Why Building a Fanbase Won’t Get You Paid—This Will.

You’ve been told to grow a fanbase first, and the money will come. But that’s a half truth. A fanbase with nothing to buy is just applause… not income.”

You’re in this position because you’ve built an audience, but not a product. No offer, no sales. You’re entertaining, not earning.

All fans are not the same; there are levels to fandom, but when I’m done, you will be able to fully understand what type of fans you have and how to serve them.

Because I know you have a dream to change the world in a sense and make an impact on your pockets, I want to show you how to make that happen.

This episode is for new artists who want to learn how to monetize before their fans show up, so they can look like pros from day one. And for artists and teams who are already moving and shaking, this will revolutionize what you're doing.

It took me years to figure this strategy out, but the funny thing is, I didn't figure this out selling stuff. I figured it out by buying stuff from artists. The truth is, sometimes when you're in the midst of selling, you don't think about the experience until you have to be in the experience yourself. The greatest teacher is actually experiencing the other end of the entire purchase experience.

Once I started going back to concerts and buying fan merch, I realized there were three different types of fans. These fans could jump to any category or level at any time.

What I learned was that there are three types of fans, three main desires that we have as customers and fans, and certain product types that we want to buy. So let's start with the Fanbase first.

Segment The Base

Most artists think that all fans are the same; however, the real reason why you can't sell to your fanbase efficiently is because you don't realize they're made up of three different types of fans: browsers, supporters, and fanatics (otherwise known as the super fans). And this is why many artists default to putting everyone on Spotify.

Recently, I heard an album by one of my favorite new artists on Spotify. I didn't realize I was a super fan just yet, but I had been following them for over a year before they released the project. I'd already streamed their previous projects on Spotify, so when the new album came out on Spotify and I listened to it in its entirety, I was still hungry for more. At this point, I realized that I was underserved and I was beyond a browser. I was willing to open my wallet and pay this person for more access. I was actually a fan.

Browsers do just that — they window shop.

Supporters want to support you, and these are people who buy items like T-shirts, hoodies, and hats.

Fans want the inner workings of what you do — they want the factory tour. They want access, acknowledgment, and achievement.

So here's a quick way to segment your base: 80% of your following will be browsers — the people who live on Spotify but spend the least. 19% of your following will be supporters; they won't spend $100 on you, but they'll spend a cool $50 to $60. One percent of your base will be the fanatics — they will buy whatever you have so long as it satisfies the desires in our next step.

Once you segment your base in this way, you'll begin to truly understand what you have on your plate. You'll begin to market to these people differently.

Because I used to believe that all fans went in one bucket. And then I split them into two buckets: people who are on Spotify and people who just pay money. But it wasn't until Chris over at EVEN expressed to me that he likes to think of their customers as supporters of the artist because of the price point they pay — that's when I realized there were two different types of higher-paying fans: supporters and fanatics.

Now, right now, you're probably thinking, "Why don't I just put all of the money into the 80% because most people are on Spotify anyway?" And logically, looking at the numbers, it makes sense, but when you look at the return, it doesn't. The top 20% of customers will take care of 80% of your revenue — all industries know this; this is an age-old understanding.

Fill Their Desires

Fulfilling your fans' desires actually converts your browsers on Spotify to supporters and fans. Now, many people will sell T-shirts, hoodies, and hats to everyone doing the usual stuff, but in reality, the reason why it's not working is because that's not truly what people want — they're being pacified, but not satisfied.

This is only because your mind is still in the space of "all fans are the same," but we segmented the base. Now we have to fulfill their desire, and here are the three main desires: fans desire functionality, education, and status.

You can keep selling more T-shirts, hoodies, and hats and people will buy them, but at the end of the day, people will buy based on the use cases that you actually fulfill based on those three main desires: functionality, education, and status.

If you take a look at yourself and your purchasing habits, you will find that you're doing these exact things that are hidden in your purchase behaviors.

Creating products for these main desires will transform the service that you give to your fans, and fans will come flocking to you, causing your sales to go up.

