It can seem to be hard to do that. In some cases, it just happens. And in those cases, the artist has that drive to keep the fans updated. Nowadays there are so many tools that can aid you in the quest. Here are three ideas I just throw out for you to use.
Look back on The old days. There the fans even created fanzines around their artists. Those were more alive then the home pages that took over. Today I hardly see even fan letters or fan pages for even very big names. I guess getting that done and treat certain fans with inside info could lead to a bigger fanbase.
Of course, touring is coming back. Live is the ultimate way to meet and grow a fanbase. Here you can take The help of the new tools and pinpoint fans to make them help to get to their town. This is also an old thing that was used before called street teams that worked very well in The 90s.
Even have a Q&A live on Facebook could get fans from just fan to superfan. Yes, you have to be persistent and also allow you to have just a small number of fans in The beginning.
Everything here is just to get The fans to be seen. That is all you have to do to turn them to superfans.
A Journey starts with a step. A fanbase with a fan.
11) If All Your Eggs Are in Instagram You’re Doomed Yes, Instagram is the hottest social app out right now (sorry Snapchat). But that doesn’t mean it always will be. I’m sure you’re too young to remember Myspace, but at one point the only online presence that mattered for musicians was Myspace. Those that didn’t grab their fans and transfer them to a database they owned (i.e. email list) lost contact with all their fans when Myspace died. You rent your fans to social sites. You own your fans email addresses and phone numbers. Get them. Don’t ignore the social sites where your fans exist, but also have a way to keep in touch with them that isn’t dependent on the whims of the latest hot social app.
The red part is from an article in Digital music news, here is a link to the whole article.
This is a part that most artists forget (and labels too). These numbers are held by the site or app you are using. And in many cases like Facebook or Instagram, they want money for you to reach all your people, which is really insane but we buy it every day. You have to get things in your feed to get these people to give you their emails and phone number and location.
And to be honest this has been proved to work in many cases over the years. Per Gessle (singer in Roxette) had people sign postcards to send to radio to get his first single played. Yes, he went out manually to get these people, easier today, still you have to get down to do it. Part of Blink 182:s plan was that they called up fans personally in the city they were heading at. Of course for a fan to get a personal call from your favorite band telling you to bring friends with, yes you will bring friends with you.
So the tools are easier today. Still, you have to get down to have that list. You don't have the emails on facebook. But you can use Facebook to get people to get you there emails.
5) Making It No Longer Means Superstardom It is the most exciting time to be a musician in the history of the music business. Never before could you have a successful career as an original performing musician without the help of a record label. There are more ways than ever before to make a living as a musician. For some reason to many, music seems to be the only industry where the sole definition of ‘making it’ is superstardom. Don’t waste your time with people who think that. If you are making a living, supporting the kind of lifestyle you’d like to have, doing something you love then you are making it. Anyone who tries to belittle your success is unhappy with their own. F*ck em. The red part is from an article in Digital music news, here is a link to the whole article.
This one is both true and untrue. Yes, I'm totally in that if you make a living you have made it. The truth is that all these strange artists that everybody is talking about that make a living out of some strange fan base, where are they?
I get a lot of these so called artists having internet courses about different kind of "smart" marketing tips, that other artist should buy from them. Then you have the occasional ones like Amanda Palmer who makes a lot of money on crowdfunding to get out her music and makes a living on it. The other side of that has anyone heard Amanda Palmer's music? I have read about her but never heard a song. To be honest I really don't feel like it either in some way it feels made up.
I guess some have tried listening to her, I just wonder how many go away and how many stays? What is the ratio? Also, Amanda was the first phenomena in this game of crowd funding. A lot of her story is that people told that store, not so much about the music.
I checked her stats...I know I have been talking about that numbers doesn't count. In this case, it can be interesting though. On Spotify she has under 10 million streams. She has the number of my indie success, which is kind of low compared to the publicity she got.
Facebook, here she has 390 000 followers. Okey the engagemnet is pretty ok, it's around 1000 to 2000 likes comments on her posts. Yes it very small from all of her followers. Still A good crowd that cares about her.
