Whenever I start working on an album the strategizing begins. How I want to release, what the cover looks like, how the music sounds, how people will know I’m working on it, and slow build up comes to mind. For the past 15 years I’ve been a 1 man show. That doesn’t mean I’m totally alone, that just means I held all the responsibility in this company. That means my plans always need to be mapped thoroughly.

Here’s my strategy to release my next project terry.

Step 1: Ship - Shipping is the process of releasing your creative work, services, or products to the world. Seth Godin uses the phrase and is most likely it’s founder in this context. Shipping has two benefits; the product gets out to a potential audience and the creator gets better at their craft through trail and error. This blog is an example of shipping. My past weekly song releases are also an example of that. The goal here is to ship music, ship this blog, and ship my content on YouTube to grow my audience. I’m not looking for something to blow up; I’m looking for my audience to grow authentically. No matter how many years that takes.

Step 2: Engage - I’m not the biggest fan of social media. I have been on just about every social platform since their existence. Every one of them gives me the same conclusion. They are just amplification tools, not real fans. My primary goal should be to distribute on them, and engage my audience. That’s it. My focus should be on giving people what they desire. Then I need to be social with them and ignore the trolls.

Step 3: Get Better - While I’m shipping work, I should be getting better at my craft. Secretly piling away great pieces for this album. That’s not hard to do. I will get better because I am practicing my craft. More writing, more production, and better performances are all ways to get better.

Step 4: Be Patient - This is not an overnight strategy. The main reason this has never worked in my favor is because I haven’t been patient enough to see it through. People say I’m very patient, but apparently not patient enough. This wait is like an experiment. I’m slowly shipping things until the audience grows large enough to debut this project. The best evidence for this strategy is my Music Advice channel on YouTube (now merged with WordPlay T. Jay). I started this channel in September 2017 and it slowly grew from 0 to 9000 subscribers today. That only happened by being consistent and using Google Search to my advantage.

Step 5: Launch - When the audience is large enough the album will drop. I will put the album out and debut it as a gallery showing. It will be a collection of my visual art and my music combined. It will also have a performance component spanning over multiple nights in the city where we live. This album will be my biggest release to date.

It’s going to take some time to see this come to life, but I hope you’re ready to go along the journey with me. Stay tuned to this blog for future details.