More Pay-What-You-Want Examples

Since I wrote this, "Letting the Fans Decide What to Pay You," I have run across other examples that share numbers.

The most thorough comes from 2D Boy, a company that offered its The World of Goo game at pay-what-you-want pricing for two weeks. The game normally sells for $20. During the first week of the special pricing, people paid anywhere from $.01 to $50. The vast majority paid only $.01.

Since the birthday sale started, about 57 thousand people bought World of Goo off our website. The average price paid for the game was $2.03 a significant percent of which went to PayPal for transaction fees. "Pay-What-You-Want Birthday Sale Results," 2D Boy, 10/19/09.

Click on the link to see detailed graphs and charts about the results.

During the second week, the average price paid went up, perhaps as a result of the company publicizing how little many people paid. There's much more data in the follow-up blog post.

Here's another recent pay-what-you-want program. Gisle Martens Meyer, a Norwegian composer, offered his music this way.

What makes me particularly proud, is the percentage of payments vs downloads.

Here are some stats.

40% of downloaders choose to pay

Average payment is 3 USD

Most frequent payment is also 3 USD

There is a smaller, but very respectable number of high payments (15-20 USD)

There is also a good amount of 1 USD payments

Downloads are dropping fast without further promotion.

"Shul -Download And Purchase Statistics," Ugress 11/5/09.

An earlier example for pay-what-you-want music produced better results than Meyer received, perhaps because everyone had to pay at least a minimum price.

The researchers inspected Magnatune between 2003 and 2005. This online-music-shop got a special pricing system, where the customer chooses the final price. Magnatune only sets the range of the price between 5 and 18 dollar and they suggest to pay 8 dollar. By surprise the average price was about 8,20 dollar. That’s 64 percent over the minimum price and even 20 cent more than the suggested price. "The Long Tail of Fans and optional Pricing," Digital Tools, 8/13/09.

The article goes on to say:

Key successes for the optional higher prices were the following:

Transparent revenue share: 50 percent for Magnatune – 50 percent for the artist at every buy.

Buyers convenience: Consumers could stream all content and were not limited to short audio-snippets. This heightened the feeling of having a “fair deal” for the customer.

Good paying customers were having the feeling of supporting a “good thing”.

Anonymous buyers almost always just payed the minimum price.

Experimentation of the preselected price-range should have a huge effect on the customers price-choice.

I also found some other data for Magnature, covering November 2003 to November 2004. This article gives quite a bit more data. The results indicated that 56% of the units sold and 54% of the revenue generated came at the $8 price point. The next biggest price point was $10 (14% of units sold and 17% of revenue). The next most popular price point was $5 (14% of units sold and 9% of revenue). There's a chart that shows units sold and total revenue at each dollar level from $5 to $18.

1) Almost twice as much total revenue comes from people paying $10 (17%) as people paying $5 (9%).

2) 31% of Magnatune's total revenue comes from people paying more than $8, vs. just 16% of revenue for purchases less than $8. I think this makes a case for accepting the minor reduced revenue from allowing people to go below $8 as those who pay more make up for that loss.

3) Purchases center around the round numbers of $5, $8 and $10. Evidently, these numbers "feel good" to people. "Pay what you want" results analyzed at Magnatune," Buckman's Magnature Blog, 12/8/04.

The Radiohead online sale of In Rainbows has been cited many times, though the band has not released its figures. comScore supplied these and maintains they are accurate.

From October 1-29, 2007

62% paid nothing
17% paid between $0.01 - $4.00, 8% of the total sales
6% paid between $$4.01 - $8.00, 12% of total sales
12% paid between $8.01 - $12.00, 52% of total sales
4% paid between $12.01 - $20.00, 27% of total sales

That worked out to an average of $6.00 per paid download worldwide, ($8.05 US, $4.64 non-US)

Including those who didn't pay anything but downloaded the album from Radiohead (not counting illegal filesharing), the average was $2.26 worldwide ($3.23 US, $1.68 non-US).
"For Radiohead Fans, Does 'Free' 'Download' = 'Freeload'?" comScore, 11/5/07.

Radiohead inspired others to try it. Here's what happened with T-shirts.

Remember a few weeks ago when I told you that Tasty Tees were making a tee based upon the "pay what you want" ethos behind Radiohead’s latest album, In Rainbows? Well, if you missed it and want one, I’m afraid its tough luck, they’ve all been printed up and shipped out, and the stats are in…

Average price was $3.37.

20% paid a penny

25% paid a $1

The highest paid was $20

Frankly, this knocks my faith in humanity a bit, I was expecting more of the tee buying public, but kudos to whoever spent $20 on it, oh, and all those figures exclude the $5 shipping fee, so all-in the average was more like $8.37. "Tasty Tees: Pay What You Want Stats Are In, No Really," hideyourarms.com, 12/04/07.

And magazines.

