Just the other day, I had an opportunity to arrange a song for a commercial. As I thought about how the opportunity actually came to me, I had to go back fifteen years. It was a relationship made that long ago, which was yielding results now.
That’s how long some opportunities take. The groundwork is laid over time. If you resort to hype and shiny objects, you’ll have a hard time sustaining that over the long term.
Let’s say you have an album coming out. How do you make a big splash? How do you cut through the noise and make sure it reaches its potential? Well, first off, make sure you’ve done your best on the art itself. Second, don’t think so much about making a splash as much as a creating a rising tide, something that will build exponentially over time. Think long, not loud. The persistent whisper, consistent quality work, month after month, year after year. Not the ringing telephone. Not the kid doing a cannonball off the high dive.
Do this, and you’ll be in business for a long time. Be inconsistent, flaky, only good some of the time, and your career will likely be a blip.