How do you spread the word about your favorite artists?

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Douggie
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How do you spread the word about your favorite artists?

Post by Douggie » Sat Mar 13, 2010 4:07 am

Dear people, currently I’m busy writing my Master thesis and I need some help with this, which might also lead to an interesting discussion. I’m currently writing in the pre-research of my thesis and it’s about how the fans of artists help spread the word about them (through the Internet), mainly about concerts of relatively unknown bands. This will help me especially with narrowing the topic down to a problem definition.

So what I would like to know are the following things (you don’t have to answer them in a QA style, but this is just to make it easier):

1. How often do you go to concerts and who do you go with?

2. Why do you go to concerts?

3. How do you recommend music to people and how do people recommend music to you?

4. Do you ask other people to go to concerts and how do you do that? How do you convince them (think of the times they don’t know the band)? And the other way around, how do other people convince you to go to concerts? This can be any way, IRL or online. Think of everything from Facebook to blogs to forums.

5. Are there any bands you would deliver extra effort for (like your favorite bands) and if so, what things would you do that you normally don’t? Maybe there would be other reasons for you to deliver extra effort?

I mostly need die-hard fans who would go the extra mile for their favorite artists (as you can see in the last question), but if you’re not then that’s okay too. I mostly need an impression in order to define the types of people there are.

If you know better places to post this, let me know.
If you know die-hard fans who go the extra mile, PM me.
As well as if you’re an artist or know one who has fans that would spread the spread the word, PM me.
If you’re an event promotor, PM me too. I would like to know what the process of event promotion is like.

Thanks in advance people! I really appreciate this.

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Re: How do you spread the word about your favorite artists?

Post by Shui » Sat Mar 13, 2010 4:48 am

1.
About once a month. I take good friends with me. If nobody has time I go alone and find some cool persons to hang out with.

2.
Because the music is awsm. The atmosphere is relaxing. And I can dance my Balls out. You get to know new People. There is also a change to talk to the artists themselves.

3.
I send mp3s and get mp3s.

4.
My friends know that even though the music I listen to isn't mainstream the partys are awesome.
For some it's also only the sake of doing something togheter.

5.
Going overseas for a Band (Done that for Glitch Mob). I do have many favourite Bands I would like to experience. I'm doing strange things anyway, there's nothing I normally wouldn't do.


I'm the Music-Fanboy type. For me a party is the Ultimate thing to go to. I don't have many other hobbys apart from music.

If you wanna ask more types you could go over to nuskoolbreaks.co.uk and ask in the genereal breaks discussion why they would go to partys.
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Re: How do you spread the word about your favorite artists?

Post by Otohiko » Sat Mar 13, 2010 5:28 am

Wow, fascinating topic. Good luck - I hope you have fun with this thesis too :)
Douggie wrote: 1. How often do you go to concerts and who do you go with?
I usually go to concerts a couple of times a year. I'd like to go more often.
The only person I have gone to concerts with so far is my brother (occasionally he brings other friends with him as well). I would like to go to concerts with friends, but a) a lot of my friends live far away from me; b) my music taste is a little specific and I don't want to get people to invest time and money (especially since I generally travel to other cities to catch concerts) if I'm not sure that they will enjoy it. In the future I hope to invite friends to concerts, of course.
2. Why do you go to concerts?
To sum it up in a nutshell, for me live music is THE music. Live performance for me is the one venue where artists can present music in the most comprehensive and dynamic way possible, and where audiences can be absorbed in a music experience in a way that's generally not possible anywhere else. For good artists, "live" isn't just a silly name - there really is a very real dynamism to live performance, a kind of exchange of energies that happens.

It's also a great way to come out and show support to artists and their music and to engage in a kind of communal experience. Seeing your favourite artists do their thing live is something that's hard to just describe - it's one of those you-have-to-be-there things. Being a few feet away from your favourite artists playing your favourite songs is intensely satisfying.

I should make note that live music always made sense to me without needing an explanation because I grew up in the family of a professional musician - it's just how music works, for me.

