- Where Music's Going
- Posts
- Fan Lifetime Value
Fan Lifetime Value
PLUS: Web3 storytelling, Superfans generate all the income, & music NFTs as 'just another format'
Rob Abelow
April 07, 2023
Hey there, you're reading Where Music's Going.
If you want to join 3,328 artists & builders learning how to navigate music's new future, subscribe below.
Welcome, artists & builders.
Each week, I'll cover new tools & strategies to form better connected audiences. Today we get into the metrics of fandom.
Inside Issue #5:
💡 Context: Fan value calculator
🦁 In The Wild: Storytelling through web3
📊 Numbers: Superfans pay for everyone
⚒️ Toolbox: Collectibles as new format
Measuring Fandom
Turn listeners into fans.
Fans into super-fans.
Create a tribe.
It sounds obvious, but I'm surprised how few seem to prioritize this path.
Perhaps it's those ever-visible numbers measuring us against everyone else that override our better judgment: Monthly Listeners, Likes, Stream Counts.
We've become obsessed with these numbers.
But they are often hollow.
This is why we are seeing artists go viral on TikTok or Spotify, yet no one shows up to the shows. They don't really care. It's disposable. It sits within some playlists or their feed --- content serving its purpose.
They aren't fans. Not of the artist. They may not even remember the artist's name.
Vanity metrics show us tons of hearts, but not the size of them. A stream is a stream, a listener is a listener.
But it’s intensity that creates sustainability.
HOW DO WE MEASURE INTENSITY?
Measurements can vary in importance from artist to artist:
Email Subscribers
Ticket Sales
Vinyl Sales
Collectors
Community Members
These are much better. But, what about something with a more holistic view?
New Fandom Metrics
Let’s borrow from the startup world. I’ve adjusted Customer Lifetime Value to create 2 music-oriented metrics:
Fan Lifetime Value (FLV) - The average revenue a fan is expected to provide over their fandom lifetime.
Total Fan Value (TFV) - Total revenue your audience is expected to provide over their fandom lifetime.
FLV helps you understand your most impactful fans. TFV helps you understand your audience balance.
These metrics illuminate fandom & give artists a better understanding of their business, incentivizing better fan-building behavior.
Stop chasing big, empty numbers.
Start building meaningful ones.
— Rob
How do you calculate these? I’ve created a calculator for subscribers to use:
IN THE WILD
Using Web3 to Build a World
Can we reimagine storytelling around music?
Jagwar Twin set out to do just that with Hall of Mirrors, a digital universe to discover his music, his consciousness & yourself.
THE PREMISE: The Hall of Mirrors is a universe built out of Jagwar Twin’s uploaded consciousness by his AI Saravi. Enter with your master key: a free, composable 'crown' NFT that dynamically changes with your engagement. Discover free 1/1 artifacts by unlocking codes within the project lore, each opening a new room in the hall for everyone.
WHY: To explore and experiment with the way artists & fans build mutual incentives to grow community in the modern music industry.
OBJECTIVES:
Experiment
Drive excitement around new music
Build a bridge for fans to enjoy Web3
Create "proof of fandom" to understand the who, what & when of all fans
It appears the hall experiment is just beginning, with more to come. All built in conjunction with design studio CTHDRL
RESULTS:
3,572 unique collectors
80% web3-native, 20% web2 fans
1 fan discovered & collected 50+ artifacts
Fans loved the chase —> free 1/1 collectibles are a strong driver to move fans into web3.
IN NUMBERS
On average, 1.9% of an artist’s fans generated 42% of their income for the artist’s who earned more in Soundcloud’s fan powered royalty model.
Quality over quantity.
Just Another Album Format
Web3 music offerings are new & can be intimidating.
One way to simplify the concept is by presenting digital collectibles alongside other release formats within a typical release workflow.
Two platforms to highlight working on this:
Serenade offers digital pressings as another release format right next to vinyl & CDs. Pressings include digital downloads & bonus content. Plus, they are UK & AUS chart-eligible & play well with labels & publishers.
Supercollector Release (coming soon) enables artists to release albums to web3 that can be collected as individual tracks or as a bundle. (Typically, music NFTs don’t have this functionality). All as unlimited editions at a fairly standard price point. The idea is to have artists upload to Release side by side with Bandcamp.
Big Picture: In the near-ish future, most songs will have a digital collectible component. The pipeline just needs to get a little cleaner.
Headline Tours
I’ll leave you with..
See you next week. In the meantime, catch you on twitter: @abelowrob.
Was this forwarded to you? Sign up here.
DM ideas & tools on Twitter. Or reply here.
How was this week's email? |