MBW Views is a collection of op/eds from eminent music business folks… with one thing to say. The next MBW op/ed comes from Dan Goldberg, a fan engagement professional with 20+ years of expertise on the intersection of tradition, commerce, and neighborhood throughout the music, leisure, and sports activities industries. Goldberg, who has a background in leisure legislation, beforehand led world e-commerce, CRM, tour merchandising, and VIP experiences at Warner Music Group, and later launched the music and leisure division at Fanatics, the place he spearheaded collaborations between artists and main sports activities manufacturers. Goldberg says that over the course of his profession, he has delivered “greater than $1 billion in income by means of talent-first technique and cultural commerce”.
The music business and its prognosticators love to speak about superfans. From executives and traders to analysts and artists, everyone seems to be speaking about them nonstop.
We’re designing apps round them and designing optimized funnels to squeeze each final greenback out of them. There may be, nonetheless, little question that superfans are the holy grail. They spend extra. They purchase each vinyl variant, the pennant, and VIP bundle.
This isn’t a brand new idea, it simply grew to become a buzzword that went business viral throughout Covid. Was it every part coming to a halt that made folks notice it’s essential really have interaction followers in a deliberate and significant manner? The truth is that superfans have all the time been essential to artists. And, let me be clear from the beginning – with out unbelievable music, none of this issues, even with essentially the most elaborate storytelling.
However, the half that we appear to be forgetting is that followers don’t simply magically seem, they have to be cultivated and nourished.
And we’re not constructing them.
I imagine that the chance is to cease treating superfans because the end-all be-all, and as a substitute to assemble pathways that purchase informal followers and communities that convert them into diehards. This implies inserting extra funding within the center. Acquisition results in identification, which, if finished proper, turns into conversion.
“There isn’t a debate that superfans have all the time and can proceed to drive outsized and significant worth, however the playbook for the right way to domesticate them is just too slender.”
This latest obsession isn’t merely a distraction. It has blinded us to the bigger, and longer-term alternative: the informal fan. The one who streams a tune or stumbles upon a 15-second TikTok and thinks, “that is rad.” They’re not shopping for tickets or ready in line for merch but. However they may very well be, and we’re ignoring them.
We’re not creating actual artist worth, the long-term and scalable sort. This will’t simply be about deepening the bottom, we have to widen the attain.
There isn’t a debate that superfans have all the time and can proceed to drive outsized and significant worth however the playbook for the right way to domesticate them is just too slender. And, to be clear I’m not advocating a substitutional technique, however a complementary one.
I grew up within the hardcore scene watching this each weekend at a neighborhood VFW, or CBGBs. Hardcore is a masterclass in attracting casuals and giving them a path as a result of it’s a way of life (As an growing older grownup I nonetheless think about myself a hardcore child).
You’d hit a present as a result of your pal dragged you there, or in my days you’d get a flyer. Then you definitely’d purchase a shirt off the folding desk. Subsequent factor you already know you’re coming to each present. Begin a band, a zine, a label. It was positively inclusive but additionally constructed on identification. I used to be given the room to discover, after which bought pulled deeper once I was prepared. Hardcore demonstrates the chances that happen when identification is just not solely pure however positioned earlier than monetization.
However who’s the informal fan? There are tons of all of them in numerous levels:
- “Lean again listeners” who’re being fed music by way of algos. They obtain, they don’t search
- “Gentle followers” who observe on socials, possibly like a publish or save a tune
- “Explorers,” they pop out and in, possibly purchase a shirt
The factor is, they’re not all the identical, and we’re not assembly them the place they’re at and fascinating them. That is the place viewers segmentation is available in.
The superfan thesis is about advertising and marketing to the transformed by way of restricted merch drops, Discord invitations, unique vinyl colorways, meet-and-greets, and so on.
Superior, they usually work, however provided that you’re already on the within. The informal fan, nonetheless, is caught on the road, peeking by means of a damaged VFW window. The present dialog is totally lopsided.
So, how will we reverse-engineer this?
