Philip Burrows
A Billion-Dollar Miss, Because They Didn’t ...

Goldman Sachs. Citigroup. Barclays, all confidently modelled the future of music…and all completely wrong. Meanwhile, fans quietly built a billion-dollar resurgence right under their noses. A story proving that if you don’t understand fans…you won’t see what’s coming next. New edition of the Superfan Formula

Philip Burrows
“MEET FANS WHERE THEY ARE!" BUT THEN WHAT?

The phrase “meet fans where they are” is thrown around a lot in the music industry, but rarely understood. This edition of The Superfan Formula explores what it really means, why tiered monetisation misses the point, and how to use attitudinal insight to scale emotional connection and build a fanbase that lasts.

“MEET FANS WHERE THEY ARE!" BUT THEN WHAT?
Philip Burrows
PUTTING THE WORD ‘STRATEGY’ AFTER THE WORD ...

Everyone’s talking about “super-serving superfans” but no one’s asking what’s the actual plan? Strategy isn’t slapping “digital” in front of a campaign—it’s understanding what your artist means to fans, and where they’re going long-term. If you’re still throwing spaghetti at TikTok and calling it a strategy, it’s time to read this.

PUTTING THE WORD ‘STRATEGY’ AFTER THE WORD ‘DIGITAL’ DON’T MAKE IT STRATEGY, MATE!
Philip Burrows
WE SAW THE FUTURE…APPARENTLY SOME DID’NT LISTEN

A decade ago, we predicted how streaming would reshape music — and we were half-right. The industry embraced track-based strategy but ignored the need to build enduring artist brands. Now, labels lean on catalogue, artist development has stalled, and WHY data is more essential than ever. Time to rethink. #superfans

WE SAW THE FUTURE…APPARENTLY SOME DID’NT LISTEN

Fan Strategy

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SFF50: WHY CRM CAN'T FIND YOUR NEXT GENERATION OF FANS.

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YOUR NEXT FANS AREN’T IN YOUR CRM.

  • They haven’t bought anything.

  • They haven’t joined the mailing list.

  • They haven’t clicked, followed, registered or attended.

  • They may not even know that the artist is relevant to them yet.

That makes them invisible to almost every fan system the music business currently uses.

A CRM is immensely useful once somebody has entered the relationship. It cannot identify the people outside it, or explain what might bring them in.

If growth is the objective, that is a fairly significant blind spot. This edition of The Superfan Formula examines what CRM can do, what it cannot do and why finding future fans requires a different kind of insight.

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SFF49: YOUR SINGLE CUSTOMER VIEW STILL DOESN’T SHOW THE WHOLE PERSON

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Hold up, hold up!! We need to pause for the briefest of moments and think about something slightly nonsensical.

Music is among the most personal and powerful of all art forms. It soundtracks the highs and lows of human experience. Sport is much the same: the irrational adoration of a team seemingly incapable of winning.

Emotion. Identity. Memory. Belonging.

Yet the principal systems we use to profile the 'identifiable fan' cannot capture, analyse or explain the basis of that human connection.

They can connect every stream, click, purchase, ticket and interaction. Brilliant. Valuable. Technically impressive.

But the technology can connect the evidence. It cannot make the human meaning appear.

And if the person has never purchased, registered, attended, downloaded or joined? They are not an incomplete record. They are completely invisible.

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SFF48: YOUR CRM IS NOT YOUR FAN STRATEGY

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The platform is sophisticated. The segmentation is impressive. The automation is powerful. - CRM Can Manage Fan Data. It Can’t Explain Why Fans Care.

Then comes the revealing question: “So, what are you actually doing with it?” If the answer is eleven or twelve predominantly transactional emails each year, an extraordinary CRM can quickly become a very expensive mailing list.

Technology can distribute and scale communication. It cannot create the fan relationship - or the strategy - on its own.

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YOU CAN OWN THE DATA AND STILL MISUNDERSTAND THE FAN

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Owning fan data matters. But possessing the record of someone’s behaviour is not the same as understanding the person.

The fan who spends most may not be the most passionate. The supporter who attends least may be making the greatest sacrifice. And some of your most influential advocates may barely appear in your database at all.

Article 47 of The Superfan Formula asks a deceptively simple question: what do you actually understand when you ‘own’ the fan data?

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AN AUDIENCE IS NOT A COMMUNITY. AND A COMMUNITY IS NOT A FAN STRATEGY.

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There’s a growing consensus across music - and increasingly sport - that we need to build stronger, more direct relationships with fans. I agree completely, but we also need to be much more precise about what we mean.

An audience is not automatically a community.

A database is not automatically an owned relationship.

A group of highly engaged consumers is not automatically a fan strategy.

And calling something a community does not make it one.

Not every fan wants the same relationship. Some want access. Some want recognition. Some want to participate, create or advocate. Some simply want to listen, attend and remain quietly loyal for decades.

That does not make them less passionate. Although many of the engagement metrics we use to judge fandom would suggest otherwise.

This week’s edition of The Superfan Formula distinguishes between six things that are related - but absolutely not interchangeable.