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For artists at all levels you have people who enjoy your music, whether on line, at live shows, or people standing around you when you are street performing.

So when you sign off for the day, or you go home after the gig, do you know how many of those people who enjoy your music know where to find your music, or even know your name?

For artists at all levels you have people who enjoy your music, whether on line, at live shows, or people standing around you when you are street performing.

So when you sign off for the day, or you go home after the gig, do you know how many of those people who enjoy your music know where to find your music, or even know your name?

For the people who do know your name, and know where to find your music, are they seeing your posts and updates and social media and on your website?

With all the changes that Facebook and Twitter recently implemented it is getting difficult for artists to get everyone to see their content without spending a good amount of money to get the message out there. Problem with that is most of the content that generates the most engagement isn’t something that can be sold so the return on investment is way off. So with on line followers you need a way to find a way to reach them off line or off of social media at least.

This can be done in three ways.

First way would be to get their mailing address or just their email and start to (e)mail them postcards or show announcements. This is extremely useful if you are a local artist or you play a certain city a lot. Yes, this means you are out and about in your local community or in that other city taking names in exchange for something promotional such as a mix or stickers or something tangible for the person who gave up their information to you. This also makes it less creepy

A second way is when going to different cities and meeting your fans…win them over with your charm by spending time with them after the show or at least after your set. Doing this and offering them an experience is a great way to make sure they will make sure to engage your page more often…but for how long.

So the third and best way is to do a mix of those two, most importantly meeting your fans, but putting them on an email mailing list so you can send them your bi weekly to monthly newsletter.

Newsletters go directly into your fans inboxes and since your design will be smart and presents your brand in the proper way they will engage with your newsletter the most. You are sharing your new music, behind the scenes information, future shows, show recaps, and pushing your merch in a non abrasive way. One thing I would recommend is training your fans to go to a page off of facebook or twitter to engage with you. I doubt Facebook will go away but remember what happened to Myspace? What’s MySpace? Exactly….

How do you get your fans to become subscribers?

By going out there and getting them, that’s how.

Who ever told you that being in the music business was all flowers and is a scene you can just sit around and play music all day was pulling your whatchamacallit…

When on social media you should be engaging your fans one by one and see if you can get them to be on your list. Knowing who is behind the “Like” is so important. These people are interested in you, so why aren’t you interested in them? Just don’t push them links to subscribe either…create value for them. In order to do this you can create a contest or just have a conversation with them. Then on the end of the conversation ask them if they wouldn’t mind signing up to get your newsletter.

At live shows you can carry a clipboard with a mailing list or there are also apps for your mobile device to handle this task. I would recommend having something to give to them in exchange for their name, email, and city. Stickers, CDs, or another form of merch is ideal for this. If you are selling items you can use a mobile point of sale (POS) system that captures this information and auto subscribes them upon purchase. Look at options within Mail Chimp – they have this integration with PayPal and other popular POS options.

So go out there and own your fans and add value to them. This is the only way you are going to stand out amongst the 1,000s of artists now of days fighting for the same show. The winner will always be the artist or band with the most fans, why? The more people filling a venue means more money for the venues, artists, managers, agents, and labels.

Oh…you thought it was all about the music? In time maybe…but for now people are trying to figure this thing out.