Armed With Data, Musicians Have Big Plans to Court Their Superfans

Newly armed with these granular fan insights, artists are beginning to tailor marketing messages, communicate with fans in more direct ways, and create new experiences for their die-hard followers.

“Previously you might have thought a fan might come to your gig and buy merch and leave and that’s it,” says Jess Mitchell, marketing director for independent electronic music label Monstercat, which has released music by Marshmello, Krewella and Slushii. “Through this gathering of data and building of networks, now these artists can personally reach out to give them an opportunity or a perk that isn’t going to be available through other channels.”

Before the pandemic, artist teams were unlikely to have even basic information—name, phone number, location—about their fans. Live-streaming platforms offered much more in-depth data, such as how long fans watched a virtual concert, if they engaged with chat or other features and how much money they spent. That has helped artists zero in on their superfans, the people who came to every virtual show or spent on VIP experiences and merchandise.

“Being able to identify your superfans is so important because so much of your time in marketing a new release or tour is spent shouting out into the void and hoping people are hearing,” says Angelica Ayala-Torres, music innovation executive at United Talent Agency, which represents acts like Young Thug, Chance the Rapper and Princess Nokia. “If you can ID the people who are going to show up and engage with you, you no longer have to waste resources or time.”

Artist teams are beginning to rework how to market tours, merchandise and album releases, Ms. Ayala-Torres says. They might target certain fans with a presale or offer VIP access. Or choose tour dates based on where they have built up a fan base via livestreamed concerts.

Aside from interactive live streaming and virtual-reality performance sites such as Maestro, Mandolin and Wave, the music business is harnessing other upstarts that connect artists and fans in new ways, opening up fresh avenues for artists to generate and collect data. The text-messaging platform Community allows brands and celebrities to text with consumers and fans. Cameo, an app where users can buy customized video greetings from celebrities, this fall added the ability for fans to meet one-on-one with stars in live video calls. Events marketing company Pollen gets users to hawk live music experiences to their friends, such as festivals and weekend trips with Justin Bieber, J Balvin and Diplo.

Collecting fan data through live streaming and other platforms has a different value than gaining followers on social media because of the level of control artists have, says Joe Kessler, head of UTA IQ, the agency’s research, analytics and digital strategy division.

“If Facebook goes away tomorrow, your audience goes away with it,” says Mr. Kessler. “When you have a platform that enables you to get data from fans, you now own that audience.”

Audiences today are fragmented. Finding the most engaged fans is more important than ever, as artists are more likely to have smaller, more niche fanbases than in the days when radio DJs crowned hitmakers with broad appeal.

The question for artists now, Mr. Kessler says, is “How do I deliver this to the people who care about me the most and use that to grow my audience as opposed to getting the broadest distribution out the gate?”

Virtual J-pop star Kizuna AI did a live stream concert and 60% of her ticket buyers were from the U.S. despite her being an anime artist from Japan. Agents will take that data into account when planning her tour next year.

While live events began ramping up this past summer, and next year is expected to be the concert industry’s biggest ever, music and touring executives say the technology and the platforms that carried artists through the pandemic aren’t going away.

“We’ve learned a lot during this period—where people want to spend their money, how long we can hold people’s attention, and we can stress test if fans are interested in different experiences in the future,” says Monstercat’s Ms. Mitchell.

The label’s artists leaned heavily into live streaming on Twitch, the Amazon.com Inc. -owned live stream platform, over the past year and a half, with Kristina Sky and others holding “residencies” and festivals on its popular channels. They also experimented with artist-centric programming such as hosting production tutorials and listening sessions, and allowing fans to remix their music or play sets digitally.

Monstercat used social marketing platform ToneDen to create event invites for live streams and broadcasts, encouraging fans to tune in when acts went live on their Twitch, as well as to run contests that amplified music releases from artists like Kaskade, Vicetone, Vindata, Athena and smle. ToneDen collects fan information in a database which the label has been able to use for further marketing. Many fans also opted to receive texts from Monstercat via Community—a pandemic-inspired way for them to connect with artists on a more intimate level that the label plans to maintain, engaging fans on apparel drops, brand news and music releases, says Ms. Mitchell.

She predicts the industry will see the continued explosion of such digital experiences versus a heavy reliance on physical products, especially as Covid has impacted the supply chain for vinyl records and merchandise—and that the data harvested during the pandemic will inform which kinds of experiences fans want most.

Mandolin, a digital fan engagement site and concert live-streamer born out of the pandemic in June 2020, recently rolled out a new dashboard to give artists and managers an in-depth view of data around their events and audience.

Mandolin Live+ Studio offers real-time insights into live stream shows, including reaction and fan behavior data to specific songs and moments during sets, geographic information on fans, insights into performance of VIP experiences, and breakdowns on merchandise and ticket sales. That data can be used to grow artists’ marketing databases, and decide where to tour, which songs to play and what kind of merchandise to sell.

“We really believe there is a lot more revenue opportunity when you know who your superfans are,” says Mandolin Chief Executive Mary Kay Huse.

Write to Anne Steele at [email protected]

Corrections & Amplifications
Krewella has released music on the Monstercat label. An earlier version of this article incorrectly said their name was Krewell. (Corrected on Dec. 7)