In February, Inc. tested a special offer with 5,000 potential readers: They could sign up for a year's subscription, beginning with the May issue, and set their own rate. "We excluded existing subscribers from the offer and asked folks to pay us upon receipt of their first issue, which included a bill basically saying, 'Now is the time to pay as you wish,' " says Patrick Hainault, Inc.'s director of consumer marketing.

The result? The offer was a dud. The mailing produced a third fewer new subscribers than the magazine's standard direct-mail piece, says Hainault, who has two theories on why the experiment came up short. First, he thinks the mailing itself did not do a good job of emphasizing the novelty of the pitch. The envelope looked like any other subscription offer. The pay-whatever language was not set off in big lettering. "We didn't give enough real estate to the offer to give it credibility," he says. "A One-Hit Wonder?" Inc., 6/1/08.

I pulled a few more examples. Here's a paper about cookie sales. The researchers sold cookies pay-what-you-want, either with a $.25 minimum or without any minimum.

Participants paid more on average for a cookie in the “pay what you want” price scheme (M=$1.17) than in the “pay what you want, minimum 25 cents” price scheme (M=$0.67) ...

Men paid more on average in both conditions than women ($1.06 for men, $0.59 for women). "Do 'Pay What You Want' Price Schemes Lead to Higher Prices," abbyliebeskind.com, Spring, 2009.

Here's one nearly ten years old.

For the last 2 1/2 years, I have been running http://selfpromotion.com/, a URL registration/site promotion resource. SelfPromotion.com basically provides tutorials on proper site promotion methods as well as a sophisticated submission "power tool" that minimizes the labor of submitting urls to large numbers of search engines. While I do make suggestions about appropriate contribution amounts (what I think is a reasonable price), and provide some extra goodies (some cute tools, and keeping all the data they entered online for future use) for those who do contribute a token amount, the choice to pay up and the amount is entirely up to the users of the site. ...

The results are illuminating; while about 10% of those who create an account on the site pay up, the payment percentage for those users that use the site to do more than submit to the top search engines (which can be done for free at hundreds of places on the net) is approximately 40%. Furthermore, the average "tip" I receive is about $22.50, over twice the amount required to get the extra goodies. Contributions of $50 or more are very common.

By letting the users set the price, rather than setting it myself, I more than doubled my income. This is because I captured tips both from people who could not afford to pay what I thought was fair, as well as those who would willingly pay more. "Tipping - a method for optimizing compensation for intellectual property," Robert Woodhead, 8/15/00.

These examples are offered to give you additional data on how pay-what-you-want pricing programs have worked. Relatively few people share their results in great detail, so when I can find such cases, I like to pass them along. If you want to read more about the concept in general, and why it may or may not work well for musicians, check my original post on the subject.

I will add, however, some additional information about the concept that I just found:

What factors make the PWYW approach work?

1. High-fixed costs and low-marginal costs, with available marginal capacity: If additional volume is inexpensive to serve, and you have available capacity (think buffet restaurant, copies of software, or publishing but not technical equipment or professional services), the volume gain increases profitability. If you have fixed capacity or high-marginal costs, you risk replacing a higher-fee customer with a lower one.

2. Ability to communicate the offer: While very high levels of satisfaction can actually increase price, like the deli results, the power of the pricing approach lies in attracting customers otherwise priced out of the market. ...

3. Repeat transactions and high levels of satisfaction: Customers are driven by reciprocity and fairness. This approach made the Hare Krishna airport flower campaign successful – individuals were presented with a flower, then asked to reciprocate with any amount of money they chose. Customers want to appear fair and avoid embarrassment. If you offer a satisfactory, high-value solution, all research on PWYW models show that customers will offer a non-zero fee they believe is fair. "PWYW: A New Pricing Model," Revenue Management Forum, 2/19/09.

Suzanne Lainson
@slainson on Twitter

UPDATE 1/8/10
Another example:

I tried something new this time as far as CD sales go: I offered them on a “pay-what-you-can” basis. Throughout the show I announced that I wanted everyone there to leave with a CD, no matter what it took. I had a “suggested donation” price of $15, but told the crowd they could pay $10, $5, $2…or just take one for free. For some reason not everyone took me up on my offer. But in comparison to my last CD Release Party, where all CDs were priced at $10, I sold twice as many this time, and made more than twice as much money. 50% of the sales were for the suggested price of $15, 42% paid less, and 8% paid more. "Thanks to All Who Helped Make The JPQ CD Release Party a HUGE Success!" One Working Musician, 10/27/09.

UPDATE 5/19/10

The pilot restaurant is run by a nonprofit foundation. If it can sustain itself financially, Panera will expand the model around the country within months. It all depends on whether customers will abide by the motto that hangs above the deli counter: "Take what you need, leave your fair share."

Panera hopes to open a similar location in every community where it operates. "New Panera location says pay what you want," MSNBC, 5/18/10.

UPDATE 5/21/10
Not all restaurants using this concept find that it works.

