Tell us a bit about yourself and your background
I'm Brandon - a product manager, independent musician, writer, and what I like to call an “internet tinkerer". I work at Buffer for my day job, where I lead product work on our social media tools. On the side, I release experimental rock and piano music under the name Kid Lightbulbs. I'm also a classically-trained pianist. I ended up in tech by happenstance and a bit of privilege. I spend a lot of time thinking about how independent creators can thrive online without being beholden to platforms that don't have their best interests at heart.
In my newsletter, I try to leverage my knowledge of the tech industry and the different technologies that can be used to help rather than extract value from creators, and share both my opinions and concrete tips for how to use those technologies.
What do you write about in your newsletter?
My newsletter has gone through phases, but it primarily focuses on two things: updates on my music and random projects, and (ideally weekly) essays on this topic of creative independence. In my newsletter, I try to leverage my knowledge of the tech industry and the different technologies that can be used to help rather than extract value from creators, and share both my opinions and concrete tips for how to use those technologies. It could be something as simple as how to generate a Stripe payment link to take your own payments and distribute your own music, or something more complex like standing up a Jellyfin server to host your own music library.
Where did you first learn of Buttondown, and what made you decide to give it a try?
I think I literally did a web search for “ethical newsletter services”, and Buttondown was one that came up repeatedly. I appreciate that it’s run by Justin and a few other folks, and in spite of that small team, it’s a really robust and well-thought-out product with surprising power. The feature that made me take the plunge was RSS-to-email. It felt like a great way to integrate the sending of newsletters with my personal site, which I’d been writing more on in the last two years.
I think I literally did a web search for “ethical newsletter services”, and Buttondown was one that came up repeatedly.
What are some ways Buttondown has helped you run your email?
The biggest thing is that it just gets out of the way, specifically through the power of the API and RSS-to-email features, and does the thing I need it do (reliably manage my subscribers and send them emails) really well. I can embed a subscribe widget pretty much anywhere and make it look exactly how I want; I can get my content into Buttondown and out as newsletters effortlessly, and even customize different emails about different things semi-automatically. For example, I have RSS feeds set up for both my personal blog and a music site I self-host using Faircamp. Faircamp generates an RSS feed that lists every music release on the site, so anytime I release a new album or bonus material to it, Buttondown will automatically draft an email for me to send out to my audience. I can even send that update to only the folks who want to hear about new music releases, thanks to the Tags feature.
Anything else you'd like to add?
I appreciate that Buttondown exists and has the values it has. I work for a small independent company, and it’s quite reassuring that there are other businesses out there building good products with similar values.