The latest industry panel we attended was hosted by the Association of Independent Music Publishers (AIMP) in LA last week. “I’m With The Brand: Building Music-Brand Partnerships that Pay Off” was the title and the content, a bit underwhelming–God bless ‘em.  It’s always good to stay abreast of what different sectors of the music industry are up to and can sometimes provide you with a golden nugget of inspiration or motivation.  This wasn’t quite the case last week and it was clear that some are more ahead of the game than others in terms of non-traditional exposure and distribution–but the cheesecake was delicious.

The best things we took from the panel were 1) confirmation that Indigenous is in the ‘ahead of the game’ category <insert huge sigh of relief> and 2) Music Connection magazine, which was conveniently placed on each of our chairs. Within it, was an article on managing your fan base.  For all of you bands out there looking for a little guidance on this topic, here is the  synopsis… we took the liberty of adding Indigenous’ two cents as well:

1/ Understand.  Article: It starts and ends with your fans.

Indigenous: Study them–not just who they are and where they live, but know specifics–what they eat for breakfast, what they smell like.  Make them your priority because they are.

2/ Engage.  Article: To properly manage a fanbase, you must first acquire one. The old school way of doing this was for bands to walk around and talk to potential fans before shows. The new school way is to use the internet as your face-to-face time.

Indigenous: Muy importante.  Saying hello can do wonders for bringing personality and loyalty to your brand as an artist.  We aren’t saying you have to shoot the shit with each and every fan individually, but please remember these people are paying to see/hear/interact with your music, so at the very least engage them collectively through any platform you have access to–onstage and online.  If you do it creatively and memorably, the content will only live on–blogging, you-tubing, file-sharing, etc.  This could include making your fans a part of one of your songs during your live show (pots and pans are one of our favorites–thanks Port O’Brian), selling your own merch and chatting with the people who buy it, or simply speaking about your experience in their town.  And by all means, say your name when you are on stage, especially in sampling environments like showcases and music festivals–you’d be surprised how many bands don’t do this.

3/ Retention.  Article: Once you’ve acquired them, keeping in touch with them is a necessity.

Indigenous: Once you’ve acquired a fan-base, how ya gonna keep them?  Use your social networks to let fans give their opinion on your content (album art, new tracks, t-shirts, videos, merch). People love feeling like part of a collaborative effort–and even more when their opinions are taken to heart.  Invite them to be in your videos, to after- parties, guest DJ sets, and whatever else you may be involved in the general public may not know about. And not necessarily a new idea, but sometimes overlooked…let them have priority on advance copies of your music.  Get creative. Keep them coming back for more.  Give them REASONS to come back for more.

4/ Lean on Other Bands. Article: Target fans of acts similar to yours.

Indigenous: No kidding. Marketing 101, here.  Seriously though, make it a priority to connect with and befriend bands who may share that same fan base as you.  And when you are famous, don’t forget to return the favor. Fan Karma, if you will … : )

5/ Use the Internet to Track Behavior.

Article: There are online tools called “spiders” or “crawlers” that allow you to find out about who is searching you, visiting your website, posting to forums, fan sites, blogs, etc. There is a company called Magic Rock who can help with this.

Indigenous: See number 1… The more you know about your current fans, the easier you can target and acquire more. We like that!

Hope you’ve gleaned your own golden nugget from this.  We’re always here to help.