“Let us be happy while we're still young…”
This week Goldman Sachs updated their $4B “superfan monetisation” forecast to $4.3B, citing premium tiers like Tencent’s Super VIP model as the way forward. Once again, the conversation is headed straight toward how much more we can charge fans, rather than how much more we can connect with them.
So, before we all sprint off chasing price elasticity models and product bundles, it’s worth revisiting this: a reminder that superfans aren’t just wallets, they’re the emotional infrastructure of the music business. And if you burn them out, you burn the whole house down.
Here's what we wrote last week, before the update. It’s even more relevant now
“Superfans aren’t cows. They’re catalysts. But if we keep milking them like cash machines, we’ll miss the real opportunity.”
Here at Sound Effects Towers, we’re still amazed every time we read or hear another exec talk about “super-serving the superfan,” because what follows is usually some version of:
“Let’s flog more stuff to the fans already buying everything.”
It’s…wild, because somehow, that one Goldman Sachs stat, that superfans could unlock $4B+ in additional music revenue, just got taken at face value. And we mean very literally. As in: “turn up the dial and bleed the biggest fans dry”. But here’s the thing, the true interpretation of the phrase just seems to have been lost on the wider market. It’s a concern, because the true meaning is core to the ongoing development of artists careers and the wider music business.
“YOU DON’T BUILD GAME-CHANGING STRATEGIES BY READING HEADLINES...”
As an insight professional or strategist, you’re trained not to take things at face-value. You don’t build game-changing strategies by reading headlines, you unpack them, dissect them. You go deeper than the topline until you understand not just what’s being said, but what’s behind it and why it matters.
Real innovation comes from lateral thinking, from reframing the problem, understanding the emotional drivers behind it, and seeing the opportunity in places others overlook. That $4B stat wasn’t an instruction to upsell diehards. It was a flashing beacon saying:
“The deeper emotional connection fans have to artists holds untapped strategic value. Go find it. Nurture it. Activate it.”
And that’s exactly what we’ve built Sound Effects to do.
“IT’S TAKEN YEARS TO BUILD - BLOOD, SWEAT, TEARS. (NOT TIERS!)”
Here’s the problem: Most superfans are already spending 70% more than the rest. And yet, the default “strategy” is to try to get more from the same people, using the same tactics, with diminishing returns. At best, it’s just lazy commercial planning, at worst it's a short-term cash-grab risking a long-term disaster. The relationship between an artist and their most devoted fans is valuable. It’s taken years to build - blood, sweat, tears. (not tiers!)
“WE DON’T SEE SUPERFANS AS A REVENUE TAP. WE SEE THEM AS CULTURAL NITRO-GLYCERINE”
At Sound Effects, we interpreted “super serving the superfan,” differently. It just seemed…well…logical. But then, we’ve spent years working with fans, up close. Listening, testing, understanding the weird, irrational, brilliant reasons people become superfans in the first place.
We don’t see superfans as a revenue tap. We see them as cultural nitro-glycerine. Handled right, they can ignite everything else. Ignite growth in all its forms and in turn extend reach. Our approach to ‘superfandom’ is completely different:
· We protect it.
· We reward it.
· We weaponize it
Not to exploit, but to scale. To pull new fans in and to drive smarter strategy. To grow the whole thing, without burning out the people who loved you first. That's the difference. One path gets you a sugar rush (a handful of great quarterly profits calls). The other gets you a sustainable business built on genuine connection.
That’s also why we’ve built THE SUPERFAN ENGINE, our platform for turning emotional insight into actual growth. Not just more clicks, but more connection, more conversion, and more commercial upside. And not just for superfans, but for casual fans, lapsed fans and potential fans.
Because for us, “super-serving” means weaponizing fandom to unlock:
· Growth in the fanbase
· Growth in interaction
· Growth in reach
· Growth in revenue
And not through guesswork. Through listening to fans, to artists, and to the emotional drivers that make people care enough to tattoo a lyric on their arm.
If you want to stop squeezing and start scaling? We should talk.
Till next Time...