If you are old enough to remember when Jay-Z released the Black Album with the concert DVD documentary, you will notice this is the factory tour process — it's education. There are countless ways to do this, but this is probably the easiest way. We paid for it all: the main limited version with the blackout cover, the DVD, and the instrumental version.

Now if you're thinking you need a lot to do this, you don't — an iPhone and CapCut will do. Just serve one of the desires and you'll be straight.

Recap For Video Use Only

"So far, we've covered segmentation and desires — but this next part is where most artists and their teams lose the bag. So stay with me." And side note: if you need a strong business foundation to run your record label with funding, grab my 60-day record label system, complete with my funding partners to fund some of this merch you're going to create.

Serve the Underserved.

Somehow, serving the fan is the most difficult thing for an artist to do. However, no one can sell but you — not your manager, no one. Fans want to hear from you.

The real reason why many artists don't service their fans the right way is because they simply don't know how to call them to action. If you're story selling properly and followers are responding to the content, then your supporters and fanatics are already baked into your base. Tell them where to go, and they will follow.

I learned the concept of "telling people where to go and they will follow" from Donald Miller. And it's simple — all you gotta do is say "go to my link in bio," or "comment this word" and "purchase this item."

When you do this, people will go where you tell them to go. They will pay the price, and you will get many sales.

The only reason this is hard for you is that you don't believe in the product that you created for the fans. If that's the situation, then you need to go back and analyze what you created for them and figure out what would make you proud to say: "You need this in your life right now — click the link in my bio to purchase" or "These will be available for a limited time only."

You don't need a fancy website; you just need one page with a checkout process on the same exact page your product is on. Eventually, you can get fancier with the pages and the process, but start simple. Because once you learn how to make these offers to these supporters and fanatics, it will change your life and your outlook on what you do for your customers in the future.

Call To Action - Here’s what you can do!

Tally up all of your followers and take away 90% because they are inactive or not being shown your content by default from the social media platforms. Segment the remaining 10% into 80/19/1 and look at your numbers to determine which type of products you should create based on your follower count. You can also do the same for your email list but keep 100% of them and segment from there.

The goal is to truly understand what a fan base is and the types of people it contains. The real question isn't "should you do this?"—it's "how much longer can you afford NOT to?"

Now, If you need help with devising a strategy, join our group strategy calls every Monday night at 7pm EST inside of the Music Money Makers community.

You Can Do This!

The truth is, the segments are real. It doesn't take much skill to segment the base and create a product based on those three desires. It doesn't take much time to plan this out, and if you don't have much money, it doesn't take a lot of money to fulfill those desires. You just gotta be creative. It takes a lot of ingenuity and creativity to make sure those desires are fulfilled and those different types of fans get serviced on each level.

You can do this, and the truth is, I know you will do this because if you don't do this, you won't be able to make high sales numbers this industry — or in any industry for that matter — because you will find that you run into the same types of people in every industry. You don't need perfect conditions. You just need to start with what you've got — and watch how far that can take you.

What’s it going to cost to keep doing it your way

The cost of ignoring your true fans and treating everyone the same way isn't just about lost revenue – it's much deeper than that. When you keep pushing everyone toward Spotify and basic merch without understanding their real desires, you're leaving both money and meaningful connections on the table. Eventually, you'll wonder why no one is shopping with you, causing you to second-guess your efforts. This will put you into decision mode, which ultimately causes you to default back to the standard merch and keep chugging along, or dig deep within your fan data to create something amazing that will last a lifetime with your fans.

At the End of the Day

If you were struggling with:

1. Not making enough money from your fanbase despite having followers

2. Treating all fans the same way and defaulting to Spotify

3. Struggling to create products that your true fans actually want to buy

You now have the means to become the artist who serves their fans properly to build a fan army that every artist dreams of having.

Music Money Makers: if you make music, you should always make money. Log on to musicmoneymakeover.com, grab the 60-Day Record Label System complete with funding, join the Music Money Makers Community, grab the free stuff, and watch this next video right here! Peace!