent weeks making? Still cool.

It's not a percentage moving from 3.2% to 3.4% on a dashboard. You actually notice it.

Although, if we're talking about victories, I wouldn't exactly complain if a new release sold a little more than 10 copies in its first week. The Deathcore MIDI Pack (101 grooves) and the Grindcore MIDI Pack (104 grooves) are two of the newer ones. Just throwing that out there.

The same goes for your music

I'd be a pretty bad plugin company if I didn't drag this back to the studio, so here goes.

Your band, your solo project, your demo folder: it doesn't have to be big to be worth keeping alive. It doesn't need a label, a manager or a content strategy to deserve another song. It needs you to keep showing up to it.

Keep it small if that's what it takes. Write the riff because you want to hear it, not because the algorithm asked. Cut the parts and the projects that are just dead weight. Count the small wins out loud: the first full demo, the one person who sends a message saying they liked it. Then make the next one.

Small and kept going, exhibit A: me, one riff, the Post Hardcore One Riff Challenge. On the Loudstakk channel.

Keep it small, but keep it going

I'm not going to dress this up too much. There are some loose plans. There are more things I want to build. And there are absolutely no guarantees that any of it works.

Maybe that's why those words have stuck with me. Not keep it small forever. Not pretend everything is going amazingly. Not wait until somebody gives you permission to become bigger.

Just protect the little thing enough that it gets another day. Then another week. Then another year if you're lucky.

Loudstakk doesn't need to conquer the world next week. It just needs to still be here to make the next weird thing. And as long as I can keep doing that, there's still somewhere to go.

So whether it's a band, a business, an album, a stupid idea nobody else understands, or whatever little thing you're trying to keep alive yourself: keep it small if you have to. Just keep it going.

-Ron D.Rock / Loudstakk

P.S. If you want to help keep this particular little thing going, TRVE Drums, the MIDI Packs and TRVE Rig are where I put my weeks. Or just reply to an email, send me a riff, or tell me something of mine ended up on your record. That counts too. I notice.