3. How do you recommend music to people and how do people recommend music to you?
Recorded music, usually by getting me to hear MP3s. I don't find live music to be the best introduction to an artist - it's fun, don't get me wrong, but I think going to see an artist you don't know live is usually not nearly as good and not nearly as much of a 'return on the investment' as seeing an artist whose work you are already familiar with. This is not a problem when seeing a concert is cheap and easy to get to - but it gets a little difficult when tickets are expensive and you have to travel to see the artist.

4. Do you ask other people to go to concerts and how do you do that? How do you convince them (think of the times they don’t know the band)? And the other way around, how do other people convince you to go to concerts? This can be any way, IRL or online. Think of everything from Facebook to blogs to forums.
I will often recommend concerts, but again, I will usually recommend recorded music first and then if people enjoy it - insist that they come and see the concert. Being far from a rich person myself, I understand that the cost of concerts and travel can be pretty high so I certainly do try to justify the investment (whether other people pay for the concert tickets or I do).

Otherwise, most often people will get me to listen to something or watch videos of artists performing live in order to get me to go. I do the same.
5. Are there any bands you would deliver extra effort for (like your favorite bands) and if so, what things would you do that you normally don’t? Maybe there would be other reasons for you to deliver extra effort?
Yes, and increasingly so now that I work and make a little bit more money than I used to. There is one band (King Crimson) that, were they to play live, I could see myself traveling across the continent to see. Several bands (Porcupine Tree, or Russian bands like DDT and Akvarium) I would travel quite some distance to see. Otherwise spending $100-200 just to get to a concert is pretty much a normal thing for me. For all of the above bands, I will generally buy the most premium tickets available (to get better seats for example) and, as I said, I generally travel to concerts.
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Re: How do you spread the word about your favorite artists?

Post by Douggie » Sat Mar 13, 2010 9:00 am

Heh, we live in a time where we can send Youtube links to each other, use widgets/embeds (like the ones for Reverbnation), tweet stuff and you guys are still sending MP3s to each other? :o

It seems like you both would go the extra mile for bands. So let's say your favorite band would say "hey, we need money to record an album (or whatever reason), could you support us by promoting our concerts (tell friends, post it on message boards etc.) so we get more visitors to our shows?" Or maybe buy their merchandise or recommend the music to people in the hopes they will buy the album? Would you guys do that?

It's kinda sad that you two have to travel a lot in order to see the shows of your favorite artists. I live pretty near to two venues where a lot of indie bands perform (it's some what smaller, but I like it and I listen to a lot of indie music). I'm wondering, what would you rather do: would you rather start a "campaign" (online and offline, with the help of other people of course) in order to get your favorite band to the town/city that you are living now, or would you just pay the extra money and not bother with "campaigning"?

@Shui: Thanks for the reply! So if nobody you know goes, do you ever go online and see if your online friends that live near would go too (if you have any of those that is). I heard some stories that people search up other people at event pages like the ones last.fm has if they don't have anybody to go with. Would you ever do that or are you just sure you will meet people there?

So do you get the chance to talk to a lot of artists? I'm wondering what fans say to artists? Do they just go to the artist and praise their show/songs or do they talk about stuff like music gear or even their personal life? What other sort of 1-on-1 with artists would you like to have with artists?

Thanks for the link, I'll certainly check it out!

@Otohiko: You too thanks for answering! It seems like you're going mostly to expensive concerts! My thesis is more about relatively unknown bands though, so the things that I'm wondering is if people would go to those concerts, as they're mostly not that expensive - as in the same price of a movie and a couple of beers. It also seems like you're not really willing to take the risk to go bands you're not that familiar with? Even if it's just to have a good time with your friends, or is music such an overwhelming factor?

Thanks again, I'm not really that familiar with how far fans will go, so it's good to get some replies here!

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Re: How do you spread the word about your favorite artists?