It has to start on the absolute high. Who’s discovering the artist for the primary time? The place are they? What indicators are they responding to? Who’s the artist and what do they stand for? This must be translated in a manner that invitations curiosity from new followers fairly than calls for loyalty.
There are a bunch of latest examples, each in and out of music, the place large attain doesn’t translate. Why? As a result of they usually don’t go slender and deep, and simply broad. Memes and moments. However, this usually doesn’t translate to ticket gross sales, merch, or long-term fandom. Why? As a result of the bridge between informal and dedicated hasn’t been constructed. The center interval, the place artist growth occurs, appears to be a misplaced artwork.
However there are present blueprints for the way it’s finished.
Tyler, The Creator perfected it by making a world round his creative imaginative and prescient – story arcs, design aesthetics, and, in his phrases, delusion. He doesn’t simply make music, he has which means. However, the unhappy actuality is that not everyone seems to be Tyler. He was genuine and cast connection, not simply product.
Grateful Lifeless are arguably the architects of superfan tradition. How did they do it? Not by gatekeeping, however by inviting. They didn’t drive fandom. They inspired buying and selling bootlegs, creating neighborhood, and finally decentralizing fandom pre-Web. That’s the factor, a lot of the present strategy is about using tech, however let’s keep in mind that it’s only a automobile, and the true work begins with a community-building philosophy. That is what creates generational industrial loyalty.
And this isn’t nearly music. It’s a sample throughout each nook of tradition.
Nike: Superfans nearly line up for the drops within the SNKRS app. Nike’s secret weapon has all the time been daring storytelling. That’s what pulls in a brand new wave of followers.
Peloton: A cult-like neighborhood that’s larger than bikes and health as a result of it was rooted in belonging.
Barbie: This wasn’t nostalgia — it was reframing tradition. It massively overperformed as a result of the movie turned skeptics into believers by nailing the candy spot between legacy, reinvention and cultural gender norms.
ECONOMICS
OK, let’s discuss economics as an example the purpose.
Say you purchase 50,000 informal followers at $3–$5 every you will have $150,000–$250,000 in acquisition prices.
For those who can then convert 3% of these to superfans, with every superfan being value $150-$300 yearly in merch, tickets, and VIP. That’s $225,000 – $450,000 in return. Break-evenish at worst. Nevertheless it compounds financially, to not point out they self-identify, market and promote the artists not solely free of charge, however are paying you to take action.
It takes a system the place, like my expertise in hardcore, commerce is identification (ironic since that neighborhood likes to faux it’s anti-commerce). Content material turns into the touchpoint, and your merch tells the story. However neighborhood doesn’t occur in a single day. It takes time, and sooner or later, it simply clicks. Followers start to self-organize, and you’ve got a platform, not only a product, as a result of they wish to really feel belonging and part of one thing.
It was once album first, tour second, and merch third (if in any respect). Then, the most effective merch corporations flipped that (e.g. Bravado) and made merch the cultural primer, the gateway drug. You put on it earlier than you already know the setlist. Now? It’s really cool to put on merch to the present. This was not all the time the case.
It’s not about massive product traces. Usually, essentially the most impactful campaigns begin easy with a decent capsule: three merchandise, one standpoint, and the imaginative and prescient to scale by means of storytelling, and never by means of surplus. It have to be cohesive to the model identification and total imaginative and prescient. The most effective artists at this have one artistic director who handles album packaging, client merchandise, tour advertising and marketing property and so on. (e.g., twenty one pilots).
The query is just not and has by no means been whether or not superfans matter. These within the artist and fan enterprise have all the time recognized this. It’s about whether or not you’re constructing the type of world that creates a curiosity that informal followers wish to step into.
Most, sadly, are usually not. However the ones which might be, nicely, they’re constructing empires. It’s not nearly proudly owning viewers and the direct-to-consumer enterprise. For those who’re severe about constructing fandom, I imply, actually severe – you possibly can’t simply double down on the diehards, it’s essential begin on the perimeters.
The longer term isn’t about chasing superfans; it’s about creating extra of them.Music Enterprise Worldwide
