THINGS YOU SHOULD DO AFTER GETTING PRESS/MEDIA COVERAGE

Congrats. You just got your music covered. But that's just the start! Don't let this great coverage go to waste. There's more work to do than just

high-five one another. Don't miss these six quick things you need to do once you've been covered so you can continue to grow and snowball your music business:

1. Save a copy and keep an archive of your coverage.

One thing that will inevitably happen to all your music reviews and coverage: it will disappear. So, grab a copy as soon as you can so you have access to it in the future. If it's online, you can use tools like

Evernote's web clipper or your browser's scrapbook feature, such as Firefox's Scrapbook add-in, to capture the page. If it's not online,

you will have to clip the article the old fashioned way (and yes, there is still some non-internet coverage). For these mentions, you'll want to scan or take photos of the coverage so you can archive it.

Mentions, coverage, and reviews are important as they give you

credibility. You'll want every mention easily available for your media, press and booking kits.

2. Add the journalist and media outlet to your press list (if not already on your list!).

Sometimes you get coverage where you haven't submitted your work In these great cases, be sure to add the journalist/blogger and the media outlet to your press list. Wherever you've been written about is the most likely place to get future coverage second

only to places that musicians like you are being covered.

3. Send a thank you.

Coverage is a great opportunity to reach out to the journalist/blogger who covered you and thank them. This is a good idea to help solidify your relationship with them since the music business is based on who you know. But don't just stop at a thank you. In your

same message, you can bring up your next planned work and see if they want to cover you in the future.

4. Update your media/press kits, website, and web presences.

When you get great coverage -- use it! Don't let it sit. Recent quotes from reviews or other mentions are always a great addition to a press kit, web presences, and media/press pages on your website.

5. Share your coverage on social media.

Media and press coverage of you and your music is the perfect thing to talk about on social media. Tweet about it. Post it. Share it.

It's very effective because it's not just you talking about your music or yourself -- it's someone else, an external source. And because it's someone else talking about you, it gives you extra credibility. This

can prompt retweets, reposts, and shares.

6. Share your coverage with other pr outlets and get more coverage.

The key to getting more and more publicity is to build on the successes you get by targeting other outlets and journalists/bloggers. Do this by sending them a link to the coverage you received and highlight some quotes from it. You can target blogs or

outlets with similar audiences or demographics as the one you

received coverage in, but the goal is to grow the size of audience that you might reach with each article written about you, so going

"upward" is a good idea.

Getting coverage is especially useful while you're in the middle of a press/media campaign since you can reach out to any journalists that you've contacted but haven't heard from yet to see if the recent coverage

can trigger interest and a response. Journalists and bloggers love catching trends and coverage in another outlet can spark another article

if you make them aware of it.

So next time you get coverage for something you do, snowball it into something greater. The key to getting more and more publicity is to build on the successes you get and turn them into additional coverage. If you do it right, the momentum can spiral and you'll get you and your music in front of more people, helping to grow your fanbase. For more how-tos on

running your own press/media campaigns, as well as marketing and promotion strategies and techniques

4 TIPS FOR RECORDING YOUR OWN SESSIONS

Recording can be a grueling process even when a professional audio engineer is at the helm. But when an artist acts as a performer, producer, and recording engineer, it gets even trickier. Between the affordable cost of DIY recording equipment and a modern listening audience that's come to expect a constant stream of new music, more artists are recording their own sessions than ever before. Self-recording is by no means an easy process, but you'll be far better off if you remember these basic tips:

Make sure things sound exactly how you want them to before you start recording

There's no worse feeling than getting ten takes into a session only to realize you weren't recording, or that your takes are unusable because of distortion or some other issue. Before you dig into your sessions, you need to make sure everything is working correctly and sounding exactly how you want it to. Some amount of trial and error is unavoidable when you record your own tracks, and this usually requires running back and forth from your instrument and DAW a couple of times to get things right. But the more you can avoid wasting time, the better. The time you'll invest in getting things to sound right the first time will help you avoid lots of frustration in the long run.

Record more takes than you think you need

When you record on your own, you don't have the benefit of someone listening to you and deciding which takes are usable and which ones aren't. Ultimately, you're going to have to record more than you think you need to to ensure you'll have enough usable material to work with. If you think you've nailed it in four takes, do three or four more to be on the safe side. When you record more than you think you need to, you also have the added benefit of settling into the process which helps you refine and energize your performances. A producer or recording engineer would typically help you do this with insights and advice, but since you're on your own, it's up to you.

Use the looping settings on your DAW to record multiple takes at a time

This is the most important tip on this list. Modern DAWs feature loop settings that allow you to record multiple takes without pausing. If you're stopping after each take, you're recording yourself the wrong way and wasting loads of valuable time and energy in the process. Once you get the settings of your session sounding exactly the way you need and want them to, use the loop settings on your DAW to record take after take until you're finished. Recording like this takes a lot of stamina, so be prepared to work. But in the long run, the looping method will save you a huge amount of time.

Be patient and don't settle

Self-recording your sessions is exhausting. This is because it's a process that requires you to take on multiple roles. With how hard recording yourself is, it can be tempting to cut corners, settle for mediocre takes, or miss glaring mistakes in your performances. Patience and an uncompromising approach is needed to pull off self-recording. If you rush or try to force inspired playing when it's just not happening, you're not going to get the material you need. You need to record more takes than you think you'll need, which means you'll probably need to set aside more time than you think you'll need to get things done. Don't rush, don't settle, and don't tune out to how things sound and feel. Take as many breaks as you need to get what you need.

Recording yourself can be tricky and time-consuming, but the freedom it gives you is invaluable. Rather than relying on other people, it allows you to record however, whenever, and wherever you want. With discipline, patience, and the usage of basic strategies like looping, you'll be able to engineer, produce, and perform professional sounding takes on your own from your home studio. It's a process that takes practice and stamina, but if you're a serious musician, those are attributes you've already spent years developing.