1000 True Fans Explained

For the purpose of creating a foundation for our discussion of how to handle your DIY music business, we will be loosely operating on the model of “1000 True Fans,” which generally speaking, is a concept that if a band/artist has 1000 “true fans,” they can potentially make a living as a musician and nothing else.  We would like to say a few words of clarification and caution about this.

Firstly, we are not saying 1000 True Fans is the “best” model for everyone.  It is impossible to say that there is one best model, really, because bands vary greatly in genre as well as in personal and business goals, and along with that, so too do their audiences vary.  What works well for one band might not be the best for another.  1000 True Fans, though, is an approach which seems to be very prevalent, and there is a good deal of data to support its validity, at least having a good success rate among many independent bands.  In the cases of most DIY bands, we can find no model better than 1000 True Fans, so we therefore will be assuming use of it as our foundation.

Secondly, 1000 True Fans and the suggestions we will make here on the blog are not a “recipe for success”: the blog is not a “How to be successful in 10 easy steps” programme.  It may help many people, and may well work for you, but your success lies greatly in your own hands; it requires a great deal of work and dedication on your end, even after which you may not see the desired results.  At the end of the day, it takes a great deal of creative talent, dedication to your craft and your business, and let’s face it, being in the right place at the right time, and knowing the right people, in order to be successful in the music industry.  We are not trying to be cynical or pessimistic, just trying to give a kind reminder to keep your feet firmly planted in reality.  Being a successful musician is something you have to really want and be dedicated to in order to even stand a chance at survival.

Those things said, let’s get down to what the concept of 1000 True Fans is really about.

As I said before, the idea of 1000 True Fans is that all a musician needs to make a living is 1000 true fans.  To define what we mean by “true fan,” let’s look to the original article: 

A True Fan is defined as someone who will purchase anything and everything you produce. They will drive 200 miles to see you sing. They will buy the super deluxe re-issued hi-res box set of your stuff even though they have the low-res version. They have a Google Alert set for your name. They bookmark the eBay page where your out-of-print editions show up. They come to your openings. They have you sign their copies. They buy the t-shirt, and the mug, and the hat. They can't wait till you issue your next work. They are true fans.

Clearly this description makes it sound like one must rely heavily on a wide array of merchandise.  While unique merchandise definitely is one thing that will help your business (this will be discussed in a future entry), it may be possible to survive on selling just your basic CDs and t-shirts.  Let’s take a quick look at some figures. (These are real market figured kindly offered by George of the band Reverbed and his manager)

Say the cost to produce 500 CDs with basic jewel cases and minimal booklets is about £400.  Say it costs about £1000 to produce 200 t-shirts.  And say you order this merchandise in those quantities (500 CDs at a time, 200 shirts at a time).  To get 1000 CDs and 1000 t-shirts made, your startup costs will be approximately £1400.  If you sell 1000 CDs for £5 each and 1000 shirts for £10, after your expenses are recouped you make a net profit of £13,600.  That’s slightly higher than the amount one would make working a 40 hour week for a minimum wage of £5.93.

To look at it another way, say you make roughly £13,600 at your current job.  What would you need to make from your music business instead to yield the same income?  If each fan spends £15 a year on a CD and shirt, it would take a little over 900 fans to support you financially instead of your day job!  Add to that other merch options and the fact that your “true fans” will spend a good deal more than £15 a year on you and your music, and suddenly the number of fans you need to be successful starts to look feasible!

It should be noted here that the type of “success” this model aims for is not “superstardom.”  Rather, it is a middle class of neither ultra-wealthy on the one hand, nor poverty on the other.  It is about making an income just large enough to support one’s self, and to sustain that income year after year.  We stated once before that the purpose of this blog was not to help one gain superstardom with a major record deal, but rather to simply be able to support yourself as an independent musician.  This model certainly does seem to be a way of achieving that.

So the numbers make sense, and the model seems feasible: If you have 1000 true fans, it is very possible to make a living as a musician.  The real question then becomes, how do you get those fans to begin with?  And furthermore, once you get those fans, how do you keep them interested and buying your music and merchandise year after year?  These questions will each be addressed in turn in the next two entries.