In a world where streaming can ensure a spot on the charts for an artist, fan engagement is more important than ever. Without fans, artist teams would not have the funding that comes from record, merch, and ticket sales. The artist-to-fan relationship is extremely mutual, with the artist giving the fans content and the fans showing their appreciation with revenue and support. Fans crave the feeling of a one-on-one connection with the artist to form meaningful relationships that benefit both the fan and the artist themselves!
At With The Band, our team is dedicated to forming communities of fans for specific artists. We are a fan engagement platform that helps fans and artists feel a part of something bigger than themselves. Our company is a place where fans can go to share their opinions about music and form connections with other fans who have similar interests. Being a fan is as much of a joy as it is to be an artist at times and fans are such a great support to the success of an artist.
The band BTS, for example, has an extremely dedicated fan base called the “ARMY” who stream the band’s songs like clockwork and spend large amounts of time and money fueling their love for the band. This energy and effort from fans resulted in the band landing at number one on the Billboard charts. By streaming their new songs multiple times, fans have actually helped to boost the statistics and send BTS into absolute stardom. The fans have bought billboards, planted trees, and have been very active on social media. They are a dedicated group!
What can this example mean for other artists who are trying to have that powerful of a force behind them? Let’s dive deeper into how every member of an artist’s team can benefit from a good relationship with fans.
- Music Manager
The artist’s personal manager makes many of the large decisions in the career of the artist, and they are very invested in the creative vision. Fan engagement is especially important for personal managers to see where their artist is popular, so they can take action with partnerships in that area. Fans can give a lot of feedback about the creative aspects of an artist life that may inspire the artist and the personal manager. Twitter is a great example of how fans give feedback to artists. Managers are also interested in building the “brand” of the artist, so a certain target audience could reflect this and help managers see similarities between an artist and their fan base that they wouldn’t have seen before. An artist’s following on social media is also a great help for the manager to get an artist noticed at major companies.
- Live Agent
Fans are essential to the work of a live agent. Agents are responsible for booking the artist for live performances. Large fan bases in certain areas can give the live agent a good idea on where to book the artist for tour dates. The agent also handles ticketing, which creates a good amount of revenue for artists. So, thank you fans! Artists are so much more successful because of the financial support from ticket sales.
- Publicist
The job of a publicist includes creating visual content for an artist and creating opportunities to get the artist’s name out there. They pitch information about the artist to larger publications, so the artist’s story is heard. These stories are delivered directly into the hands of the fans, so the popularity of these stories about the artist is based on how frequently fans view and share the content about the artists. Fans are essentially messengers who take information shared by the publicist and spread it around!
- Music Publisher
The role of the music publisher is essentially to collect royalties from any area possible. They are involved in pitching the artist’s music to radio, film, foreign countries, etc. The publisher’s job is also to sell records of the artist’s music. The fans are the backbone of this job. Fans are the ones who stream the music, watch the movies, and buy the records. The streams and financial support from fans in this area is a huge game changer for publishers.
- Lawyer
A lawyer’s job is to make sure that all contracts are fair when the artist is first starting out with a management team. They also ensure that all royalties are collected, and all music is protected. Fans play a role in this by defending the artists if they notice someone has unfairly used their music. Fans can locate illegal activity much quicker than a lawyer can! Fans can also make sure that they are correctly purchasing an artist’s music, so that the artist and their team are fairly compensated.
Fans are a huge part of an artist’s team, they are the ones who take in all of the content from the artist, whether that be promotional stories, music, videos, etc. Fans make the content a part of their lives, and an artist needs a team in order to make sure that every fan feels heard and appreciated. Fans contribute a tremendous amount of support financially, creatively, and promotionally which is why it is so important for artists to understand their fan bases and connect with them!
With The Band is a fan engagement platform that helps fans and artists feel a part of something bigger than themselves. We have created many projects for artists such as The Jonas Brothers and Kacey Musgraves. At our company, fans are able to connect with one another and engage with the artists they admire. Follow us at @withtheband on Instagram and Twitter!
