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- Inside-Out: The Manifesto
Welcome, artists & builders.
It’s been nearly 2 years since Where Music’s Going last landed in your inbox (!). Today’s issue is about a new model for artist growth, inspired by what I’ve learned building Openstage.
Inside Issue #40
💡 The Inside-Out Manifesto
🛠️ The Inside-Out Playbook
Inside-Out: The Manifesto
A new model for artist growth.
I. STOP PLAYING PLATFORM GAMES
For too long, the music industry’s playbook for artist growth has been to build from the Outside-In.
Chase reach
Create for the algorithm
Hope some attention trickles down into fans
Artists are forced to spend enormous resources endlessly competing for fleeting attention. Where capturing 10 seconds of it today guarantees none tomorrow, because it’s not about you, it’s about the “content”.
And even when you win this game, you lose.
Because when you finally break through and someone clicks your post, your ad, or even your email, the playbook demands that you send them right back out to someone else’s platform where you don’t control the experience, the relationship, or what happens next.
The artist creates the demand, but someone else captures the value.
You don't know who your fans are. You don't know how much they care. You can't even see the results of all the effort you poured in because it's a black box.
Then you start all over again tomorrow.
This is playing the wrong game. The platform's game. It’s optimized for impressions, views, and streams, instead of fans who care and come back.
II. THE JOB IS TO CREATE PEOPLE WHO CARE
For the last decade, we’ve put too much into chasing attention and not enough into developing fandom. Yet the connection between artist and fan is where the value in music comes from.
And today, that relationship matters more than ever.
In a world of infinite disposable content slop, connection is at a premium. Getting views isn't enough. How do you get people to go deeper? How do you make them want to join what you're building,?
The job is no longer to generate attention at all costs. It’s to create people who care.
A community.
A devoted core.
An army of fans who care deeply.
This is the most valuable thing an artist can build today.
Even if it starts with just a hundred people. Not just because of what they're worth on their own. But because they create the energy that breaks through the noise and draws in more people who genuinely want to go deeper and become part of your world.
Fandom is no longer just the result of growth.
It’s the source of it.
III. ARTISTS NEED TO PLAY THEIR OWN GAME
They need to start building from the Inside-Out.
Instead of trying to reach everyone, start with the fans who care the most. Give them a place to belong, bring them deeper into your world, and let that deeper fandom create the gravity that pulls more people in.
Instead of building for platforms, build for your fans.
This is the new playbook for artist growth:
1) BUILD YOUR WORLD
Create a place fans can join, not just follow. A space where you control the context, distribution and the fan relationships. Where your brand is more than a profile photo on someone else’s platform.
This becomes your center of gravity.
2) BRING PEOPLE INTO IT
Every time you break through the noise, do everything you can to bring that person back to owned land. Everyone should come through your front door.
Want a ticket? Want the LP? Want to hear it first? Want the best experience?
You better come through us.
Every moment of discovery should become a direct relationship.
3) PUT YOUR FANS FIRST
Once fans are inside, overdeliver. Recognize them. Reward them. Give them moments that feel different from what everyone else gets. Every time you have something new, start with your fans, then invite the world in.
When fans see they matter, fandom deepens. And when that intensity becomes visible, it pulls new fans inward. By overdelivering for the few, you attract the many. Your fanbase becomes the engine of your growth.
New fans don’t just follow.
They want to join.
IV. IT’S TIME TO BE THE PLATFORM.
If artists want to build from the Inside-Out, they need to become the platform for their own fans.
Most tech for artists is oriented around chasing reach or monetizing superfans. They optimize for individual moments rather than the fan relationship that connects them. Billed as tools for growth, they keep artists dependent on creating the next moment instead of building a fanbase that gets stronger with each one.
Artists need infrastructure built around the fan-relationship itself.
Infrastructure that connects the fan experience with everything an artist knows about each fan, so they can recognize who’s showing up, bring them deeper, and make each new moment more valuable.
So artists can build their own platform, not someone else’s.
A place fans want to join. A relationship that grows deeper with every interaction. A fanbase that makes each new release, tour, or moment bigger than the last.
→ Build your world.
→ Bring people into it.
→ Put your fans first.
Repeat.
- Rob
🏗️ What I’ve Been Building
I’ve spent the last two years building Openstage alongside an incredible team. We’ve just launched Openstage 2.0, which gives artists the ianfrastructure to build their fanbase from the Inside-Out.
We’re lucky to help artists like Sir Paul McCartney, Oasis, Radiohead, Lana Del Ray, Lewis Capaldi, Freya Skye, and so many more put their fans first.