Business News Education & Events The Great Escape 2014

The direct-to-fan model under the spotlight at The Great Escape

By | Published on Thursday 3 April 2014

Building A Fan Business

Amongst the six half-day insight strands that will be presented by CMU Insights as part of The Great Escape this May are two focused on the new fan-centric music industry, and how artists and their business partners can use the direct-to-fan relationship and the mountains of data enabled and delivered by the web to build a new kind of artist business.

Explaining the thinking behind the ‘Building A Fan Business’ and ‘New Product Strategies’ strands, CMU Business Editor and Insights Director Chris Cooke says: “For all the hype and debate around downloads and streaming – both of which will play a key role in the future of the record industry – to just focus on iTunes and Spotify and their competitors is to overlook the real revolution that the web has caused in music. And that revolution is all about direct-to-fan”.

He goes on: “And that doesn’t just mean a web-store selling t-shirts. Direct-to-fan is a new way of doing and structuring business in music. Prior to the web artists didn’t really know who their fans were – in fact neither did the labels and promoters – retail and ticketing companies had the direct connection to consumers. But today that’s all changed. Artists and their business partners can engage with a significant number of fans directly, which provides one massive opportunity: the ability to properly service core fanbase”.

‘Building A Fan Business’ at The Great Escape on 8 May will look at what it means to be a fan, the fan journey, and how fanbases can be segmented. Case studies will show how music marketing should be increasingly focused on moving fans from discoverer to devotee, while data crunchers will discuss how analytics can help in that process. And, as strand concludes, the big question: where does the label fit into all this? The CMU Insights team will propose that labels have a core role to play, as direct-to-fan strategists and managers.

But once you’ve started to build a direct-to-fan business, and you’re ready to excite and do business with core fanbase, what are you going to sell them beyond the basic album, gig and t-shirt? This is where the ‘New Product Strategies’ strand on 9 May comes in, with a plethora of great ideas for new products, experiences and services artists can offer their fans, utilising their musical content, performances, visuals and trademarks. Plus there will be tips on how artists, managers and labels can work out what will work with their audience.

More information about these two insight strands is online now – ‘Building A Fan Business’ and ‘New Product Strategies’ – and look out for full speaker line-ups right here very soon. Oh, and don’t forget to buy your delegates pass here.



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