One of the Music Industry’s leading buzzwords for 2024 is ‘Superfan’. The great excitement around this term as many of you already know, stems from a report written and published by Goldman Sachs. I suspect the phrase that got many in the industry all flustered and weak in the knees was ‘…a potential addressable market opportunity of $4.5bn for superfan monetisation’.
That buzzword(s) was quickly followed by a phrase, ‘Super Serving’ and has been bandied about in the industry now like some sort of definitive noun, as if representing some easily qualifiable thing.
The problem is, fandom and so called ‘Super fandom’ is anything but definitive. The inconvenient truth is that, as much as many would like to say otherwise, fandom is not a constant in definition, from one artist to another.
It’s caused many in the industry to proclaim the ‘Superfan’ as core to future strategy, triggering key acquisitions, the commissioning of ‘Apps’ and lots and lots and lots of talk. And yet, throughout all this talk the fundamentals of fandom are never discussed.
Fandom is based on a deep emotional and psychological connection, one that is complex, shaping attitudes, cultural codes, values and dictating behaviours. It's a unique relationship because from one artist to another, or one country to the next, these unique dynamics of Artist-Fan connection will differ. Sometimes, greatly.
The challenge to understanding this differing dynamic is that from within the music business, we have a distorted view of the real lives of fans. And no amount of transactional data can reveal or explain the psychological, emotional or irrational reasons for a fan's connection with an artist.
Artists work extremely hard, over a long period of time to build the unique relationship that they have with their fans. Critically, this unique, emotive fan dynamic is worth so much more to the artists ongoing career, than clumsily squeezing a few more dollars out of them today to hit some quarterly target.
The simple truth is that there is not a ‘one size fits all’ answer to ‘super serving the superfan’ as there is not one singular superfan behaviour. What drives their higher levels of consumption is unique to each individual artist. So be very careful and wary about any service or application that claims to offer a ubiquitous Superfan solution for all.
However, there are ways to gain greater insight and clarity to the dynamic of your artists super fandom. Look, I know that many of you appreciate the importance of this stuff, but across the music business, people are being asked to deliver more with less. Almost all the managers amongst you, are busy dealing with the day-to-day. Many of you tell me that you’re also having to pick-up a lot of the work that the record company used to cover.
The good news, it’s possible to set up and manage infrastructure that gives you an ongoing understanding of what your fanbase thinks, feels and desires. This is so much more than just what they did! Most importantly, with where the music biz finds itself today, there are solutions and partnerships that enable you and your artist to get support that takes the burden away from you. Support that can then turn your understanding of your fans into commercial initiatives. Meaning you can focus on the day-to-day.
We'll review and expand over the coming newsletters, however do contact us if you want to find out more, now.
Till next time.
Philip & Team Sound Effects