Season 2, Ep.13: 1,000 True Fans--The Market Has Changed

In the last episode of Left Of Nashville, Brent Baxter talked about how everything has changed in this age of Spotify as it pertains to publishing deals in Nashville. Songwriters are either hugely successful or they don’t make enough to live on. There is no middle ground.

The internet has fragmented everything. It is easier than ever to get our music produced and out to the world. And that means there is more music than ever available for consumption. AND that means people’s attention spans are even shorter. This is an on-demand economy. If people want psychedelic polka music in today’s world, they can find it. 

The market has changed. It just has. And outside of getting hits on country artists or having a slash in your title, I don’t have a solution for the Nashville-only songwriter. So this episode is for the independent artists who want to put their music out themselves.

In 2008, Kevin Kelly of Wired Magazine posted a blog entitled ‘1,000 True Fans’ that went viral. It is still quoted today and in my opinion was the catalyst that empowered tons of people (myself included) to become creative entrepreneurs.

A True Fan is a fan who will purchase everything you produce. If you could get 1,000 fans who would spend $100.00 per year with you, that's a $100,000 yearly income.

So here are some things to consider if you want to go this route:

1) Aloof, brooding, pretentious singer-songwriters need not apply. You must interact with your fans. Be a human being. I know that there has been a marketing strategy for years from record labels that artists should distance themselves from their fans to add mystique, but I believe those days are over. People want to connect. And now that connecting is just a “reply” button away, ignoring your supporters is the fastest way to become a douche nozzle in their eyes. Authenticity is the name of the game.

2) You are going to have to put out content for your audience to spend $100.00 a year with you. You are going to have to produce music and merchandise to make this work. This is what I have been working on starting with the Left Of Nashville EP. But I’m going to have to produce more than four songs to get to 100.00. I want T-shirts for the podcasts, stickers, music. But this takes time and work. Lots of work.

3) You have to build a fanbase in the first place. And this will take time. And again, you will have to release content to start building a fanbase. So, put stuff out as often as you can. You can’t wait until you have a $100.00 worth of product to deliver if you have no one to deliver it to. So this will be a slow build of releasing content and getting the word out. Then do it again. And again. Eventually, the snowball will grow and you will have both an impressive body of work and enough people that will want to consume it. That’s my theory anyway. And that’s exactly what I’m in the middle of doing right now. 

1,000 True Fans-Kevin Kelly

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