Post by Otohiko » Sat Mar 13, 2010 11:31 am

Douggie wrote: @Otohiko: You too thanks for answering! It seems like you're going mostly to expensive concerts! My thesis is more about relatively unknown bands though, so the things that I'm wondering is if people would go to those concerts, as they're mostly not that expensive - as in the same price of a movie and a couple of beers. It also seems like you're not really willing to take the risk to go bands you're not that familiar with? Even if it's just to have a good time with your friends, or is music such an overwhelming factor?
Well, for the concerts themselves the price range is usually $40-$90 - the most I paid for a concert ticket yet is $95; normally general admission costs about $45 so that's what I'm used to paying. Most of the cost is actually travel, which I sort of have to count in the overall cost. It often runs me between $30 and $100 to get to a concert in Toronto or Montreal, plus food and other expenses, especially if I don't have a place to say.

I'd like to get into more unknown bands, it's just that I don't live in an area with much of a music scene that interests me. For sure if I lived in a different city, I probably would be going to see a lot more concerts.

And yeah, music is a pretty huge factor for me. I do go to concerts of bands that I'm not really into, usually with my brother and his friends, but there the music is a big factor for them and I try to get into it as well. Otherwise I really do go for the music mostly - although that includes getting into the music-related action. If it's not a seated concert, I am usually found right in front of the stage, headbanging away :P

You're right though, the bands I would be going an extra mile for are all relatively major, well-established and relatively old bands in their respective genres.
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Re: How do you spread the word about your favorite artists?

Post by ShatteredFlame » Sat Mar 13, 2010 2:59 pm

1. About once a month, with my cousins or my friends...either way nobody likes my music :P

2. It's fun. Hard to explain really. If you really get into the music and the band really knows how to get the crowd going and the crowd loves them and also gets really into the band then its a great experience. Overall I think your enjoyment depends on how well you know the band, its much easier to participate if you know the music.

3. This was actually a recent journey I started this year at school. I live in New York, I hang out with people who listen to hip-hop. I always thought my taste in rap would be to obscure for this generations lil wayne kiddies and shit...luckily its not. I met these two kids who listen to Wu-Tang Clan and we got so many other kids into them, and I recommended my other favorites and they all love them.

And then theres the rock group. For some reason they worship everything Anthony Green has ever touched (First EP of Saosin, Circa Survive, solo work). I do like Sasoins first EP and Circa Survive is quite nice but I just can't seem to find anything I can recommend to them. Some of them like Tool, Opeth, Between the Buried and Me and other progressive metal-esque stuff...and I recommended stuff like Cynic, Devin Townsend and Katatonia and they did like the songs I showed them.....they just don't have the motivation the download the whole CD.

4. I have a lot of friends, at least one of them is bound to be free that day, and since most concerts are in NYC I just tell them that we can hang out after. About the other way around, people usually just go to this local venue in Long Island for concerts which I just don't bother going to because the concerts are usually on a school night and I have better shit to do. And then theres Warped Tour - A whole day of shitty music, not going. Bamboozle - Driving to New Jersey for 2 days of shitty music, not happening. I might go see Coheed and Cambria/Circa Survive in May with that certain group of friends but its already a whole group, my presence isn't exactly needed :P

5. So far the only thing I did close to extreme was drive to New Jersey to see Tool and My Bloody Valentine in this day long music festival. This wasn't even bad. I want to go the Maryland Deathfest but it looks like I'm not. We have driven to Maryland lots of times before but for this event alone would be, 5-7 hour drive to Maryland, getting a hotel for 3 days, then staying at a 3 day long metal festival. I would love it but I can't find anyone else who does.
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Re: How do you spread the word about your favorite artists?

Post by downwithpants » Sun Mar 14, 2010 3:33 am

1. once a year if i'm lucky

2. there's usually a lot of energy among other concertgoers, so the music is more engaging and you can dance or sing along. witnessing someone perform something really beautifully in front of your eyes also makes it worth it too. and sometimes i go for social reasons.

3. usually playing it in their car or my car (going both ways).

