I recently read a blog posted by Kevin Kelly called 1000 True Fans. It has been widely heralded and blogged about (from an industry that I’m barely on the fringe of as of late) and because it was posted back in March, I feel like I missed out on the boat. However, it’s a pretty brilliant article.
It talks about succeeding in the new digital age as an artist by finding and nurturing 1000 True Fans to support your art. If each of them spends $20/year supporting your art, then that’s $20,000 that you can apply towards making a living. Now, Kelly used 1,000 fans to describe any type of artist and for a painter that charges $100 for her paintings, obviously her income is much larger. Musician Scott Andrew cites similar notions in his blog talking about 5000 fans, which seems like an enormous number but it’s ATTAINABLE. If you can get 5000 fans that will continually spend just $10/year on your recordings or coming out to see you or on other merchandise, that’s $50,000 right there.
I hate to talk about something so blatantly financial on this blog but it’s something that every musician has to consider. The idea of building up a fan base (though no where near celebrity or being a ‘hit’) is a way to realistically find a way to make a reasonable living as a musician.
Those two articles above stated it way better than I could state it so please check those out and I’ll keep this entry short.
PS—I don’t have anywhere near 1000 True Fans but the secret is to nurture your passive fans into True Fans and now I at least have a goal.
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