Jonathan Mann is in his 14th year of writing and releasing a Song a Day. No matter where he is, how he’s feeling, or what’s going on in his life or the world at large, Jonathan Mann has written and shared a song every single day since 2009.
September 9th marks day 5000 when Jonathan will drop his 5000th song “Hustle and Grind”–along with an accompanying video featuring over 100 artists–on his website songaday.world where he’s been minting and auctioning songs daily for the past eight months.
“It’s an auspicious number,” says Jonathan, drawing comparison to Beeple’s historic 5000th sale. “It can be argued that Beeple’s Christie’s sale kicked off the mania that was NFTs in 2021. It was building up to that, but that was a rocket ship that exploded.” After selling the back catalog of Song a Day tracks as NFTs in three batches in 2021, Jonathan has often been referred to as the Beeple of music NFTs. “I have 1/128th of the audience that Beeple does, so no expectations,” says Jonathan. Having started Song a Day at age 26 while unemployed in the height of the financial crisis, Jonathan has made a habit of keeping expectations at bay. But after selling the 4,018 songs from batch three of the Song a Day back catalog for more than 700 ETH (worth more than 3.2 million dollars at the time) on New Years Eve in less than an hour and a half–there’s ample reason for the hype around song 5000. “It was unlike anything that I could have ever imagined, that people would pay that much money for Song a Day songs… like it’s just insane,” says Jonathan, “It still hasn’t sunk in.”
Birthed from his early love of songwriting, Jonathan started Song a Day as a creative experiment to test the 70, 20, 10 theory—“that 70 percent of the songs would be mediocre, 20 percent would be trash, and 10 percent would be amazing,” says Jonathan. But over time, he found a less calculable takeaway. Citing dancer and choreographer Martha Graham, Jonathan now subscribes to the philosophy that it is the job of the artist to keep the creative channel open, not to determine whether or not the art is good. Rather, real success lies in the never-ending process of embracing, what Martha calls, a “queer, divine dissatisfaction,” and “a blessed unrest” that keeps the artist perpetually creating.
Song a Day’s success makes the case for kicking perfectionism and showing up consistently despite the inability to ever be fully pleased with the work. “Most artists have some version of Song a Day. There’s a ton of making before there’s a finished product, and no one ever gets to see the raw, unfiltered part,” says Jonathan. “I'm uniquely situated to share all of this–I have very little shame about it just naturally.” His willingness to not take himself too seriously, to be silly, and to let cringe happen–all non-negotiables when sharing the unfiltered creative process–is at the crux of Song a Day’s genius. Like a human blockchain, Jonathan, through his quirky, honest, and forthright musical offerings, has cataloged history, while simultaneously making it. Steve Jobs used a Song a Day song during a press conference for the iPhone, and in 2016, Jonathan set the Guinness Book of World Records for most consecutive days writing a song. Numerous Song a Day videos have gone viral and become part of pop culture including the “Baby Yoda Baby Baby Yoda” song that has 9.5 million views on Youtube. “The Ballad of The Hedge Fund vs TheEdge Lords (Reddit Saves GameStop)” was recently featured in the 2022 Gamestop: Rise of the Players documentary. And the list goes on.
Take a trip down the Song a Day rabbit hole, and it’s impossible not to find something that resonates whether on a cultural, political, or emotional level. From “We’ve Got To Break Up” to “Putting the Crib Back Together,” Jonathan never shies away from telling it like it is. And over the course of 14 years, there’s enough human experience covered to find a point of connection with just about anyone. “Every artist has tons of crappy shit that eventually becomes good,” says Jonathan. “If there’s one song of mine, on any vector that resonates, that feels like a powerful demonstration.”
Opening doors for a plethora of projects, commissions, and keynote speeches including at Devcon in 2018 where Jonathan minted the first-ever tokenized song on Ethereum, live on stage–the impact of Song a Day is exponential. And now, music NFTs provide a monetary way to reflect some of that value.
“Music NFTs aren’t a panacea of any kind. They aren’t going to fix everything that’s wrong in this world in which music has become completely devalued. But they are an interesting and cool new tool for artist’s to figure out how to make money from their work,” says Jonathan. He’s especially intrigued by the idea that one song can impact one person, and NFTs allow that one person to own the digital artifact. He references a Twitter exchange where producer Yuri Beats wanted to buy a specific version of a song that Emilyn Brodsky had once posted to her Myspace page years ago. Yuri Beats had a personal connection to the song and wanted to collect the NFT for sentimental reasons. “Beyond all the hype, it is that connection that is the thing that could work,” says Jonathan.
An early adopter and blockchain enthusiast, Jonathan has consistently been on the forefront of experimentation with music NFTs and continues to find ways to innovate. During his Song a Day batch two drop, he minted the first properly onchain song, fractionalized it, and airdropped the fractionalized tokens to collectors holding his year 2 Song a Day NFTs. He also founded SongADAO—a DAO that owns the rights to Song A Day songs and acts as the treasury for Song A Day revue where members decide how to use the money to grow the value of Song A Day. Most recently, he’s launched SongADEX—inspired by Songcamp—a game associated with collecting Song a Day NFTs.
After teasing the drop with a surprise release on DSPs yesterday, Jonathan will drop song 5000—“Hustle and Grind”—this Friday, marking yet another novel milestone.
Clocking in at 6 minutes and 14 seconds, “Hustle and Grind” is an uplifting folk-pop anthem challenging hustle culture and the conditioned belief that human worth is found in productivity or output. “The song is a celebration of creativity,” says Jonathan. “It’s really a protest against the idea of hustle culture.” Setting out to remind its listener of their inherent value, “Hustle and Grind” got extra TLC to commemorate the occasion with shiny production and the addition of verses from web3 rappers Lackhoney, Louie C Rhymes, Yung Chaiboy, Iman Europe, and Domino. “It’s in my style, very literal. It’s not making any bones about anything,” says Jonathan. “Take naps, take care of yourself, see your friends...” Refreshingly direct, lyrics, “Don’t work yourself dead, it’s the biggest regret that dying people said,'' ring out like a deep breath of permission and a gentle nudge to take a step back and reprioritize when the pressure sets in. Led by Jonathan, a chorus of voices sings, “Don’t forget to live, even if you’re scared that the life you dream of will suddenly just disappear/When you strip away all the money, all your wild ambition, oh honey, underneath it all you’re still you.”
A testament to the inclusive creative community Jonathan has fostered through Song a Day, the video for the drop will feature a mosaic of artists offering their various crafts to the song. “There are over 100 artists, musicians, and dancers from both inside and out of the space, from all walks of life, coming together to sing, dance, and play,” says Jonathan. “They will all be featured, and will all be paid from the drop.” Spreading the wealth and sharing the spotlight is a natural extension of Jonathan’s value system.
As someone who has steadily put in the work, stayed patient, and eventually seen financial payoff, he’s uniquely qualified to deliver the message and chooses to redirect the focus to the importance of presence, love, and creativity. After all, if the artist must create to live and is sure to never be pleased—finding joy in the art of being human is essential.
Only time will tell if Jonathan makes history, again, with song 5000. Either way, he’ll be writing a new one the next day, and the day after that.
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By Wallace Morgan for “High Frequency,” NOISE’s weekly newsletter. Subscribe for more.