The Artist Rise #029
Welcome to your weekly resource for all things branding, release strategy, and overall artist development.
Every week I'll help you strengthen your artistry through sustainable strategies that will help you build your career rather than force you into burnout.
Let's get into it.
The Three Stages of Music Fandom
When it comes to the journey of a listener, the way it's painted it feels more like a lightswitch than anything.
Fan? Switch is on.
Not a fan yet? Switch is off.
But in reality, there are more than just two categories for someone to fall into.
And it's certainly not as cut and dry as some may say it is.
Let's get into it.
Stage 1: The Listener
The listener stage is the entrance point into the world of your artistry.
This is where someone discovers you on a playlist, finds you on their For You Page, or receives your song from a friend as a rec they "just HAVE to listen to".
When someone is in this stage, it's important to stay front of mind as long as you can and get them to dig a little deeper.
This is the most vulnerable of the stages, because it's easier to lose them than it is to engage them.
What do I do with this?
The listener stage is the biggest driver of why social is your biggest tool and why consistency (for content and releases) is so important.
The biggest factor that helps move them into stage two is staying at the front of their minds.
If they didn't like your song, they're already gone.
But if they vibed with it, you have to do what you can to keep them around and stay relevant to them.
Onto stage two.
Stage 2: The Follower
The follower stage is where a listener moves from just having you on their playlist to exploring your album or liking your TikTok to following your account.
The human interaction equivalent of meeting someone new, finding a thing or two in common, and saying "I could see us being friends".
This stage is a win. You got them out of the hardest phase and secured a little deeper engagement than what you had before.
They're clearly interested by being here, they're just not fully sold on you yet.
What do I do with this?
So what do we do now? We give them more and show them other sides of the artistry to expand how they can engage with us.
This is where you start to become more than just your music in their eyes.
With this stage, the best thing to do is to show more of your artistry that lives outside of the music.
You've already secured them as someone who listens to your music and is considering on being in this world you've created, so we just need to get them to sign up to being a fan.
By showing them more than music, you allow a personal connection to be made and encourage the kind of relationship a fan wants with an artist.
By being bigger than the music, you become a human, and that's deeper than any relationship a song can build.
Then they're heading right along to be your next fan.
Stage 3: The Fan
This is where we want every single person who's ever heard of us to be.
Obviously.
But this is the stage of someone who's coming to your shows, buying your merch, commenting all over your socials, engaging with you in a way that takes their own personal investment of time and/or money.
They care about you and what you create and they want to be a part of it.
Getting someone to this stage is a huge feat, especially in the current landscape of the industry.
So pat yourself on the back when you help land some people here, that's something to celebrate.
And this is of course where the fun begins and you get to build your journey with this squad in your corner.
This also opens doors to dig even more into your music and your artistry, because that's what fans really want.
What do I do with this?
When they reach the fan stage, it feels like the "work" is done. But in reality that part of the job is never done.
It just looks different.
When you think of artists your a fan of, what do you want from them?
You want more. More in both the quantity and quality sense.
You want a way to dig deeper into the songs and understand what went into them.
You want to see what their life on the road has been while they're touring.
You want to feel like you're a part of what they're doing.
So that's what you have to provide for your own audience.
Sounds like more work, but really it's just different work.
It's the most fun work of it all because it's for someone who you can truly call a fan and not some casual listener who met you on an algorithm last week.
Putting this into action
Knowing this is great, but using this to your benefit is what really matters.
At any given moment, you're going to have people in all three stages, that's to be expected.
So how do you work three different audiences at once?
With balance and strategy.
Identify how you can best speak to each stage, and then determine a balance that works for you and where you're at in your journey.
If you've got a fanbase cooking already, prioritize feeding them what they want.
If you're a few releases deep and still looking to build that up, focus on turning some listeners into people you can engage with.
This gives the clarity, but the strategy and the plan are what get the results.
Hopefully this gives you a good place to start, but if you aren't really sure where to start, let's talk. I'll help you figure it out.
Until next time,
-Ava
That's it for this week! Hopefully this helped you take the next step in developing yourself as an artist and a brand. Stay tuned for more next week.
If you have any topics you want to see more of or any questions you'd love for me to answer, simply reply to this email.
Keep learning and growing,
Ava Rose Lynch
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