Getting more fans to our shows is always something that has plauged musicians. Audiences are the lifeblood – they give our songs and music ears and wings and help to build meaningful, memorable experiences. When we do get fans, however, we want more – instantly, failing to see the importance of the fans we already have.
This “essay” is a look at fans and what they mean to us.
My hope is that by the end of this, you wil have adopted a different view of the fans you do have and feel compelled to act on those different feelings or if you’re brand new to playing out, just how important fans are and the need to keep them close and cared for.
Estimated read time: 3 minutes
Disclaimer: this is not a bass lesson or entirely bass guitar centric! These are thoughts on general musicianship and the idea of fans: understanding the importance, getting them and using them and why you should never neglect them. If this isn’t something that interests you – I recommend this article instead – very popular!
Fans Versus People-in-a-Room
Kevin Kelly, the founder and executive editor of Wired.com, penned an essay called, 1,000 True Fans (that can be found with the link <–) which gained a significant amount of attention when it was released (…back in 2008).
Call me late to the party, but what struck me about this article – and prompted me to write this piece – was the idea that in order for a musician, or for any project that requires a crowd, customer or audience support, to make it requires approximately 1,000 true fans.
True fans are people who are devoted enough to an act that they will spend their time, money and resources in the name of the band and the musical experience. They tell their friends about what they saw and what they experienced. They support the act both financially and socially.
That’s a true fan and they can be a rare breed. More on that in a bit.
If you’ve played a live show, you’ve likely experienced two different kinds of people: people in a room and fans. The fans are those who came out of their way to listen to your music.
People-in-the-room is everyone else. They might be the other people who are waiting for another act to show up, they might be people who happen to be at the venue, bar or theater for another reason and have another agenda that does not involve listening to your music.
Fans are people who will go above and beyond paying lip service by following you on Facebook and Twitter and never coming to another show.
People in a room are listeners who might wind up liking you on Facebook and that is the extent of their activity. Fans are the ones who are the ones who your music spoke to. They are the ones who will tell other people about your music, will come out to see your shows and will spread your music organically.
The greatest acts of all time got to be the greatest acts because of true fans. I am certain that we are true fans of at least one major act. Rush, Frank Zappa, Phish – these are just some of the acts whose merchandise including
- t-shirts,
- promotional tour posters,
- saved ticket stubs,
- blurry pictures or
- limited run good I won.
These are some of the acts I would tell someone about.
What are yours?
Never Satisfied With Our Fans
Whenever we get new fans – the people who buy the merchandise want to know where the next show is, want to know where they can get your music but more importantly those who tell other people about your music – we want more.
I touched on this point in an earlier post about audience building and different ways to make sure that you’re keeping those true fans as close to you as possible. It really is that important to keep those fans close, and not just to grow your band’s audience.
And true fans are very, very difficult to acquire!
Think of your life for a moment. What do you have going on in your head during a give day? A given week or month? Probably some of these things:
- Day job/2nd/3rd job
- Friends
- Family
- Our own lives
- The football game that’s on
- Bills and other payments that need to be made regularly
- Money – whether it’s a perpetual lack of or worried about future amounts
All of these things competing for our attention and taking away from our chance to find new things to become fans of – outwardly vocal, remarkable fans over.
When you put it like that – true fans are really just that rare and special!
What You Can Do?
A true fan is someone who can occur organically or someone who can occur through personal interaction.
By organically, I refer to what happens when they hear your music and make a judgement on the spot. All of us have that band. For me it was Rush. At first listen of Tom Sawyer, I was hooked. No question. A true fan was born.
Through personal interaction is on you. It’s dictated by your actions before, during and after your show.
Now – not all bands can have the same influence as Rush. About 99% of us are working on a very local level which – believe it or not – is actually an asset (something I’ll cover more in a future post)
Being local means that there is that much more of a chance for word to spread of your musical project. Granted this does not assure this – but being local does mean that word, good or bad, is more likely to spread of your project.
Now, it’s hard to say what everyones’s musical project and situation is. If you’re in a metal band, your methods and what works for you might be different than someone in a jazz group or a rock band.
Here are some points to consider to make sure that you are catering to your fans, bringing out the true fans and giving them the nurturing attention they deserve:
- Be equal parts person and entertainer. Music is entertainment and people come out to see it to be entertained. It doesn’t help anyone if the minute you and your band set foot on stage that suddenly the audience become objects who are there for you to tell to watch you.
- A method of collecting fans and identifying the true fans never hurt. People downplay the email list in 2013 as if email is going the way of the dinosaurs. I disagree wholeheartedly. Email is a different animal that still reaches people and communicates with people in a way that Facebook and Twitter can’t. Plus, there is a good chance that email will outlive social media. Email is still a very personal affair that when someone gives it to you, it should be treated like a gift. Someone trusts you enough that by giving it to you, you will be getting something of value and benefit. Not spam and nonsense. The method might vary from act to act and genre to genre, but it is important to have some method that captures people that you can cater to personally with your band, music and personality.
So that it – pretty straight forward stuff:
- Fans are very important and are more than a number. ANYONE who loves your music and your shows should be treated with care and catered to.
- There isn’t any real ‘trick’ to make it happen. Simply be a person i.e. be humble, respectful and engaging and show the crowd a good time
- Local has an advantage of better word of mouth than big time. Big acts got big by appealing locally using these points above.
I’ve stil got some additional ideas on this subject that I want to share…provided everyone wants to hear them. Shoot me a line at mike@smartbassguitar.com and let me know what you thought of this article and if you’d like to see more of this!
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