So, what's next?

So, what's next?

There's a question most people don't ask themselves.

You've put yourself out there into the world. You've released some music or played a great show. Your friends, family and fans tell you how great it is. You go to sleep feeling terrific about yourself. And then, you wake up the next morning and you realize that it all happened yesterday. Are you prepared for today? Are you prepared to follow up and keep the momentum going?

If you're lucky enough to have played a gig, have you collected contact information from the folks in the audience? If not, in the future you should have a sign up sheet at the merch table to get email addresses. At the very least, you should make a shareable moment happen during your show and then encourage folks to document it, share it on their socials and tag you, that way you can easily find them on the various social platforms and thank them for coming to the show.

A personal relationship between you and your audience is the single most important relationship you can establish for your career.

In addition to sending thanks, with the contact info that you collect, you could also send a live board mix of a song or two from the show as a reminder to the fans of what a great time they had. (I did a version of this years ago. When Jeff Tweedy and Jay Bennett came to Toronto to promote Wilco's album Being There, we had them play an acoustic showcase for local media at a small venue called C'est Wha? I had a cassette running off the sound board and before the end of the week I had dubbed copies of the show for everyone that was there that night so they would never forget what a special evening of music they had experienced)

I am also a big advocate for physical acknowledgment. You need to invest in yourself if you want others to invest in you so one suggestion would be to simply produce 1000 cool one inch buttons that you can hand to people that you meet at your shows. They'll think that getting a gift from you is just about the coolest thing that ever happened to them.

If you've just released new music, make sure that you publicly thank anyone who is sharing - that includes services like Spotify, Apple, Music, Deezer, etc. Don't forget to thank fans who are posting on their socials. Don't forget to thank anyone who has added your music to their playlist.

As you build up your online connections with fans through emails and socials, make sure you stay engaged. Simple contesting like "Tag three friends for a chance to win your own personal Zoom acoustic performance" can help grow your followers. If you wonder whether you should be reaching out then it's been too long - reach out. Ask them "how's the weather?" it's better than disappearing until you have something new to sell.

These are just a few ideas that can answer the question "So, what's next?"