Promotion is half the battle.

When it comes to sharing music with the world, talent and skill aren't always the most significant leverage points. It's easy to over-index on skill while leaving marketing and promotion by the wayside.

Nowadays, sharing and marketing are essential. The musicians who excel at it get the numbers: people at shows, views on posts, and all the markers that boost a sense of legitimacy for booking agents.

The problem? It's a completely different skill set.

I'm a big believer in focusing deeply on as few things as possible. In a perfect world, my ideal musician's life wouldn't involve promotion: it would center on craft, storytelling, practice, performance, and composition—not marketing.

But no matter how much I complain, that doesn't change the ecosystem. You have to learn to play ball.

Sure, there's the silo approach: don't care about marketing, just get good. That works for some.

For most of us, though, some form of promotion is necessary. The real question is: how can we make promotion as easy as possible?

This post won't have the full answer, but here's a helpful tip: keep all documents a promoter might need in a single, accessible place. These include photos, bios, sound system requirements, and a form document you can send to venues to inquire about their setup.

Once you’ve organized these documents, you no longer need to spend time and mental energy sharing and requesting that information. Just send the promoter a link.

When you find yourself repeating a promotional task over and over, ask yourself: how can I do one thing that will ensure I never have to repeat this process again? This mindset could save you countless hours of repeated effort.