Direct To Fan Music Sales: The D2Fan Experience

April 09, 2015

In as few as the last several years the Modern Music Industry has reached a foundational maturation level and exciting practical reality for Artists and Musicians at every level.

On it’s back, the Artists revolution has ushered in a dizzying assortment of new technologies which have changed the way music is created, bought, sold, promoted, distributed, marketed and experienced. Forever. The traditional music industry evolved into the modern music business which gave birth to global connectivity, the Artists Revolution, and the direct to fan experience.

Direct To Fan Music Sales are About Delivering Unique Fan Experiences

Direct To Fan Experiences, exclusive access, and connection are the future of D2Fan Music Sales for Musicians in the Modern Music Business.

It's not much of a mystery anymore.

The connection between the artist and their fans without middle men.

Yes, the impact Direct To Fan technologies have had in empowering Artists with the tools they need has been a game-changer.

But from my vantage point, working with Independent Artists everyday-it's unfortunate to see the majority of them not truly embracing or understanding how to put those tools to work for them in the growth of their career.

With virtually nothing more than the resources you have available to you at this moment, you have all you need to attract, connect with, and convert potential fans into new, true, and super fans that love and support you for life. To create and earn a full-time living doing what you love-on your own terms. Much of which can be done automatically, in the background, through multiple revenue sources, leveraging smart technology to perpetually line potential fans up, make new sales, and deliver product-literally while you sleep, travel, play golf, chase people around or whatever else you like to do when you’re not making your music.

 How to step your D2Fan game up as a musician in the modern music business

The next step up in direct to fan music sales is more effectively utilizing the modern toolset to build and design creative experiences, authentic ways where fans can uniquely engage with you, at a level that they choose, to go down a path of experiences with you and your band-that’s right for them.

 What we call Unique Fan Experiences or Fan Experience Pathways.

 On the flip side, the modern music business puts you (the artist and musician) in the drivers seat, and allows you to structure engagement with your fans, at a level that you choose, based on your own preferences. Unique Fan Experiences enable you to more intimately interact and share the journey of your career with those that support you.

The next level is in truly embracing and integrating technology to do the cool things it can-like build relationships, sell and deliver your content automatically, find new opportunities to pitch, place, perform, as well as new players to collaborate with all over the world.

Artistic Expressions of Your Brand Experience Using The Direct To Fan Toolset

I want to remind you that you are an Artist. You are a Multi-Media Content Creator. You share your stories, your observations, your perspective, your message across platforms in the modern world.

The tools and technology require your creativity to work effectively. And the majority of independent artist websites I see every day aren't engaging me, directing my attention, or keeping me interested for very long. If every new experience a Potential Fan has with an Artist/band feels like a lifeless, generic template, how engaged do you think that person will be with your content, and how excited do you think they will be to hear from them?

 At a time when the human attention span loses to the fruit fly at a mere 8 seconds, despite our technological evolution, meaningful emotional connection-has never been in greater demand. It is sought after and bartered with in exchange for the most scarce resource in the modern music industry… Focused attention.

The Promise Of Direct-To-Fan Is Engaging Fans

The average person is CRAVING something new, exciting, something/someone that they CONNECT to, leads them or shakes things up for them and lets them see from another fresh perspective. They can go to Spotify to play music in the background of their life, they want to find and come into another interesting world, to share their journey and truly bond with an Artist like you. Are you helping them do that? When you can think without the technology as a hindrance or obstacle, and merely as extension for multi-media storytelling and 3D creation, then you are beginning to actualize your power as a Modern Musician, and harness the Modern Toolset.

More Powerful Personalization, with the capacity to scale = The Modern Music Business

Most artists think that we are only talking about one to many. Me to my entire audience, for example... But Direct To Fan Technologies actually allow us to add more personalized, 1-1 interactions and experiences that are customized to them based on their interests, behavior, and engagement level with you. Imagine how powerful it would be to have 100's of your real fans embarking on mini-little adventures (what we call Fan Experience Pathways or Sequences) with you-on your own terms, based on the level of engagement and interest they have with you! But fear not, we start small, and build our way up. Craft the experience of your content for one specific person and then go and see how they respond to it and connect with them. Keep doing that and you’ll have a strong group of core fans! See what I’m getting at here? You can take those individual fan experiences you are creating for one or a few people and then you can use technology to automate the delivery of it and now you’ve got an asset that can connect with people who resonate with that particular message/story/experience/sound from all over the world… The Modern Music Industry is just a bunch of niches and virtual neighborhoods like the following you’re building in your local community, that can 10x your fan base and still remain as personalized and intimate as you choose. This is the Grassroots approach, the savvy way to be authentic and engaging with the technology available in the modern music business. Grassroots Career Development. The Fundamentals, and dual integration of both sides-artistic and entrepreneurial-is the name of the G.A.M.E. (Grassroots Authentic Music Experience) This is how modern musicians operate at the next level.

