Recently I was in a discussion about Communicating With Fans, as part of the Halifax Pop Explosion and Music Matters Conference (thanks so much to everyone involved in the conference for having me!) and while I was there a musician asked me something… I’m paraphrasing, but basically he said “you talk often about engaging with current fans, but what about getting new fans?  What about trying to get places like Exclaim to write about you, and that kind of thing…  Isn’t that still important?”

It’s a great question, and sure it’s important, but the best way to get media outlets interested in you, and beyond that, the best way to get new fans interested in you is by engaging the current ones.  Too often it seems that musicians spend a lot of effort and time on spreading the word to potential new fans, and much less effort communicating with the fans they already have.  As an independent musician, you don’t have a staff supporting you, creating marketing campaigns, securing interviews and press coverage, and getting radio stations to interview you or play your music.  Those are some of the tactics that labels and marketing companies will use to generate enough media impressions so that it creates familiarity with your band and music, and the idea is that by reaching a very wide group of people, some of them will like you enough to purchase something.  But as I said, you don’t have access to those people or those methods.

What you do have, is your current fans.  People who have already stated (either verbally, or by voting with their dollars and attention) that they like and wish to consume your music.  And the thing about music is that people LOVE to tell other people about the music they’re excited about.  So respect your current fans, don’t look past them hoping for new ones.  Reward them and inspire them, and give them every reason to be excited about you and your music, and help them spread the word to their friends about you.  Engaging your current fans to spread the word is the best way to find your new fans.  And as the word spreads, the media outlets will want to talk to you, and radio will want to play you, etc. and the cycle will continue.

Sure it’s not a quick process, it’s an organic growth, but it’s effective, cost-efficient, and the best part about it is you don’t need to rely on anyone else’s help to get started.  You don’t need to hire a publicist, or a radio tracker, or get a manager or label before you can begin… you have control over this right now.

So what are you waiting for?