For many Austin artists, social media allows them to communicate with and grow their fandom. For Americana artist Robert Ellis, his followers saw his posts announcing the release of a new track or upcoming gig. But on Jan. 29, Ellis shared a different kind of announcement.
“I’ve made a decision to permanently withdraw myself as a participant from this experiment we call social media,� Ellis .
He went on to clarify that he wasn’t retiring from music. In fact, he made it clear that he would actually spend more time concentrating on his art form.
“I want to narrow my focus to the things I truly care about—the things I actually believe offer something of value to the world,� he wrote. “Music is one of those things.�
Ellis released his first record, The Great Rearranger, in 2009. Back then, he said music promotion was more of an in-person endeavor.
“We used to have a thing called promoters, and in each town the promoter would promote the show,� Ellis recently said on the . “It's actually in the job title. They would be responsible for letting the community in a given city know that an artist was playing and getting those people out to the concert.�
Promoters would promote the shows and the shows would promote the new record. As social media became more omnipresent, musicians were expected to promote not just their shows and records, but themselves.
“There is a lot of pressure in all directions for artists to be sort of the marketing arm of their own music career,� Ellis said.
But over time, he said he started to notice that being on social media wasn’t good for his mental health. On the latest episode of the Pause/Play podcast, Ellis talked about his decision to get off social media.
“If I saw a post from Shakey Graves about some awesome show that he was playing, I would just instantly feel terrible sitting at my house, not doing anything,� Ellis said. “I just don't know that it's healthy for me to be seeing what everyone else is up to all the time.�
At the same time, he said he began to think that social media might not be helping his career as much as people told him it was.
“I stopped really believing all of the things that people say about social media in regards to how it could benefit a musician,� he said.
After feeling this way for a while, Ellis made the decision to leave social media completely this past January.
He deleted all of his Instagram history, and he essentially locked himself out of the platform.
“I signed out. I changed my password to one of those strong passwords that is like a bunch of random characters, and then I deleted that password,� Ellis said. “So, I don't actually know how to get back into the account if I had wanted to.�
All that is left of his account is the post announcing his permanent social media absence. The account still has more than 26,000 followers.
Ellis said he now keeps in touch with his fans . He also prioritizes in-person promotion for shows, just like he did at the start of his music career.
“If I do an in-store at Waterloo, I feel like more people know about my show at the Mohawk than if I had made a hundred posts,� he said.
And so far, Ellis said he hasn’t seen any negative impact from leaving social media. He recognizes, however, that not everyone may be able to make the same decision he did.
“I'm in a slightly different place in my life and career than I know many people are,� Ellis said. “I'm 36, I’ve got seven records out and a bunch of side projects. I've been touring heavily for like 15 years � I feel like I have fans � people that will support me and listen to my music � and I just didn't feel like social media was a crucial part of that for me.�
Ellis said he has noticed the positive impact of living in the moment.
"I feel like I just have a really beautiful, rich life full of music and people that I care about, he said. "I've been very much enjoying myself.�
This story is included in Episode 2 of Season 6 of Pause/Play. Listen to the full episode in the player above. You can find Pause/Play wherever you get your podcasts.