The phone at the Java Street Cafe in Kettering, Ohio, which last year embraced the pay-what-you-want strategy, has been disconnected, and it appears to have closed.

And Tierra Sana in Queens folded — though it offered customers a pay-what-you-want option only one day a week.

The Terra Bite Lounge, a cafe in Kirkland, Wash., operated as a pay-what-you-want restaurant for a year or so. But Ervin Peretz, its owner and a lead technical designer at Google, said the cafe now charges for its meals. He said he dropped the model in part because of issues particular to its location — it is in a neighborhood popular with teenagers.

Founded in 2003, One World Everybody Eats in Salt Lake City is one of the oldest pay-what-you-want restaurants, and like Mr. Peretz, its operators have found the concept a bit challenging. It is now owned by a nonprofit group and suggests customers pay a small amount, say, $4 for a meat or fish entree.

“I used to let people put their money in a basket and make their own change, but then I went to a lockbox,” said Denise Cerreta, the cafe’s founder. “You learn how to cut down on the people who will take advantage of the concept.” "Another Restaurant Tries Pay-What-You-Want," New York Times, 5/20/10.

Thoughts on Groupies

In my last blog post, "Involving Music Fans at Many Levels," I made a list of ways fans can get involved with an artist/band and the music. I invited people to add to the list if I had forgotten anything.

Someone suggested "groupies" so I added it to the list. I think he was using the term as it is commonly associated in music: women who sleep with rock stars as their own claim to fame. But people also use the term "groupie" to describe fans who slavishly seek out attention from their favorite celebrities.

I had forgotten about groupies, but when he suggested it, I remembered when I personally started to use it as a pejorative term. That was when I was spending hours each day at what was then the top figure skating rink in the world. A number of Olympic-level athletes trained there. The rink community was made up of skaters, their parents (I was one of those), coaches, and the staffers who worked there. Anyone else who showed up on a regular basis was viewed with some suspicion. It was a public building so anyone could walk in, but the idea that people would spend their free time there when they didn't need to be there struck us as weird. Didn't they have lives they should be tending to? So in our minds either you had a purpose to be around skating that much or you were a groupie. And being a groupie wasn't good.

The term has also been used in skating to describe certain event-going fans. Here's a quote from a 1996 newspaper article.

Ask Tom Collins, owner of the Tour of World Figure Skating Champions, one of the best-known tours on the skating circuit.

No matter what city his cast of about 30 prominent, award-winning skaters perform in, there will be a core group of regulars filling rink-side seats reserved months in advance.

"Almost like a rock star having a following, we have these skating groupies ... (who) see anywhere from six to 20 shows per year," Collins said.

A couple of more quotes:

Skating groupies, a hitherto little known subspecies, followed [Christopher Bowman] wherever he went. "Half athlete, half artist and all showman, national," Sports Illustrated, 2/12/90.

Until about ten years ago, figure skating was a relatively genteel sport, free of the fanaticism that has led to injuries and deaths in soccer melees and similar incidents in other sports. Most people who followed the sport or came to competitions were true fans of the sport, rather than groupies. "Fans or Fanatics: How a Few Bad Apples are Ruining Figure Skating," Golden Skate, 3/25/02.

All professional sports have their share of groupies. For example:

When hockey players first start off in the NHL they're pulled in many different directions since they're making all this money and have no idea that the kind of friends they're dealing with are people that are not the kind of people you want around. This goes into the kind of women who end up trapping a lot of hockey players and many of them are addressed as "Puck Bunnies" these are what you call hockey's term for groupies. Many pro athletes are the prime target of these kinds of females who are more interested in them for the financial and sexual aspect. Many of the athletes who are married or dating are with women who started off as groupies. Most of them are young girls 18-25 and most of them are not really educated because women who are educated would not settle for the role of a side dish. "Hockey Players And The Groupies Who Chase Them," Article Click, 4/1/06.

Within sports there is also a male version of a groupie (albeit, without the sex involved) called a "jock sniffer."

For a sportswriter, being called a jock sniffer is the worst thing that can happen, worse even than finding out you have to pay for the press box buffet. Being a jock sniffer means you're hanging around the athletes just for the thrill of being in their company, and that you'd never write anything negative, even if it was warranted. No one, not even reporters who ignore "no cheering in the press box" warnings, would call him- or herself a jock sniffer. Sportswriters, in fact, rarely use the term on their colleagues anymore, but that's because they've broken down jock sniffing into categories. The reporter with a slavish devotion to the team on his beat is a "homer." The reporter with a slavish devotion to a particular player would be that player's "bobo," "caddie" or "boy." "Kick Out the Sports!" Flak Magazine, 6/16/03.

