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DA BLOCK'S SUMMER HIP HOP FESTIVAL 8/18 & 8/19

How much should it cost to acquire a fan and how do you know when it’s too much?

What most call “promotion” is really just another way of talking about the time, effort, and money spent acquiring fans. Aside from making great music, building an engaged fan base is probably the single most important thing you need to do as an independent musician. Only then will you have true financial independence and artistic freedom. You should change the way you think about promotion and you must invest in developing a fan base. -Mike McCready

In order to know how much you should spend to acquire a new fan (I’m talking about engaged fans, not the random Twitter follower or Facebook “liker”), you should have a rough idea how much an engaged fan is worth to you over the first year, and perhaps over the course of your career.

(Get in on the Fan Match pre-launch)

I realize that can sound unrealistic. But, while not exact, you can make some fairly easy assumptions; like what if 30% of your engaged fans buys each of your new songs or begins listening to them on heavy rotation on Spotify (or the other streaming services)? Then, what if 50% of your fans show up to at least one gig per year. What if 10% of them buy a T-shirt or some other merch item you sell? If you hone your assumptions to the point where they are somewhat accurate (is it really 30% or is it a bit more/less?), you should be able to predict with at least a little precision how much revenue you’ll generate in a given year.

While you’re doing that, you can also estimate your costs that are directly the result of having the fans (amount to make and buy the merchandise, cost of your CDs, cost of distribution to the digital platforms etc.). The amount of money you have left is your margin. As a general rule, as long as you can acquire each fan for less money than you earn on average from each fan, you’re not paying too much. This may sound cold and unlike the warm and fuzzy relationships you actually build with your fans, but this is how you must think of it because it’s your business. You must think about it kind of like you would think about any investment. But the awesome thing about this investment is you have a high degree of control over how it pays off. If you keep making good music, sell creative and quality merch and hold events which your fans can attend (and all sorts of other things), you can create a much more valuable business with fewer fans than another artist might despite having more fans.

Now, imagine you could go into a record label, a publishing company, or a group of independent investors and you were able to tell them how much it costs you to acquire each newly engaged fan and how much an engaged fan is worth.

Imagine being able to say to yourself,

“My band has 100 engaged fans.

“We net about $70 per year on average from each of our fans.

“So, right now, we have revenue of $7,000 per year.

“But, in order to pay ourselves, record the new music, buy some new equipment, and rent a touring van, we need to have $300,000 of revenue in a year.”

If you do that math, you see that you need about 4,185 more engaged fans to generate that kind of money.  What should you do? I do realize this is a simplified equation, but you get my point…

Music Xray’s new service, Fan Match was built to help answer this question.

Let’s say you invest $100 in a new Fan Match campaign. The song of your choice will be sent to 300 potential fans – people who have already told us they like your style and your genre. Then, once they’ve heard your music, we give them the opportunity to become a direct fan of yours at the click of a button. When that happens, you receive their email address and can get directly in contact with that fan. You can manage that relationship however you generally manage your engaged fan relationships.

Now, let’s say that your music is compelling enough that 30% of those who hear it like it enough to become a direct fan. That means that for $100, you would acquire 30 engaged fans. In other words, each fan cost you $3.33 to acquire. That’s a really good deal if each engaged fan is worth $70 to you over the course of a year, not to mention the value of an engaged fan over the course of your career.

Remember though, in our scenario, you need 4,185 additional fans to reach your revenue goal. At $3.33 each, acquiring 4,185 fans will cost you $13,936 via Fan Match.

READ MORE HERE

rhymeCulture presents IslandLife @ Easton’s Point | SATURDAYS in July 2012

#IslandLife

The rhymeCulture family will be at Easton’s Point Pub & Restaurantevery SATURDAY in July 2012..real Hip Hop for Aquidneck Island.

07.07 –> Afterlife, Keewords, Sense One & Sheezac

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07.14 –> Ripshop, Dox Boogie & Big City Bumpus

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07.21 –> Black Sand, Present Rhymes & Mao

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07.28 –> Asylum, Slim Pickens, Square One, Hy-Rain& Domo

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FREE before 11pm. Open mic @ 10pm. Strict 21+ and DJ Tone on the wheels of steel every week!! Also we’ll be taking donations for theEast Bay Met Center‘s after-school music program so come chill with us and support a great organization at the same time.

Easton’s Point

116 Aquidneck Avenue | Middletown, RI | RSVP on fb

The 4 biggest mistakes Artists' make online

The 4 biggest mistakes Artists' make online... 


Sending People to a Website That's Not a Website 


Promoters, bookers, venues and fans - they all know the difference between a free web page (MySpace, Facebook, Bandcamp, Tumblr) and a professional artist website (www.YOU.com). Social media sites are super-important, but they are not your home base on the web. Get your own domain name and build a website where you have complete control. It's one of the first steps to becoming a professional musician. 


Spamming Fans 


You can scream "Buy my album!" from a rooftop all day long, but you'd have better luck politely knocking on doors with a piping-hot apple pie and a smile. Every time you approach someone online and say, "Buy my album" or "Check out my music," you are essentially spamming them. On the other hand, if you first build a relationship with your online followers by offering something of value (friendship, information, free stuff, apple pie) then you establish a relationship--a relationship that will lead to many selling opportunities down the line. 


Not Staying Up-to-Date


The quickest way to get ignored online is to let your website gather dust. Nothing says, "My band broke up, or I don't care about self-promotion" like an out-of-date website. Make sure your last blog post wasn't in 2006. Make sure your gig calendar is up-to-date, and make sure your photo gallery is filled with recent pictures. This way your fans can get to know you and your music better.

Not Maintaining a Fan List 


Your fans want to connect with you. They want the inside scoop. They want special offers and they want to feel a part of something. Give them a chance to sign up to your newsletter on your website. A Facebook post might only reach 2-5% of your Facebook fans, but an email newsletter will land in almost every email box you send it to. Email will always be the most personal way you can communicate with your fans. 

info provided by cdbaby.com

@SPLIFTOUT PRESENTS #SPLIFSTRUMENTALS

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FREDDIE BLACK & B LUV PUTTIN IT DOWN @ RHYME CULTURE ON HIS BORNDAY!