Final Items on My Promo To-Do List

For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin – real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way. Something to be got through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life. – Father Alfred D’Souza

Over the past five months, this little fan blog evolved into a promotional and technical resource for musicians. I discovered that I enjoy writing, and find it especially rewarding when my efforts help others. I’m honored to be a new author at Music Think Tank, one of the top music promotion sites on the net. My next dozen posts are already charted out, and I’ve even referred to myself as a “blogger” once or twice. It would be easy to forget that I’ve still got an album to promote!

Since I floated my first to-do list back in October, I’ve completed dozens of items, and dozens more that weren’t on the list. Being named Grand Prize Winner in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest required me to launch a new promotional effort. Last week, I completed a companion EP to the album and started taking pre-orders. Even though I was busier than ever, my to-do list got longer every week.

Today I cut the majority of items from the list, leaving only the immediate and important. Rather than maintain an encyclopedia of things I may do someday, I saved myself the time and effort of considering the same tasks again in the future. New and better opportunities will arise, and availing myself of any lingering baggage allows me to jump in with both feet.

Below are the last tasks standing. Please don’t consider this a list of things YOU must do. These just happen to be on my radar right now:

1. CD Baby – submit Second Thoughts for digital distribution
2. ccMixter - upload a capella vocals (“pells”) from album
3. Music Xray – explore and complete profile
4. Stereofame - figure out what actually works
5. film/TV – start by submitting to places Taxi forwarded my music already
6. Bandcamp - see what the fuss is about
7. MusicSUBMIT – maybe winning the JLSC will get me noticed
8. iLike Spinup – mess around when they fully separate it from GarageBand
9. royalties - pay for future download rights
10. ASCAP title registration – should’ve already done this, oops
11. SoundExchange - this too, double oops
12. Mediabase/Clear Channel – kind of like Neilsen BDS
13. US Copyright office – send final versions of CDs
14. dmx - get played at Abercrombie & Fitch and The Gap
15. new shirts – blow out old shirts and find a great designer
16. Hypem - submit to blogs that write about similar bands
17. Video of mix session – something for YouTube
18. Free EP – get it on Blip.fm, Grooveshark, Seeqpod
19. collaborate – but only with a more popular artist!

Cutting my 100+ item list down to 19 items feels great, but I’ve still got 103 bookmarks of leads to weed through. First, I’ll knock a few items off this list. I love organizing, because it allows me to procrastinate while still feeling productive – a trap I’ve fallen into many times before.