Although no one wants to be labeled a jock sniffer or the equivalent, some people come to their defense and say these guys are just responding to appropriate status cues:

So instead of admitting -- outside of their fantasy life -- to their desire/dream of meeting with and getting connected to a Bon Jovi, Tiger Woods, or Brad Pitt, they approach the object of their adulation through, for example, the rite of the autograph request (always for someone else, of course) or engineer the desired association through non-fawning conventional means: practical doctor-dentist-financial advisor, career consultant relationships. "Guitars, Gonads, and Groupies Are Wild," Arts & Opinion, Vol. 2, No. 4, 2003.

Rock music is where groupies are most commonly associated, and some have become minor celebrities for the practice.

"A fan is very content to stay home and listen to the music, but the groupie wants to meet them," said Pamela Des Barres, the ultimate groupie who partied with everyone from the Doors to the Who to the Rolling Stones, and whose 1987 autobiography is called "I'm With the Band." "'Almost Famous' to 'Rock of Love': Groupies Then and Now," ABC News, 8/14/09.

Modern groupies want their 15-minute share of fame, asserting themselves through tawdry memoirs and talk show gigs. They're passing along trivia about penis size, championing songs written in their honor, and demanding a place in show-biz history. "Groupies," SF Weekly, 7/25/07.

[On becoming plaster casters.] Initially it was to get laid because we were shy. And then when we finally got around to learning how to do it, it kind of backfired for me in the sex department, because I wound up being the mold mixer, and I hardly got laid as a result! First it was a shtick to get laid, and then as it progressed, I got this collector's impulse to collect more and more. And then people told me it was art, and it is art in the school of Andy Warhol, art repetition. "Cynthia Plaster Caster: Art with staying power," Salon, 7/12/00.

A subset of groupies had a degree of status.

Such crass approaches are unnecessary for the grandes dames of groupie society, the Super Groupies. Beautiful, usually intelligent, often well-heeled, they are welcome—in fact, sought-after—company. "Manners And Morals: The Groupies," Time, 2/28/69.

But most did not.

Which we actually used to look upon as, uh, gas stations.... "Uh, we're in Cincinnati, so...we need to fill 'er up a little." And the other thing about groupies, it wasn't just boinky-boinky. They used to take care of you. They used to rub Vicks on your chest if you had a cold. Sometimes you'd never do anything. Sometimes they were just...nasty. [laughs] Get my drift? [laughs]...I don't miss them. "Keith Richards On Groupies, Mick Jagger And Curing Himself Of Hep C," Huffington Post, 3/28/08.

This sums it up:

We mock and deride them, dismiss them as tramps and tarts, in order to disassociate ourselves from the ethos that compels them to give themselves away to total strangers. Groupies, as they are eponymously known, are chicks that follow, fawn over and offer themselves to musicians performing in mostly rock and pop groups. "Guitars, Gonads, and Groupies Are Wild," Arts & Opinion, Vol. 2, No. 4, 2003.

So, in review, there are two definitions of groupies.

1. Women who sleep with musicians/athletes as their claim to fame.

2. Fans whose primary leisure-time activity is following a specific musician/athlete to as many events as possible. In most cases these are harmless people who just enjoy watching performances rather than obsessed fans who qualify as stalkers.

What ties the two categories together is that (1) they are fans and (2) they are viewed with some distain.

Based on some conversations I have had, athletes/musicians/celebrities tend to have an ambivalent view of those they think of as groupies. On the plus side, they view having groupies as an indication that someone admires them; on the minus side, they would prefer to hang out with their peers (which the groupies, by definition, are not). Groupies are people whose claim to fame is that they hang out with celebrities, not that they have done anything noteworthy themselves. Therefore they aren't perceived by celebrities as being very interesting. Groupies aren't doing enough in their own lives to need to be anywhere but hanging out with the celebrities. They don't have any important meetings to go to. Or any important parties to be at. The only people who admire groupies are those who are doing even less with their lives.

Groupies aren't even part of the entourage, which is made up of people who, while not necessarily famous themselves, have at least earned their access legitimately, either because they work for the celebrity, are long-time friends, or are relatives.

Celebrities also can feel uncomfortable with groupies because some have had bad encounters with obsessed fans.

Stars have to try to balance the notion of staying relevant and getting press with releasing too much personal information, [fame psychology expert James] Houran said.

"The more a celebrity discloses about themselves, the more they make a fan think they know them in a way that they really don't," Houran said. "Could you become a celebrity stalker?" CNN, 11/05/09.

Celebrities are always trying to build walls around themselves, literally and figuratively, and those walls cost money.

This week, rapper 50 Cent, whose real name is Curtis Jackson, admitted that he spends $20,000 a week on security at his Farmington, Connecticut, mansion.

"My home is surrounded by cameras. I need surveillance not only to look out for me but also to protect me. You get all these crazy lawsuits, and I need cameras to check on things," the 33-year-old told the entertainment news service WEN. "Celebs shell out big bucks for security," CNN, 11/06/09.

But for the most part, groupies aren't viewed as dangerous, and depending on the whim of the celebrity, are sometimes encouraged to hang around, and sometimes not. That's the dilemma. Groupies are kind of appreciated, but not really.