With great power comes great responsibility

In order to enjoy the added opportunities of the brave new music business, and take the reigns of creating and delivering said direct to fan experiences of your content, we must first accept the added responsibilities of being a Musician in the Modern World. There’s inherently new skills to develop, new tools and technologies to learn, and for many, (maybe even you and I) there are some mindset shifts-to make as well. Whether you are completely DIY, or build a team to connect and pull all the pieces of the puzzle together-Success in the modern music business, is now a combination of the learned development of one’s artistic craft, in addition to their entrepreneurial skill-set, and overall creative integration… that super skill of personal resourcefulness. The equation for success in the Modern Music Business = Artistic Chops + Entrepreneurial Chops + Resourcefulness

The combination of all three are what we call the Modern Musician Skillset

All the information and all the tools are accessible to almost anyone… There is no shortage of quality content available, nor is their a barrier to learn exactly how to use them. It’s time to get more creative with the tools, with your content, with the experiences you design, and the lifestyle you create-doing what you love, on your own terms. The tools and resources are there. And like the craftsman, the builder, the gold-miner, it’s time to master the arsenal of our modern toolset.

Bigger Isn't Better, Greater is Better

It's not about vanity metrics or social tallies. It’s not about the number of followers or fans you have. It’s about the authenticity of your relationship to them: of communication, of attention, of message. As the artist you can be driving the content, designs, the experience, and the communications at all times. Smaller overall unit sales can translate to higher revenue because direct to fan technologies allow fans to pay you DIRECTLY for authentic experiences and products-most of which cost very little in manufacturing costs to you. High end bundles and mid tier offers are how modern musicians really embrace the opportunity of direct to fan marketing and distribution. Direct To Fan is about greater engagement and interactive fan experiences

Benji Rogers the founder and CEO of the crowdfunding company PledgeMusic shares a valuable story for his career that sums up much of the points and pitfalls to understand about Direct-To-Fan engagement.

I made my own CDs and sold them on the road direct-to-fan in 2000. Shortly after that, I got them up on CD Baby, and when iTunes launched, I got them there as well. I had my own website. Through my website, I communicated directly with the hardcore fans, updating them with pictures, songs and videos from the road or the studio. With the embers of MySpace still glowing and the sparks of Facebook emerging, I had an amazing home where fans could be a part of what I was doing musically. All of this was, if I'm honest, building the case for why a record label should sign me — it was out of necessity and not really out of choice. I couldn't get the mega deal I had always wanted, but I wasn't about to let that stop me. As the tools got better and some of the more established artists started to use this method, a shift in thinking began to creep in — a sense that this could become the new way of doing business for the industry as a whole. There was a sense that all you needed was a website and an email list and you could become the next Radiohead. For most artists like me, this was simply not true. To add to this, everyone started to do it. The social web was awash with what to me became a more homogenized consumer experience that dealt in fan acquisition, direct-to-consumer targeting and strategies to monetize and capture, often at the expense of any kind of fan engagement. As the labels and larger artists got involved in these ways of direct selling to fans, the experience part of the equation began to suffer. In today’s industry, every band has a website through which they offer a bunch of products. Are these considered direct-to-fan or simply consumer experiences under a friendlier name? To me, direct-to-fan is more of a process in which fans can participate. To me, the promise of direct-to-fan was one of engaging fans in a journey that led to a destination. Artists and labels leave fans on the table every day by simply offering them more ways to consume, rather than more reasons to buy, which is what the journey of direct-to-fan should really be about: process and not product, reasons and not simply ways. Fans want and deserve more than a bunch of items for sale on a website, email blasts and social networks posts about pre-orders. While all those things are good, they won’t be a game changer for most.

Artists must nurture and develop the fan relationships for long term career success

Over time your direct channels of communication can become your most valuable asset, but it won’t work as well if you ignore your fans between albums and tours.

First and foremost, you need to accurately segment your fan relationship database by the relevant group data you need to determine which level you are at in the relationships with your fan base.

Which Level of relationship you’re at with the person you’re talking to is not something most independent artists i've come across are thinking about yet, or can answer.

But let me ask you... Do you think it makes sense to distinguish between someone who's just recently signed up for your email newsletter, and communicate with them a bit differently than true fans or super fans who've been with you for years?

There is more work involved in doing this, but it is how modern musicians take their game to the next level.

Building your Relationship Database, Setting up your FEE Structure, creating your Music Marketing System..

It starts with the first Direct To Fan Experience - at the first level of engagement

and i'd recommend you begin with creating a Fan Magnet that's ready for prime time to start attracting instead of promoting. Be sure to add your voice to the conversation in the comments below! Stay Fresh, Jamie Leger The Music Business Architect for Artists & Creators Proudly Helping Hundreds of Modern Musicians liberate the music business, declare their artistic independence, and earn a full-time living doing what they love-on their own terms.

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