Youtube was just a death, her account seems to have four videos, the main one 2 million and the rest a couple of hundred thousand.
Instagram 150 000 followers. The interesting here is that what she market first is her BOOK "art of asking". 2000 in engagement on each picture is kind of low under 2%.
We can easily see that Amanda is not that good musician. She is a good facebook poster, or good on social media, old social media to be honest. Is that success? Yes, she makes a living out of it. I guess she does what she wants to do. Still, it feels like many stars today more lives out of the social media channels than their real art.
I guess that many means to "make it" is to be famous for what you really want to do. Angus Young wants to play guitar, not post pictures of cats on Facebook. He won't publish a book, he will play a guitar solo. I guess there is the success that people identify with. Today do it's fully possible to juggle this around on different platforms. Like being successful blogger and author. Right now in Sweden, there is one of the dancers from"Let's Dance" who released a single and wants to be an artist for a small while.
Then what happens to Amanda if Facebook and Instagram disappears? That never happens...I'm not too sure. the companies will remain but the can burst into other markets. We all know the story of MYSpace and in Sweden Lunarstorm. That is just 10 years ago and this will happen over and over companies and sites comes and go. So if you are stuck in a system like Amanda you can have a hard time. Angus Young, he will still keep playing guitar on the new platforms as well. He will only go under if we ban guitars, I have a harder time to see that happen then Facebook disappear.
We just have to hope that Amanda has been smart enough to also collect a lot of email addresses and phone numbers to super fans. And to tell you the truth I think she has.
So just the definition of "make it" is hard. Then you have an artist that has "made it" totally independent like Chance The Rapper. But remember he had a team of 60 employees to help him. To get to that is not easy, but doable, also nothing new. We have seen an artist before go independent and start labels like Epitaph records that were founded by Brett Gurewitz to give out his band Bad Religon.
I guess the goal here is up to you. I remember when I spoke to Johnny Ramone short after Joey Ramone died. Johnny couldn't get how much attention Joeys death was causing. He didn't realize how big The Ramones actually was without ever having a solid chart hit. At the same time, they were more than the one hit wonder. It's all in the eye of the beholder. I guess the goal is to do what you like the most. That is what I'm doing. I guess they will never do a Wikipedia page about my work. I hope though that many of the artists I work with get a lot of pages and change peoples life.
I just stumble on a homepage where they have all e-mail addresses and phone numbers to the right people in the music industry. Now you just have to contact the right person.
Wouldn’t it be fantastic if a page like that existed? Then everybody in the world could make a living as an artist. Making millions of dollars and tour every fifth year. That would be a great world.
But hey the whole start looks like a spam letter; oh we have a dead African king that left millions of dollars you just have to send your credit card number and security code. Get real!
Still I bump into artists almost every week that actually keep this illusion real. Instead of chasing fans they are chase people that should chase fans for them. The energy goes to chasing these people that really not exists. Same as in a casino they let you have a small win and then you chase that big win, but it never comes. Instead you should just save that money and build your fortune. It’s pretty clear but easier said than done.
Still the text is just like a spam letter. This homage should just not work. The right person is where you are in your career. The right person is not the same for Metallica as it is for a new indie band from Copenhagen. Just there should you be suspicious about this homepage if it existed.
It really doesn’t matter who you know if your position is not right. Even if I gave you my whole network it doesn’t matter. For example I know the girl who books the biggest arena in London. She is really nice and always says that I can send her stuff and is keen on discovering new bands. Sure I can send her new bands, but the arena takes around 65000 visitors so she can't book them. I don’t have a band that can draw so many people in London. She will be good to have when I have a band in that capacity, but right now I have to wait.
In the world of these bands they don’t want to wait. Send her their demo and hope that she can do something. There is no reality to it. Back to the lottery, in a million maybe she can do something but it’s so slim that it’s better to build the artist so they have enough fans and then go to her.
I’m amazed that the artist hasn’t figured this out and still wonders. I guess it has to be with human nature, hope is the last that leaves a person’s body, like Adée use to say on her concerts.