4. i usually ask a few of my close friends. to convince them, i just say, "come on, you have nothing better to do, forty bucks isn't that much" or something like that. my friends haven't really ever tried to convince me to go to a concert.

5. i suppose i would travel a bit farther/pay higher prices to see another franz ferdinand concert... if it were a fledgling local band that i really liked, i would try to invite friends to go to another venue.

for unknown bands, it helps if they stay around after the performance and meet with people in the audience. not in like a setting where they are signing CDs, because it's kinda forced and gimmicky, but like if they hang out at the bar or chat with people while they pack up their gear, it leaves a good impression. unless their performance really sucked. clevar youtube music videos are another option.

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Re: How do you spread the word about your favorite artists?

Post by Kevmaster » Sun Mar 14, 2010 6:02 am

1. How often do you go to concerts and who do you go with?

I try to visit as many concerts as my money allows me to. I usually visit them with a group of friends, 3 or 4 (sometimes more). If it's a band I am the only to care for, I do alone as well though I do that less and less lately.

2. Why do you go to concerts?

Because it's basically one of the greatest feelings you can get. There is no better Possiblity to capture the real essence of the music. And especially in the metal-scene there's a huge feeling of unity at concerts. And of course, visiting concerts is also a much better support than just buying CD's.

3. How do you recommend music to people and how do people recommend music to you?

Basically most recommendations take place on Last.fm, though sometimes it's just like "hey check this band out" when we meet and talk about music or something.

4. Do you ask other people to go to concerts and how do you do that? How do you convince them (think of the times they don’t know the band)? And the other way around, how do other people convince you to go to concerts? This can be any way, IRL or online. Think of everything from Facebook to blogs to forums.


Well, I usually only ask my close friends to come with me and usually it is not hard as we have very similiar tastes.

But no, actually I have an example for this...my (girl)friend doesn't really listen to metal music, but still I convinced her to go to 3 metal concerts with us already. Well, she is somewhat already part of the metal scene, but she's not fan of the music and just loves the people. She wouldn't like..visit a metal concert out of her own will. Two of these gigs were the same band and it wasn't so hard to convince her as the tickets were pretty cheap. And for the third concert...well, I payed her ticket. That made her go with us.

5. Are there any bands you would deliver extra effort for (like your favorite bands) and if so, what things would you do that you normally don’t? Maybe there would be other reasons for you to deliver extra effort?

There is actually a very good example for this. Me and my friends wanted badly to visit the Bolt Thrower Gig with Asphyx as support in Enschede, Netherlands. The idea alone is quite crazy, considering it is in another country and rather far away and we didn't have any idea how to get there.
But then it was sold-out and we didn't get any tickets...so we messaged tons of people asking them to sell their tickets, getting to prizes of about 100€, but we found only one person who was willing to sell his ticket so we still needed more...and kept checking the Atak website hour by hour every day until some tickets that weren't payed for returned back to the system and we actually were able to got these tickets so we all can go.

And to add something extra: I have my final biology exam the day after the concert. :lol:

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Re: How do you spread the word about your favorite artists?