What made me think they are worth writing about is that musicians are currently being told to actively court fans, in ways far more involved than in the past. Internet interactivity is allowing musicians to connect more directly with fans. Many social media advocates feel this is good (e.g., Tribes, 1,000 True Fans).

Taking it a step further, they are saying that musicians and other celebrities should consider selling access as part of a tiered direct-to-fan offering.

... being able to talk to them, or be with them, or have events that they're involved in. Say you really like a band and you sign up for a subscription. From that you get early access to tickets to concerts, you can get the best seat, you can get backstage passes. Interview: Mike Masnick, Techdirt's Founder," The Guardian, 1/11/07.

But others are starting to write about the tradeoffs.

In the age of the super-fan, the musician is charged with conveying the idea that his or her music is worth $100 a year of various and sundry purchases, some or even most of which may not involve actual music. I am not saying that this can't be done, I'm only pointing out that this is first of all a less modest goal than musicians of the past were charged with and second of all requires a different approach to a music-making life.

Some 21st-century musicians appear to be well-suited to this new mode of being. It requires an unmitigated willingness and ability to be a public person in a much different way than is involved when simply singing songs on a stage. Artists for whom such conduct feels natural may not find it any particular kind of burden. "Farewell to the casual music fan," Fingertips, 11/9/09.

Amanda Palmer is someone who doesn't have a problem with it.

a few months ago i was traveling around impulsively after a long tour, taking off-time and visiting friends and family in various cities and discovering the then-newfound magical powers of twitter.
i used these magical powers to put together flash-mob-style donation-shows on beaches and in parks, to find last-minute practice pianos, to find cafe/yoga/wireless recommendations, to find crash spaces for me & my assistant, even to twitter for rides to and from the airport from random fans (twitchhiking!). why the hell not?. call me crazy. but i like these people and trust them enough to do that....

since the birth of the dresden dolls in 2000, i have pretty much been on tour and i have, with very few exceptions due to sickness or mad schedules, signed and hung out with my fans after almost every single show.
if i had to guess how people i have signed for, hugged or connected with…..it’s probably in the hundreds of thousands of people. (literally).
some nights brian (the dolls’ drummer) and i would sign for over a thousand people, for 3-4 hours.
we would take a lot of time to really meet people, talk to them, hear their stories, connect with them. in a lot of cases, stay in touch with them.
and now i know my fans. ...

please understand: i don’t preach this from a high horse, i say this so you (especially who don’t KNOW me) understand that the people i am reaching out to…these people KNOW ME.
a lot of them have MET me. a lot of them have FED me, HOUSED me, helped me carry heavy amps and gear up stairs, promoted my shows in their towns.
to this day, i rely on them for TONS of help. and this is a huge part of why i feel confident that i won’t look like too much of an asshole when i reach out to my fanbase for money.
even those who haven’t helped me directly follow the story, they see how my life functions and they offer what they can.
they’re part of this ride, part of my struggle to live this weird life with it’s many travels and ups and downs.
for the most part, they trust me. and i trust them. time and attention has made that possible. "Virtual Crowdsurfing," Amanda Palmer blog, 10/13/09.

A few, like Palmer, have the personality to give back to their fans and not to mock them for being fans. But not everyone can do it.

Music fans have set different expectations for artists and insist that they are met. While not everyone has interest in messaging their favorite artist, those that do, anticipate a reply back. "The Elsewhere Musician: Making Connections in a Fragmented World," hypebot, 11/12/09.

The HBO comedy series Flight of the Conchords has captured the essence of the hardcore music fan very well with the character Mel. Music needs her, but doesn't quite know what to do with her.

Mel's Flight of the Conchords Fan Blog: January 2009

Mel's Flight of the Conchords Fan Blog: December 2008

Suzanne Lainson
@slainson on Twitter

UPDATE 5/23/10
One person's experience having paid for a $1100 VIP ticket for a Bon Jovi concert.

So I fly in, get to the arena for my VIP treatment and for the next few hours, was treated like shit by everyone from arena staff to band staff to Jon Bon Jovi’s brother. Someone (a heavier girl) wanted a picture with Matt BJ…and he rolled his eyes in a manner that was disgusting. A friend overheard one of the crew guys referring to the fan club as the “fat club”…out loud, in front of people! It was like scheduling a meeting with Michael Corleone and getting Fredo instead.

... I take my seat and the guy next 2 me asks what I paid, I tell him and he begins to laugh out loud. He goes on to tell me that he paid nothing, was given free tickets by the management team and that people like me pay for his tickets. He had been drinking but I couldn’t stop listening. He went on and on and told me that the band makes all their money from people like me who are dumb and foolish enough to spend the money (which was confirmed by the NYT article). "E-Mail Of The Day," Lefsetz Letter, 5/23/10.

