Recently, I caught an excellent opening band on tour opening for a major artist.

One of their songs had received a lot of airplay. The rest of the songs in the set were new to the audience. They were good songs, and the audience seemed enthusiastic to give this band a chance.

The problem? The lead singer never gave any of the song titles so the audience could further connect with them, look them up, and purchase them.  

I suspect the singer's line of thinking was, "The set's only 40 minutes, so let's cram in as much music as possible." Understandable, but there's a more strategic approach:

Make the audience connect with you. Tell them a short story about what inspired the song, including the title. Tell them how much the theme of the song means to you and why, and give the title. Give them a connection that becomes a reason to go to your MySpace or ITunes and find the song.

Yes, this takes a little time out of your set. But it's worth it--even if you have to lose one song from the set.

Without song titles, the audience is flying blind. They're less likely to bother tracking down the name of the songs they like if they have to guess the titles or Google a random lyric they managed to pick up when your sound wasn't going out.

When you're the opening act, this is especially true. Because once that headliner takes the stage, like it or not, your set is more easily forgotten.

So make it easy for them to enjoy your music after the show: Make that connection, and say it before you play it!