Artist Fandom The Artist Marketing Playbook Needs Rewriting

The 20,000 Foot View:  The whole essence of fandom is being turned upside down. An emerging crop of streaming native artists is finding its audience in a much more targeted and efficient way than via traditional music marketing. Instead of blowing a huge budget on carpet bombing TV, radio, and print, online artists and their teams are finding their exact audiences by focusing on relevance and engagement rather than reach and scale. In doing so, the traditional metrics for measuring success are becoming progressively less relevant. Being a household name might have been a mark of success in years gone by, but now can just as easily represent wasted, poorly targeted marketing spend.

Key Findings

• Between            2016                       2019 radio listening fell from                       streaming rose from            to            and            music viewing was up from                      
• Artist success            measuring across a diverse range            metrics including awareness, fandom, overall            and streaming 
• Traditional, album-focused            who had their brands built            the traditional music marketing playbook            the highest awareness
• Queen is            most listened-to artist            illustrating how            Rhapsody reinvigorated interest in an            enduring band
• Lady Gaga            the highest artist awareness            narrowly            the Beatles into second           
• Post Malone            the biggest streaming audience rate            by DJ Snake           
• Overall listening            are slower moving than streaming,            closely reflecting overall levels of            and awareness 
• Awareness peaks            than consumption – Lady Gaga            awareness but is            in streaming           
• The top            audience artists are not in            top            most well-known rankings, indicating            stage and ‘under the radar’           
• Lady Gaga            Queen both have fanbases with            to half  of them aged           
• Post Malone            a much younger fanbase with                       aged            and            aged under           

Companies and brands mentioned in this report: A Star is Born,  Beyonce, Billie Eilish, Bohemian Rhapsody, Bruno Mars, Camila Cabello, Celine Dion, the Chainsmokers, Coldplay, Daddy Yankee, Daft Punk, David Guetta, DJ Snake, Ed Sheeran, Elton John, H.E.R., Justin Bieber, Justin Timberlake, the Killers, Kobalt, Lady Gaga, Lauv, Luis Fonsi,            Martin Garrix, Miley Cyrus, P!nk, Post Malone, Queen, Rex Orange Country, Spotify, Taylor Swift, The Beatles, The Chainsmokers, The Rolling Stones, TikTok, YouTube

This report previews top-level trends from MIDiA Research’s            2019 Artist Brand Tracker.