UPDATE 7/13/10
About the site RentAFriend:

While some of the suggested uses for the site do seem pretty practical (having someone show you around town or teach you a skill), many of them seem a bit like a crutch. Has social networking changed real-life interaction to the point where we need to pay someone to be a real-time friend? "Stuff We Didn’t Know About Until Today: You Can Rent A Friend," TIME NewsFeed, 7/6/10.

Read the comments. Some of them express the same distain that people feel for groupies.

UPDATE 10/20/10
Here's a column written by a singer/songwriter, John Roderick, acknowledging how important superfans are in launching bands and how they inevitably get pushed aside when the musicians become more popular and hence busier.

So this letter from the superfan girl affected me. She felt that her love, to say nothing of all the hard work she did promoting the band, was going unappreciated. Suddenly the backstage was crammed with newcomers, and the band was too young even to look at her with knowing, apologetic eyes. But I feel for the band too: They're swamped, barely keeping their heads above water. They're at the start of their journey, and already the people who loved them first are pining for a simpler time. "Superfans: They Love You First. They Book You Shows. It Gets Complicated," Seattle Weekly, 10/19/10.

UPDATE 11/11/10
Part of an interview with Paige X. Cho, Administration and Promotions Manager for digital distributor Valleyarm and author of the Melbourne music blog Paper-Deer.

The term "superfan" reminds me of Mel from Flight of the Conchords - sometimes a little creepy, borderline stalker behavior but all done with good intentions. Like John Roderick writes, these are the obsessive fans that have a lot invested in bands and feel that their over-the-top and unsolicited help means that they should be friends with the band and get thanked on stage or first dibs on anything. I've even known a superfan who weirdly knew the shampoo her favorite singer used!

The problem with these fans is they aren't happy with just getting newsletters or buying autographed merch. They feel they deserve more, and the problem is that these fans get offended very easily. If you walk by them outside a venue without hearing them go "hi" or you don't personally reply to their emails, they seem to get upset and could possibly "turn" against you.

I suppose one solution that might appease some (but not all) is to set up a street team and make your biggest superfan the director of the street team. Not only are they likely to do a damn fine job for free, it's a good way to turn their obsession into something manageable. "Bands As A Business: Invest Money In Marketing," hypebot, 11/11/10.

Involving Music Fans at Many Levels

Many in the music industry have woken up to the fact that relationships with fans are important. Social media, direct-to-fan sales, and fan management are concepts being discussed online and at conferences.

I believe that if we don't take the concept even further, the music industry will continue to be a trend follower rather than a trend setter. Thinking of fans as consumers and artists as creators seems to be the same old model, now simply spread across smaller and smaller niches.

Based on what I am seeing, both at shows and in the way fans are using technology, I anticipate more of a movement toward involving fans at all levels of music. Or, let me put it this way, if you don't involve them, they will either find ways to insert themselves anyway, or they will go elsewhere.

Many new music business models recognize that there are various levels of fandom. Here is one example: The Long Tail Of Fans

But I think there are even more ways for fans to interact with music. And each stage on the continuum presents ways to engage fans (i.e., to capitalize on their interests and give them more ways to express themselves and find fulfillment in the process). Not everyone wants to invest much time or effort into music, but I think everyone wants to feel emotionally rewarded by the process, whether they put in a great deal of time/effort or very little.

Here's the list of levels of involvement that I came up with. I tried to put them in order from what I think might be the least amount of time and commitment to what might involve the most time/commitment. But this can vary from person to person depending on skill sets. For some, making a video for/about the band would take more time than learning to play a song on the guitar. For others, it might be the reverse. So my list isn't supposed to be a fixed progression of involvement levels. In fact, a better guide might be how many hours a fan is devoting to a band and its music rather than the tasks he/she is performing. For example, someone who spends hours learning to play an instrument in order to emulate an artist or band may have far more emotional involvement than a wealthy sponsor who donates a significant amount of money.

If I have left out any, feel free to suggest them and I will incorporate them in the list (and credit you, as I go).

Be exposed to music in some fashion (e.g., radio, TV, blogs, Pandora, friend suggestions/playlists)

NOTE: My list started with "listen to music" on the assumption that the first step anyone takes in a relationship with an artist/band is to hear the music. But Tom Higley (read more about our discussion below) pointed out that listening can come with a context. So there are actually multiple levels of music exposure/discovery/receptiveness. You can stumble upon music, have it recommended to you, or seek it out.

Listen to music

Go to the artist/band website

Stream the music (from Next Big Sound Blog)

Download the music for free (from Next Big Sound Blog)

Attend a show because friends have bought your ticket (suggested by Tom Higley)

Add music to a playlist

Become a fan on Facebook or another site

Forward a link to friends or post it on Facebook or another website

Indicate that you like the music or favorite it on various websites (from Next Big Sound Blog)

Vote for the artist/band in a contest. (from Next Big Sound Blog)

Play with an application on the artist/band website (e.g., augmented reality)

Buy the music

Sign up for a mailing list

Read the artist/band blog on a regular basis (suggested by kahnzo)

Subscribe to the artist/band's YouTube channel

Comment on the artist/band's webpage/Facebook page/bulletin board/etc.

