Now is the time to build a bigger fan base. With the world at a standstill and the music and event industry being hit mercilessly, panic may be your first reaction. While well-known DJs and artists with high wages hopefully still have a savings account for difficult times, it is mainly the emerging or line-up supporting professional artists who are experiencing financial difficulties due to the large amount of cancellations and advanced releases.
There is necessarily only one direction you can take as an artist in this case, and that is forward. Now is the time to invest in things that may not have gotten your attention before because you were too busy performing and recording sessions. Now is the time to build your fan base. Together with our marketing brother REACTIVATORS , we have worked out some tips and examples that will hopefully provide you with inspiration to get back to work.
Work on your content
We probably don’t need to explain to you how important content is to building a relationship with your fans. With good content you become more visible and you can build new fan relationships.
You may think that creating content is difficult because you don’t (yet) have music to share.
In this case, it’s not always about your music. Your followers want to see your ‘real’ me. Show what you are also interested in: film your cooking skills, introduce your dog, give book tips, write that blog, show how well you can keep up, etc.
Your followers don’t just check your posts for music; above all they want to be entertained. Short, quick, and then they move on to the next post. Make sure you catch their attention.
Make videos or start streaming
It now seems that all DJs are streaming live sets on social media, which may make this seem like an open goal. Still, this is a good way to keep in touch with your followers. You stand out with a distinctive live stream. For example, Groove Safari recorded a set on a ruin in Valkenburg and even made the newspaper with it.
This tip therefore especially applies to musicians who can build a track in no time: something that is visually interesting to see. See if you can make connections with colleagues: not only is collaboration inspiring, it also ensures that you can benefit from each other’s network. Put your ego aside, we have to get through this period together.
For example, LoMalo started The Homework Club, where he invites new musicians every few days to work together. In this way a series with nice music is created in a short time, which has ensured that his fan base steadily grows and returns to his pages.
Reply to your followers!
If someone on the street says hello, you say hello back. If not, you’re a blunt dog. Unfortunately, we still see often enough that artists do not respond to followers who post comments under their content. If you are one of these, we would like to urge you to respond anyway! Not just with a simple emoji, but with a personal message: “Thanks Ellen, great for sharing my record!”
You turn an interested person into a fan in this way, you turn a fan into a super fan. Super fans will be the first to stream your new records, come to your gigs, buy merchandise and tell their friends how cool you are. Responding to social media is the first and most important step in connecting with your target audience. This way you ensure that, when everything is over, your popularity has grown and you are more interesting to book.
Release those demos!
One of the few beautiful things about this time is that everyone is forced to live in the moment. In this situation, people do understand that if you release something ‘in the moment’, it may not immediately have the level of quality that they are used to from you. For example, the difference in quality may be due to the fact that you cannot have your tracks mastered.
You probably have mountains of demos of old tracks that you normally wouldn’t release. Now you can, thanks to this crisis. A lot of demo albums by established artists have been released on Spotify in recent weeks, clearly indicating the period in which these tracks were recorded.
If you’d rather not, release the demos under an alter ego, or offer them to a royalty-free website so video editors can use them as background music in productions. Every stream and every euro is one.
Do major maintenance on your profiles
Apply your new press photo everywhere, rewrite your bio, adjust your house style, claim your Apple Music profile, update the Spotify playlists: you name it. Every musician has a list of things that still need to be done. You now have the time. Use these.
On the other hand, this can also be the phase in which you invest in channels that were not so interesting before. Could your Instagram use a boost? Invest time in finding and following potential fans. Make sure you actually get in touch with them (see also: Respond to your followers!)
Does your fan base mainly consist of young people? Invest in TikTok. More and more music is reaching the charts via TikTok. For example, Rowen Reecks recently went viral on TikTok with a video where he placed himself in a Justin Bieber video. But even if you don’t have green screen or editing skills: it’s all about your own creativity. You have enough, right?
More info? Contact us!
Together with our marketing brother REACTIVATORS we have years of experience in marketing artists and events. Now we offer (online) sessions and advice where we look at your artist profiles together and help you build a bigger fan base. Contact us for more information.