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Centre Stage: Mark Davyd

Music Venue Trust CEO Mark Davyd’s monthly deep dive into live music’s biggest issues… One thing I am often asked about, or challenged with, is the idea that the downturn in the grassroots music venue circuit is representative of changes ...

Opinion

Digital Discourse: Sammy Andrews on new opportunities in the age of the superfan

There’s been a lot more talk about nurturing ‘superfans’ of late, which has both amused and interested me because that’s part of what we have all been doing for a living for a while now, surely?  At my agency (and for years before that, at labels), we’ve long mastered the art of understanding the various stages of fandom, especially in the digital age. And although UMG and Warner have announced that nurturing superfans is an aim of theirs this year, with UMG even buying a superstore to serve superfans in Japan, this is not a new objective. Superfans have always existed, but in a time when I had far fewer wrinkles, they could be measured in album sales. You bought a £10 album and went to a show? That’s a superfan investment right there.  The emergence of online platforms has eroded that easy mode of monetisation, with much of the superfan [action] moving away from recorded music towards the live business. Plus, with fan interactions fairly non-existent in DSPs and now taking place on online platforms, you often have to pay to open up those routes of monetisation with fanbases.  The industry also often makes the mistake of assuming a campaign is done once an album is out, something we advise our clients at Deviate against.  Let’s say you’ve just released a deluxe version of an album in beautiful fluorescent vinyl, and you’ve run loads of adverts pre-release and in the week of release to try to get a chart position. That’s not really nurturing the superfan relationship in the longer term, it’s just taking advantage of it.  The value exchange for superfans we offer as an industry must be re-examined.  Fundamentally, we are talking about the difference between an audience and a fan. Whilst nothing about this is new, an approach and offerings overhaul for the industry is needed now more than ever. As we see the rise of short-form content, AI-generated tracks, the closure of grassroots music venues and prevalent passive listening on DSPs, it has never been more important that the business nurtures, retains and embraces fandom, or we run the risk of letting our artists merely become more noise in a sea of distraction. So, let me re-introduce you to ‘the funnel’: the process and the steps needed at each stage of a fan’s journey. When the funnel structure is analysed and followed, it can lead you to the right offerings needed to truly grow a fandom. So, here are the typical stages of the marketing funnel and how they can be used in building a sustainable musical fanbase... AWARENESSIntroducing listeners to an artist is the main objective during this stage. Think passive playlist inclusion, TikTok take-offs, sync, radio play and ads. Compelling content can play a pivotal role in creating a strong initial impression and capturing the attention of prospective fans.  INTEREST/CONSIDERATIONAs awareness grows, the focus needs to shift to nurturing attention. This involves providing more content and opportunities to newer listeners or fans. Social media offers valuable avenues for artists to engage with their audience, but there are also paid media options on some DSPs that can aid this stage. DECISIONAt this stage, fans decide to delve deeper into an artist’s catalogue or attend live gigs. Encouraging this decision could involve offering incentivised or exclusive content that encourages engagement, conversion, listening or sign-ups.ACTION/CONVERSIONDriving actions like streams, purchases, merch sales and attendance at gigs should be the focus at this stage. It’s something you should be able to achieve fairly easily if you’ve done the previous steps properly.RETENTIONThe industry widely falls down at the retention stage, much to the detriment of fandom and monetisation. Building on the foundation of dedicated fans, this stage centres on keeping them engaged. Updates on upcoming releases, newsletters, content, opportunities or monetised offerings for loyal fans, foster a sense of community, and artists can experimentwith membership programs to reward and retain their supporters. I suspect we’ll see more of these kind of collaborative incentives this year, with AI as well as real life and online activations.ADVOCACYThis involves turning fans into advocates promoting the artist in their own social circles. Word of mouth, online or off, is a potent tool, as fans can amplify an artist’s reach in the right places. Proudly wearing an artist’s or band’s merch also aids this. Analysing data at each stage of the music funnel provides insights into audience demographics and promotional channels, and helps guide your offerings to superfans. Tailoring content and experiences based on preferences is also key to help an artist strengthen their bond with the audience. This is something I really hope to see the industry striving for more of.  So, in summary, embracing a funnel approach encourages fanbases to evolve and grow. By staying attuned to fan feedback and adapting strategies long past release date, you can navigate the dynamic road to superfandom more effectively.

