November132009
"For better or worse, popular music depends upon the existence of casual fans. Back when the big albums of the day were selling a few million copies, these were not purchased by a few million super-fans. Even when a band like Arcade Fire sells a “mere” 300,000 copies of an album, this does not represent an audience of 300,000 super-fans. Once a band achieves any measure of widespread success, that success hinges, somewhat paradoxically, upon catching the attention of people who aren’t really paying attention.
Today’s fan engagement schemes, however, deny the existence of casual fans by leaving them out of the picture entirely.
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on
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Jeremy Schlosberg has some interesting contrarian thinking on the “1000 Superfans” music biz model. You may also like his earlier thoughts on “Music like water.” (via fascinated) (via thetapeleader)
Ahhhh….
But how do you find casual fans without super fans? Especially in today’s crowded saturated market.
To me the idea of 1,000 super fans should be seen as a way for an artist to have some sort of goal to reach, then from there those 1,000 fans will tell people about you and perhaps you’ll find casual fans.
A new artist cannot market to casual fans. You know why? They don’t exist. No one today is a casual fan of a new artist. They are either a super fan telling everyone about you or they just sit around waiting for you to make something that will allow them to become a super fan.
Have you ever tried releasing music in hopes you’ll find casual fans? It’s very expensive and nearly impossible and yet acts do it everyday (Ooh, I need to spend 10k on publicity and 2k on college radio and I’ll sell records!!!) - You probably won’t. At the beginning you should save that money and try to find ways to impact a small handful of people (1,000 is a just an idea, not a specific AHA number). By impacting those people you will discover how fans are interpreting your music and image and what is working and what isn’t. From there you use that info to reach a little further out. If you’re successful, you’ll find casual fans. But there is A LOT of work that has to happen before they get on board.
I don’t see 1,000 fans as a scheme but more as a starting point for new artists to develop themselves and their art. Old school artist development has to start somewhere right???
(via hartleymanages)
Reblogged from hartley manages.
