Every musician needs one thing to be successful (and no it's not necessarily talent because, let's face it, we all know some big-name musicians that are pretty talent-less!). Musicians need fans! Fans are the key to a successful music career! They're the ones that pay to come see you, follow you to all your shows, and buy your merchandise. They keep your 'business' running! The 1,000 True Fans Theory states that you only need 1,000 true fans to be a successful musician.
"A True Fan is defined as someone who will purchase anything and everything you produce. They will drive 200 miles to see you sing. They will buy the super deluxe re-issued hi-res box set of your stuff even though they have the low-res version. They have a Google Alert set for your name. They bookmark the eBay page where your out-of-print editions show up. They come to your openings. They have you sign their copies. They buy the t-shirt, and the mug, and the hat. They can't wait till you issue your next work. They are true fans."
As the theory suggests, if every true fan spends about $100 on your band in a year, that's $100,000. Of course, a real true fan will be spending more than that, but even after some general expenses, that's a nice chunk of money to live off of! So, how do you get true fans? Here are some tips from a fellow musician!
- Always Over-Deliver: Always take the time to get to know your fans: online, via social media or email, and especially at the show. Turn your fans into friends. When people order merch from you or book you for a show, over-deliver by doing more than promised.
- Get Creative: Find new, fun ways to surprise your fans. For example, when my band is on tour, we’ll buy postcards throughout our tour and randomly pick people on our mailing list to send them to. Everyone sends a personal message about the tour, draws a little doodle, etc. We’ll often find photos of the postcards tagging us on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter and know that we just made someone’s day.
- Get to Know the Mavens: Malcolm Gladwell writes about how things go viral in his book, The Tipping Point. One of the key concepts is getting the social “mavens” (or leaders/influencers) on board with what you’re doing. These are the trendsetters, the people who are hip to what’s cool. Think about your target audience and who influences them. Music blogs? Skateboarding icons? Guitar gurus? YouTube cover artists? If you get these folks on board, they’ll help you spread your music in no time.
- Consistency, Consistency, Consistency: When you start something, you have to consistently follow up on it or it’ll fall through. When people sign up on your email list at a show, get them into your database ASAP, then write them and thank them for coming to the show. If you have a mailing list, send out a newsletter on a regular basis. If you are on social media, update on a regular basis. Don’t spam them with an overwhelming amount of updates, just be consistent so that they know to expect you and can depend on your updates for show announcements, new music, or other fun things.
- Think Telephone, Not Megaphone: Who do you pay more attention to, the guy standing on a street corner yelling into a megaphone and holding up signs or your friend on the telephone? Think of your e-newsletter and social media as a phone, a prompt for a two-way conversation and not simply as an information/propaganda service.
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