In the middle of a great show, a jazz musician asks us—the audience, “Does anybody still listen to CDs?” 

Nobody raises their hand. 

“Of course not,” he laughs. So do we. He tells us the title of his new album, which he made CDs for. He also adds that it is available on Spotify and all of the streaming platforms.

Imagine if, instead, he says, “Visit [myname].com, and sign up for my newsletter, and I’ll send you an MP3 and streaming link to the song that you just heard right to your inbox. You’ll also hear my new music there. We are going to start again in a minute, so I would be delighted if you did that now.” 

That’s a reasonable, soft, ask. I just heard his music and I would be curious to check it out, plus I might be fiddling with my phone anyway. He’s not handing out a clipboard with a pen and asking people to write their email down—which might be a little jarring at a jazz club.