Promote the artist/band to friends

Sing the artist/band's songs at karaoke

Purchase or create a ringtone of the artist/band's song (from Next Big Sound Blog)

Support a company because it sponsors the band

Buy yourself tickets to shows

Take photos, videos, and/or text at shows to send to friends

Dance/sing at the show

Talk to the band after the show (suggested by kahnzo)

Get the artist to sign a CD

Buy a t-shirt

Wear the t-shirt a lot

Put a widget from the artist/band on your webpage

Take friends to the show

Buy show tickets for friends (suggested by Tom Higley)

Engage in an ongoing online conversation about/with the artist/band

Download an iPhone application for the artist/band

Blog favorably about the music (that might include posting setlists, photos, and reviews)

Record the music at a show

Create a video using the music or in some other fashion related to the artist/band

Create a remix

Choreograph a dance number to the music

Perform the artist/band's music at a talent show

Use the artist/band's music in your wedding

Play a fantasy game with the artist/band on your roster (suggested by ZikPot)

Join something related to the band which requires a monthly or annual payment

Be an extra in the artist/band video (suggested by kahnzo)

Learn to play the songs on an instrument (which would involve more effort than just singing along)

Get to know other fans to the extent that you recognize them at shows and/or stay in touch between shows

Buy tickets to a show on the first day

Join a street team (doing tasks such as postering or handing out flyers)

Help the artist/band by doing something outside of street team work (perhaps pro bono professional services)

Create an artist/band related t-shirt

Collect artist/band-related stuff

Create a fan page for the artist/band

Learn an instrument to play the songs

Befriend the artist/band (i.e., get to know the artist/band to the extent that you socialize beyond music-related events)

Date or get involved with a band member beyond friendship (suggested by Rick -- he actually said "become a groupie," but I'll include dating and marrying in addition to sleeping with)

Contribute money/goods/services to the artist/band or become a sponsor

Travel outside your area to multiple shows

Plan vacations around the artist/band

Hire the artist/band for a private concert

Write songs inspired by the artist/band

Create a video game or characters based on the artist/band (suggested by kahnzo)

Create your own band after being inspired by the artist/band

Join the band itself

Get better/more famous than the original band that inspired you

This list is basically self-motivated. The reward is in developing an interest and then pursuing it. But I had a conversation the other night with Tom Higley, CEO of iggli (a new way to invite friends to ticketed events), who suggested bands or others in the music business could also provide extrinsic motivators to encourage fans to take additional steps. He cited what foursquare is doing. The company allows people to know where their friends are located. But as people frequent certain places, they receive rewards of various kinds (e.g., titles, discounts and freebies offered by those locations). Here's more on the concept: "6 Innovative Ways Businesses are Capitalizing on Foursquare."

Music could offer something similar (e.g., titles and rewards for attending the most shows at a venue, attending the most shows for a particular artist, earning points for purchases, donating time). There can be both a public component and and a rewards component for engaging in certain activities.

I'll be touching all of the above in future blog posts. Suffice it to say for now that selling to fans is no longer enough. They have too many other options to be passive consumers.

Suzanne Lainson
@slainson on Twitter

The Lure of the One-of-a-Kind Item

I plan to write more about developing limited edition items for musicians to sell to their hardcore fans. But before I revisit that, I want to post a few thoughts about another trend I'm currently seeing: the one-of-a-kind item. Of course, many artworks and craft items are marketed this way, but examples are popping up in less traditional places, too.

For example, I saw this on Carly Simon's website.

Each limited-edition, Carly Simon Heirloom Box includes one unique item from Carly's private career archives, personally selected by Carly herself.

No two Heirloom Boxes will receive the same original item. Each Heirloom Box is made by hand and includes a Certificate of Authenticity.

And at the upcoming Winter Olympics in Vancouver, each medal will be a unique, hand-cropped section of a larger work.

...each medal will include its own signature elements of the orca and raven artwork, such as the suggestion of the orca’s eye, the curve of its dorsal fin, or perhaps the contours of the raven’s wing. A silk scarf printed with the master artwork will be presented to each Olympian or Paralympian with their medal enabling them to see how their medal connects with those awarded to other athletes at the Games to make the whole design. "Vancouver 2010 medals each a one-of-a-kind work of contemporary Aboriginal art," Vancouver2010.com, 10/15/09.

The concept is also being used for running shoes. New Balance has a new handmade shoe, the 574 Clips. Only 480 pairs will be made and each pair has a unique identity.

The campaign will be centered around a website that will feature 480 short videos. 480 video clips were recorded of each of the shoes’ unique experience before reaching the consumer. These videos were shot at locations throughout the US including Los Angeles, New York City and Lawrence, Massachusetts, where the shoes are manufactured.