Post by Kai Stromler » Mon Mar 15, 2010 10:26 am

Douggie wrote:1. How often do you go to concerts and who do you go with?
As often as possible. If I'm not on call, the weather isn't shit, and there's a band playing that I have any interest at all in, I try to get there. This works out to about 20-30 shows and 2-3 festivals in a normal year.
Douggie wrote:2. Why do you go to concerts?
To bang my head, support the touring bands, hang out with other metalheads, and find out whether the bands on the bill that I haven't heard of are worth following.
Douggie wrote:3. How do you recommend music to people and how do people recommend music to you?
It varies: most of the time, it's drinking beers with someone and in the course of the conversation it's "dood have you heard Band X yet, they are fucking awesome" one way or the other; if I'm out of the country at a festival, it's a little more intentional pushing. If someone's gushing about a certain band, I'll push whatever local-about-to-go-national that I have merch on me for: "Yeah, Necrophagist was amazing; if you like their stuff, you gotta check out Revocation, they're friends of mine who got signed to Relapse last year, really cool tech-thrash with a lot of death influences," and then I hand over a sticker or a promo card.
Douggie wrote:4. Do you ask other people to go to concerts and how do you do that? How do you convince them (think of the times they don’t know the band)? And the other way around, how do other people convince you to go to concerts? This can be any way, IRL or online. Think of everything from Facebook to blogs to forums.
I don't often try to convince people to go to shows, mostly because I'm not in a band. Most of the show promotion I run across is either obligato stuff on RTTP and flyers at shows, which is probably more effective. You can send out all the electronic alerts that you want, but people will just skim past them; if you hand someone a physical piece of paper with the info on it (provided they actually look at it and decide to take it), they'll be a lot more aware of the gig and more likely to show up.
Douggie wrote:5. Are there any bands you would deliver extra effort for (like your favorite bands) and if so, what things would you do that you normally don’t? Maybe there would be other reasons for you to deliver extra effort?
I'm kind of a scene head, as the foregoing should indicate, and I happen to live in an area with a lot of bands that I feel need more attention than they're getting outside New England. One way or another, there's like eight to ten bands across a wide variety of genres that I have no hesitation about promoting to anyone I happen to run across. I don't think of it as "extra effort", particularly; just doing my part to give back in exchange for a lot of cool shows at a $7 price point.

Extra effort is more like buying a ticket to a p2p show at the door off one of the bands despite having one already, but that doesn't happen too much as most of the pay-to-play promoters in this area have thankfully gone out of business. On the other hook, there's stuff like Running Wild playing their last show ever at last year's Wacken, where it's not even a question that it's worth crossing oceans for. There's just not a lot of intersection between the two lines of promotion and excessive caring -- I wasn't going to try to convince other people to go over for Running Wild, because anyone who cared enough was already going, and for the rest it wasn't worth the expense, and while I try to promote CNV to anyone I think might be interested, I'm not going to replan my summer vacation to follow them around their Euro tour.

hth,

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Re: How do you spread the word about your favorite artists?

Post by Otohiko » Mon Mar 15, 2010 10:47 am

Douggie wrote: So let's say your favorite band would say "hey, we need money to record an album (or whatever reason), could you support us by promoting our concerts (tell friends, post it on message boards etc.) so we get more visitors to our shows?" Or maybe buy their merchandise or recommend the music to people in the hopes they will buy the album? Would you guys do that?
Oh, totally. I've never been on an artist's "road team" yet, but I'd actually like to be. So far this hasn't been requested by an artist or anything, but I would definitely make that promotion effort if that was needed. In all recent concerts I've been to though, I've run into the opposite problem (sold-out shows, expensive tickets and generally demand exceeding the ticket availability).

Also if someone asked me to come out and see an up-and-coming artist just to give them a try and support their career, I would totally do it. Hasn't really happened yet, but I'm open to these sorts of invitations.
It's kinda sad that you two have to travel a lot in order to see the shows of your favorite artists. I live pretty near to two venues where a lot of indie bands perform (it's some what smaller, but I like it and I listen to a lot of indie music). I'm wondering, what would you rather do: would you rather start a "campaign" (online and offline, with the help of other people of course) in order to get your favorite band to the town/city that you are living now, or would you just pay the extra money and not bother with "campaigning"?
A lot of artists I like have actually stated pretty specifically that they're open to venue suggestions (within the realm of possibility), and some have even posted technical riders and other requirements needed to realistically get them to play a venue. However I often find that this is not so straightforward. If I was part of a big group of local fans it'd be easier, but as it is, I'm kind of a lone wolf. So for me personally, the travel money is a safer investment than the time and effort it would take for me to get a real campaign going. In the end, it's really up to the band I think. It does make sense for an international touring band to stick to larger cities, and for me to go to these cities to see them.

If it's an indie band, I think the expectations and requirements would be far simpler. So for sure, if I knew of a band of this kind looking for places to play, I would do it.
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