Let’s get this out there to start with – I’m a very firm believer in connecting with fans. As an artist (of any variety) without someone to show your art to or share it with, you have nothing to do with it. It’s simply exists. Just existing has never been enough, art is meant to be shared and experienced together. When it comes to music, this is exceptionally the case. The desire to be seen and heard is the greatest motivation for being a musician. If you can’t connect with your fans, you don’t stand a chance of making it in the current music market.
Today’s music fans have become lazy and selfish. Without a band constantly giving them content, they become bored and tend to put their focus on a band that IS giving them content. Content can mean cranking out new music every few months-to a year, or it can mean blog posts, instagram pictures, tweets, facebook updates. Whatever you, as an artist choose to put out there your fans will absorb. They will remember that you exist and make an effort to interact with you. Without this interaction and social experience, you have given your fans little to engage with and have left them feeling disconnected. If your fans feel connected to you, they will remember that when time to buy comes along.
This is where “Reason to Buy” comes into play. The reason fans who have been following you along your journey to new musical content is that you’ve included them in the process. You’ve kept up a constant conversation with them and therefore they want to support you. Now, you also need to give them reason to buy enough product so you can support yourself. This can come in the form of desirable content (a.k.a: good music) and also in product packaging and development. If you only put out a digital release and a basic CD your fans might buy a few of each and then decide to forgo paying you to illegally download your music. This means you have lost the battle, even after putting out so much constant content to them. In order to win you need to determine WHAT your fans want. Do they want you to release exclusive vinyl with limited edition art? Do they want pens, t-shirts, socks, multiple versions, exclusive tracks? It’s up to you to determine what your unique fan-base wants.
Last year, Minneapolis rapper Dem Atlas released an album titled DWNR, and not only was the content of the album excellent, he enticed his audience to purchase the album by releasing hand-drawn album covers. No two CD’s were alike and he sold out of the first run of them.
Exclusive, custom CD art by Dem Atlas (courtesy of Fifth Element & Rhymesayers)
Korean pop musicians are releasing increasingly intricate album designs in order to entice their audience to buy albums. Sometimes they have multiple versions that you can pick from – or you get an exclusive version for buying early. Albums include photo booklets, are made to look like magazines, have 3D cases with raised lettering, and are even made to have pop-ups. If more Americans created albums like these, we would be purchasing them more often, I’m positive of it.
With elaborate albums like these that are reasonably priced (I think the most expensive of this bunch was the Big Bang Big Show DVD and that was around $42, and is two DVD’s worth of live concert content.) I’m willing to bet more people would be willing to go back to buying physical albums. The American market got stagnant with releasing plain jewel cases and eventually reducing liner notes to a single piece of paper with little to no album information. No one is going to want to buy that for $15 when they can go online and download it for free – even if it is illegal.
One of the best artists who exemplifies the Connect to Fans + Reason to Buy business model theory is Amanda Palmer. Some call her the Crowdfunding Queen, others have lambasted her efforts to support herself in this unconventional way, but she knows how to connect with her fans AND give them a reason to support her. Since the start of her career as a musician Palmer has made a point to keep in contact with her fans. In the early digital age she started an e-mail newsletter that she sent out regularly to let her fans know when their next shows were and to give them a way to talk to her. She still is in regular contact with some of those early fans. As technology developed so did the ways Amanda kept in touch with her fans. She’s regularly creating unique ways to meet with fans, including what she calls “ninja gigs.” She creates these “ninja gigs” as spur of the moment, last minute inventive meet ups. Recently she turned one of her book signings into a blanket fort cuddle-fest.
The main point behind Amanda Palmer, is that she turned her close relationship with her fans into one of the most successful Kickstarter campaigns for a musician to-date. She was able to raise enough money to create the album she truly wanted, hire a band, pay for the recording, and create merchandise and physical copies of the album that the fans wanted to buy. If bands can take her example and go forward – and be willing to ask the fans for help in supporting them, they can make enough money to support their craft.
In the end, it’s important to find out what your fans want from you as a person – either lots of contact, a little contact, photos or tweets – it’s your job as an artist to find the line you’re comfortable giving, and what your fans want from you. Then you have to trust them enough to ask for their money when it’s time to make an album and put out music. If you can connect and give them what they want – they’re going to give you what you need.
MuzBiz 