Building an Engaged Fanbase: Strategies for Musicians to Connect, Grow, and Monetize Their Audience
One of the most sought-after careers for musicians is producing music as a profession. Selling music is a fantastic way to earn a living by doing what you enjoy, whether it's your full-time job or a profitable side hustle.
However, there are no guarantees when it comes to making money with music. The idea of a successful music career just isn't worth the danger for many artists.
Developing an engaged audience is one of the most crucial aspects of a successful music career. Continue reading to discover how to attract a following that will support your musical endeavors financially while also sharing in your achievements.
Connecting
You must build your audience before you even think of monetizing anything. The best way to do this is to set up spaces online where people can easily find you and your music.
Make a Personal Artist Website
You should begin by creating your own webpage for your band. All of your efforts to promote your music center on your website. It acts as the basis for your online persona as well as the location where you save everything related to your music.
Additionally, all of the new followers you acquire due to your music marketing efforts will be directed to your website. Then you have a foundation to offer merchandise or other items for sale to your audience.
Start a YouTube Channel
Launching a YouTube channel is one of the best things that you can do as a musician to promote yourself. Regarding discoverability, YouTube is unmatched; it can help you connect with millions of listeners and grow your own following without much monetary investment.
Create a YouTube channel for yourself first, then add some channel art and a great profile photo to complete your profile.
Start releasing music videos after that. To increase your audience, we advise posting cover songs first (famous songs by established artists receive millions of searches each month, making it simpler for listeners to find your channel). Ideally, you should focus on songs that have recently become trendy and extremely popular.
Establish Music Social Media Accounts
In the past, music fans preferred their favorite musicians to remain enigmatic and distant; today, we need 24/7 access to the performers we like. Where are you, what are you doing, and what motivates you right now? We use social media to do our research.
An upcoming artist might benefit greatly from having a sizable (and expanding) social media following on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Musicians frequently generate social media buzz before receiving widespread recognition.
You may build a fan base around your work by interacting with followers on social media, advertising your music, or releasing new tour dates.
Growing
Once you have established spaces for your fans to find you, you want to start growing those spaces with more fans!
Create a Mailing List
A crucial yet surprising marketing avenue for artists is email marketing. By adding an opt-in box and encouraging website visitors to subscribe to your newsletter, you can utilize your website as a tool to grow your email list.
After that, you can start sending emails to your mailing list of subscribers to deepen your relationship with them and gain their support over time. You may also distribute email blasts every time a new song or album is launched to get traction.
An email newsletter platform can streamline the process for the design and delivery of newsletters, the construction of email opt-in forms and landing pages, and the planning and automation of your email marketing.
Pitch Media Outlets with Your Music
Reaching out to people and magazines with active followings makes sense, as the main objective of your music marketing is to expose your music to new listeners.
Your ability to pitch to different businesses will probably rely on the kind of music you produce. It most likely won't work out if you're the next great thing in the rock scene, but your local radio station only plays hip-hop.
However, generally speaking, you should try contacting:
- Blogs for music and lifestyle
- Local press, local radio, and playlist curators for national radio
- Unauthorized Spotify curators
Giveaways
Giveaways are a fantastic method to grab attention. It's even better to match your freebies to your music and business. If you give out things that no one wants, it will be less enticing. We suggest artists provide giveaways once a month during live streams and with each new release.
Monetizing
Once you have completed the difficult process of gaining and growing your audience, you can finally start to think of monetizing your following.
Membership-Based Content
As long as you have high participation from your followers, you might think of starting a subscription after you have anywhere between 5000 on social media and 2500 on your email list. Most musicians offer monthly memberships ranging from $1 to $10. Don't start unless you are ready and have a following since you'll need to provide intriguing material and live events that only your members get!
The variety of exclusive content that may be provided depends on the artist and their own ingenuity. Several instances include:
- Exclusive entry to recordings, rehearsals, and performances
- Free music downloads and premium albums
- Videos and films showing the artist's creative process in the background
- Live sessions with questions and answers
Sell Merchandise
The sale of apparel is one of the oldest and most successful strategies for monetizing a musician's musical brand and generating additional revenue. T-shirts, hats, stickers, mugs, and other things with the artist's name or emblem can all be considered merchandise. These goods can be purchased in physical stores, online, and during performances.
In addition to helping musicians increase their revenue, merchandise fosters and maintains a tighter bond with their audience. Fans may express their support in a concrete way and feel more connected to their favorite artists by buying items.
Final Thoughts
Making music that people want to hear is the most important thing an artist can do. You can use the aforementioned music marketing techniques to stand out and attract attention, but in the end, your career will be most significantly impacted by the caliber of your music.
