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Abstract

Check the press releases for any major music label in 2024. One priority that will surely be listed in any report or article will be how to monetize superfans. Looking back at the last 30 years of recorded music revenue, we see that even though the current streaming age has rescued the industry from the early 2000s' P2P crisis, recorded music revenues today, led largely by streaming, are still far behind their early 21st-century peak when adjusted for inflation. Additionally, music revenues as a whole are increasingly becoming a smaller share of total entertainment spread, having peaked back in 1998. These realities aren't pretty for the recorded music sector, which begs the question: How can we fix this? Major record labels are looking at superfans as one of the ways to fix this problem. The idea: capitalize on artists’ existing network of superfans for opportunities to upsell and drive more revenue into music industry pockets. Given the current state of the music ecosystem and the untapped potential of the droves of fans that are looking for new ways to engage with their favorite artists, this solution is a potential win-win-win for major labels, their biggest artists, and their diehard fans. The question is: how does this model actually work for artists of all shapes and sizes? How can an emerging artist benefit from the superfan value proposition?

Publication Date

7-1-2024

Campus

Valencia (Spain) Campus

Keywords

superfandom, superfans, fan engagement, monetization, emerging artists

How Can Emerging Artists Benefit from the Superfan Trend? Approaches to Unlocking the Superfan

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