To compliment the 480 short films, a Polaroid photo has been taken of the shoe’s experience and placed in the corresponding shoe box, conveying a trading card collector feel. The back of each Polaroid will indicate the shoe’s limited edition number (example: 017/480), size and color. A find tab will list the ten retail locations where the collection can be purchased. Consumers can then visit the 574 Clips website and search for the exclusive video created specifically for their shoe. Once the consumer has found their “clip”, they can watch the short video featuring their pair. After the video is finished playing, the Polaroid will flip over and the owner has the option to “claim” their shoe by entering a unique 5 digit code and their name. Once clips are claimed, they can still be viewed, but the owner’s name will be shown at the end of the short. "New Balance 574 Clips Campaign," Hypebeast, 9/15/09.

What's interesting about this campaign is that even though these are limited edition, handmade shoes, they aren't being sold at a premium price.

The individual attention is meant to underscore the unusual, all-American lineage of the shoes: Each are composed of leftover material clippings in New Balance's Lawrence, Mass., factory, (hence "Clips.")

The 574 Clips will sell for $75, so the goal is not so much related to revenues from the line, but to creating a positive buzz among sneaker bloggers or "sneakerheads" as they're known in the industry. "New Balance Woos the Sneakerheads," Brandweek, 9/17/09.

Another example of one-of-a-kind-ness comes from Sufjan Stevens, who gave one fan his own song. Other songwriters have done that too, but the interesting part is what the fan has chosen to do with it.

Mr. Duffy, a 33-year-old theater director, owns the song. He won the exclusive rights to it in a contest that the singer held in 2007.

... after a year of wondering just what to do with the song, Mr. Duffy decided that putting it on the Internet wasn't special enough. He wondered: What if the only way the song could be heard was in person, in intimate gatherings?

"This is the finest way we felt we could curate this song," Mr. Duffy says. "It brings people together," he adds, rather than "being lost among 14,000 iTunes."

The experiment lures strangers to Mr. Duffy's living room about once a week, to "recapture an era when to get one's hands on a particular album or song was a real experience," as he says on an invitation posted on the Web site of his theater company. ... He doesn't charge them to hear it. ...

From a goldenrod wingback chair, Mr. Duffy passed around the package sent with his prize. A personal letter from Mr. Stevens describes "hibernating bears trapped in our imagination" and the "muffled insulation of snow banks on either side of you" as inspiration for the song. There's also a Christmas card from Mr. Stevens -- which arrived in January.

To prevent recordings -- and, ultimately, dissemination -- of the song, listeners don headphones hooked up to Mr. Duffy's iPod or laptop. "Not-So-Easy Listening: It Takes a Trek to Hear This Track," Wall Street Journal, 6/12/09.

An older, but wildly successful example of giving each customer something unique was the Cabbage Patch doll.

With great flair for merchandising, Xavier [Roberts, the creator] announced that every doll was different and dreamt up the cabbage patch story line. Perhaps the biggest selling point was that each baby came with an adoption certificate and its own special name. Millions of people were enthralled by the idea of owning a unique cloth baby, and little girls were enchanted to know that their doll was the only one of its kind in the whole wide world. World Collectors Net

For the most part, artists and marketers will promote one-of-a-kind items as more expensive than their mass-produced counterparts. But there are inexpensive one-of-a-kind items. For example, fortune cookies and Cracker Jacks prizes. Well, these aren't actually one-of-a-kind items, but there's enough variety that among a group of people opening cookies or boxes together, each person is likely to get something different.

Musicians who want to intrigue their fans with one-of-a-kind items can either go the Carly Simon route and make them part of expensive packages. Or they can go the fortune cookie route and create items that are very inexpensive to produce, but fun to provide at shows. Some ideas for low-end giveaways or in exchange for tips or signing an email list:

Printed items that fans can draw from a bowl (e.g., fortunes; trivia; ID cards or wearable labels with silly personalities or quotes). I can say from personal experience that it works. I went to a party thrown by an ad agency and all the guests got to pick out name tags that had fake, but very clever descriptions that we could choose from. It made for far more interesting conversations than if we identified ourselves with our real names and companies.

One-of-a-kind buttons created from clip art or other sources of images. If you have your own button maker, produce lots of different buttons rather than just one or two designs.

One-of-a-kind magnets. (You can buy sheets of magnetic paper and print them yourself. You can either get sheets that snap apart into business card-sized pieces, or you can buy unscored sheets and cut them yourself into whatever sizes and shapes you want.)

Grab bags or small boxes with individualized collections of inexpensive favors. (You can find sources under party favors and vending machine supplies.)

One-of-a-kind temporary tattoos.

This is not to say that every band/artist must or should go the one-of-the-kind route. But it is currently being done to create a stronger connection to fans. I think most of us are at least a little intrigued or amused when we get something unique and can tell our friends about it or compare it to what they received.

Suzanne Lainson
@slainson on Twitter