How far into the future do you think about your songwriting? Where do you want to be and what do you want to be doing in a year’s time?
It’s definitely worth thinking about, because if you’ve got no specific plan, it means that anything that happens with your songwriting will come down to random chance.
I don’t know about you, but random chance never sits well with me.
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A list of ideas for what you could be doing in a year’s time has the benefit of making your progress more likely, and when successes start to happen, you’ve got the ego shot of knowing that it’s because you actually did something about planning your future, and… it worked!
What are the sorts of things you could and should be doing as part of a yearly plan? Here’s a short list of things that I think are easily achievable in one year or less:
- Update the look of your website, or (if you don’t have one) develop a professional website. If you haven’t done this already, a website is still a great way to establish a somewhat permanent portal into who you are and what you do. If you’ve got the means, getting it designed by a professional is definitely worth it.
- Update your involvement on social media. You don’t have to be fully active on all of them, but social media is where people get to know what’s happening right now.
- Set a goal for the number of songs you plan to write in the next twelve months. Make sure the goal is a realistic one — a goal that still allows you to write creatively while also allowing you the time to be an active listener of music.
- Plan to participate in a public event like a festival or other type of concert. Seek out events that allow you to expand your normal audience base. For example, if you do country, plan to write some songs that might work in a folk festival. Your country-with-a-touch-of-folk approach may be the fresh new sound many are looking for.
- Plan an event that puts you at the centre. Give yourself up to a year to plan this, and it might be best to partner up with someone to help take care of the details and planning. Find a venue, invite some singer-songwriters to take part, and plan your own mini-festival with you and invited guests as performers. You’ll make connections that can take your career further, and you’ll love the inspiration it provides to keep your own songwriting moving forward. It doesn’t need to be big, and as a starter, it shouldn’t be big.
Thinking ahead one year reminds you that you’re serious about what you do, but it does even more than that. If you’ve got no specific plans for your songwriting, it means that anything good that happens to you is out of your specific control – a random occurrence.
Long term plans make success more likely. You become an active participant in your own career. And it forces you to take your own career more seriously, usually in the most enjoyable way possible.
What’s the best long term plan you ever made with regard to your music career? Please leave a comment!
Written by Gary Ewer. Follow Gary on Twitter.
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