By Shawn Daley

I haven’t quite been able to grasp the fact that artists want to blow up in success overnight. I see nothing wrong with desiring major label status, but overnight? Overnight, meaning within a few years of starting your brand, of course. What makes your music so fantastic to the point that you think you won’t be dropped after your first release? In fact, what makes your brand big enough to assume you won’t end up with a huge bill once it’s all over and done with?

These questions aren’t meant to put you down, they exist to make you think. Is “overnight” success really what you want? American Idol is a great example… winners have stuck around in the industry for a while, some better than others, but why didn’t some winners find success?

It goes to show you that simply winning anything can sometimes mean nothing . Had some of those winners had an existing fan base which they had produced themselves, nurtured and honored (in the way every indie artist should be doing), their success would have sustained.

Building something from the ground up is hard. So hard that many don’t want to spend the time, money and effort on it. Those who do however have a safety net to fall back on. Not that you should ever create a community of fans just for safety sake, but that’s one of the many, many, many benefits of putting the work into it.



See the 1000 True Fans music business concept by Kevin Kelly. A true fan is one that would travel across the country to see a show, purchase your music and merchandise (and subsequent bundles), or contribute to your brand in any monetary way possible.

Accumulate 1000 fans who would spend $100.00 on your brand over the course of one year. This amounts to $100,000.00 yearly. Subtract your yearly spending, and you should have enough to sustain yourself as a brand. Not only that, but you have 1000 true fans who are genuinely interested in what you have to offer. Fans who you can rely on… not just “someone who likes your music”. There’s a big difference between someone who likes your music, and a fan.

Blowing up overnight with no existing fans is dangerous and costly… why would you want that?

Technorati Tags: fans, major labels, success

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This entry was posted on Thursday, October 8th, 2009 at 12:06 pm and is filed under Music Business, Music Culture, Wisdom. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.