New Music Biz 101: Where The Fans Are

posted in: Features

Being a full time musician or even a serious hobby musician takes time. Lots of time. It’s no wonder so many resources are being put into making the musician’s life easier and more efficient. Consolidating social media platforms in one central location to post your news, editing music from your home studio setup,  even using extensive online artist management tools to help you keep track of a busy schedule”each saves today’s musician valuable time.

When coming up with a marketing strategy for your music, time is a big consideration.  A lot of musicians tend to spread themselves too thin. They sign up for dozens of online accounts, create profiles on each, then are unable to maintain them. They create ads on different sites and mediums, send out email newsletters”anything that can give them exposure. But often times, these efforts aren’t up to par because the artist has too much on their plate.

Take a look at the chart below, which breaks down the time worldwide users spend on online activities:

As you can see, this chart indicates that social media is now number one for most time spent online at 4.6 hours per week. This is higher even than email, which is at a close 4.4 hours.

The percentage of social network users is quickly increasing as well. With only 33% using these sites in 2008 and 58% using them in 2010. The moral of the story is that you want to be where your fans are spending the majority of their time. With this information you can optimize your time, and allow your campaigns to be more time efficient and more effective.  There’s a good chance that social networks are where a lot of your fan base hangs out, so be sure to take the time needed to work on these channels, keeping them updated and active. It will be time well spent!