Opinion

Measuring progress: UK Music Diversity Taskforce chair Ammo Talwar on driving the inclusion agenda

Following consultation with stakeholders and roundtables in search of solutions for the music industry, UK Music delivered its Ten-Point Plan in 2020 to help increase diversity and boost inclusion at the trade bodies who belong to the umbrella organisation. Here, UK Music Diversity Taskforce chair Ammo Talwar looks at the progress so far… Following the death of George Floyd, the protests supporting Black Lives Matter, and the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on Black and Asian people, women and people with disabilities, diversity as an issue came into sharp focus in 2020. The impact of these events was felt by many in the music industry. It was real and it was raw.    While diversity had been a topic of discussion for several years, many did not feel they could see visible change in the music industry. They felt that leaders were not acknowledging the grief, guilt, self-doubt and confusion that workplace diversity barriers were causing.    THE RESPONSE    In response to the situation, UK Music’s Diversity Taskforce consulted stakeholders across the industry and conducted roundtables in search of solutions. The result of this work was a time-bound framework called the Ten-Point Plan.   Unveiled in October 2020, the plan outlined 10 points of action, which can be read here, and that UK Music and its members – AIM, BPI, Ivors Academy, FAC, MMF, MPA, MPG, Musicians’ Union, PPL and PRS for Music – signed up to achieve.  The consultations had revealed that accountability and urgency were important to the industry. Therefore, unlike previous commitments to diversity, this plan was curated to include clear actions to be taken by UK Music and its members – with progress on those proposed actions being monitored.    THE OUTCOMES    If the question in 2020 was ‘what do we do?’, the question in 2024 is, ‘What progress have we made?’   In review of the Ten-Point Plan, UK Music trade body members said it had brought a sharp focus on diversity to their organisations in a structured, measurable and practical way.    The plan inspired new partnerships and helped to raise awareness internally and externally on what was already taking place, what should be continued and the gaps where more work was needed. It also encouraged accountability across all parties.    The organisations involved reported that some actions were easily implementable, such as stopping the use of the term “urban” when talking about Black music and the use of the acronym BAME when talking about Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities in the UK.     In addition to this, identifying and partnering with a socially engaged organisation was also achievable. Members found that appointing a senior person accountable for diversity and a person responsible for taking forward diversity initiatives in their organisations was straightforward and this ensured diversity was kept on the agenda.    However, some points were found to be more challenging. Some mentioned issues around a lack of knowledge and available resources that could help in the development of policies. In organisations with smaller teams, ensuring that workers could not be identified by their responses to pay gap or other diversity reporting was a strong consideration.  Also, employee turnover or changes in roles meant that an organisation’s diversity make-up could be dramatically altered if one or two people left the organisation.    What’s clear from our experiences is that discussing the challenges we face in implementing diversity objectives is key to overcoming them Ammo Talwar On balance, most of the organisations initially found it challenging to reach executive board diversity targets. Organisations learnt through the process that the identification of potential candidates was only one barrier and could be overcome through deeper research and partnerships.    The more difficult part was ensuring the candidates had a network that could vote and support them in their campaigns for a seat at the board table. To combat this, they had to push themselves to think more creatively. This included inviting non-voting observers to board meetings to diversify the input and perspectives at the meeting. They also created advocacy and succession programmes to build people towards these roles.    The work members have done in this area has been reflected in 2024’s Seat At The Table report from Women in CTRL, which found that the representation of women on UK music trade association boards has now risen to 52%, up from 32% in 2020. The similarities and differences in how each of the UK Music members approached the Ten-Point Plan highlights that instilling diversity into the culture of an organisation requires effort, deep commitment, tailoring to suit the people in the organisation and an acceptance that diversity is a steady helix of progress rather than a fast and straight line.    This leaves two questions. Firstly, did the organisations all make significant progress on every one of the ten points? Yes. Do they all have more work to do? Yes.   NEXT STEPS FOR THE INDUSTRY    Through undertaking the Ten-Point Plan, UK Music has come to a deeper understanding of ‘how’ to implement greater diversity and inclusion. Members are forward-thinking and willing to engage in conversation, which shouldn’t be underestimated as an important first step.  However, permanent and impactful change comes through a continuous process of identifying areas that don’t support good EDI values, implementing solutions to address them and reviewing the progress being made.   From the learnings UK Music and members gained from the Ten-Point Plan, UK Music and the Diversity Taskforce developed a complementary resource called The Five Ps, which can be seen here.    Based on the theory of change, a methodology used by organisations and government to promote social change, the Five Ps suggests key areas that organisations should focus on for building their diversity strategies. These five areas are: people, policy, partnerships and purchase.    While the Ten-Point Plan offers specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time bound goals, the Five Ps is a flexible and adaptive resource that provides prompts and considerations, which means that all kinds of organisations from across the music industry (and other industries) can use it.  All of UK Music’s diversity resources have been created in collaboration with a broad range of industry stakeholders and are available to the entire creative sector and beyond. If you’re interested in discovering more, UK Music will be running events and producing further resources to help organisations level up their diversity strategies.    What’s clear from our experiences is that discussing the challenges we face in implementing diversity objectives is key to overcoming them. We hope the challenges faced by UK Music and its members can now serve as a guide and inspiration for all of us to keep on working together to drive things forward for the benefit of us all.     

Opinion

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