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“You Don’t Own Your Fanbase. You Rent Them.”

August 16, 2015 · Leave a Comment

5 Magazine:

It’s been said that we live in an era of “access” – a kind of golden age of artist communications and marketing. Rather than rely upon the faulty medium of the journalist or the tabloid, artists can now talk “directly” to their fans without any intermediary. Well, except for SoundCloud, or Twitter, or Facebook, or…



The reality is that you don’t own your fanbase. You just “access” them. You rent them in exchange for your data. And at moments like this – when you want to end your lease and move to another block – it becomes incredibly clear what the distinction is.



The important thing to realize is that these barriers between fan and artist are entirely artificial. There’s really no reason why they need to exist, other than to impede you from doing exactly what SoundCloud’s frustrated producers want to do: leave.


Terry Matthew’s insightful piece could almost serve as a thesis statement for our blog here. Musicians now live in an incredible time, when autonomous promotion, presentation, and distribution are all completely attainable. But why are so few artists choosing this? As I’ve opined here before, these tools (Facebook, SoundCloud, etc.) are useful, but should compliment the artist’s subservient infrastructure rather than serving as that infrastructure.

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Related posts:

  1. SoundCloud’s Move Into Distribution
  2. SoundCloud’s Phoenix Rises
  3. We Now Return To The SoundCloud Soap Opera …

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8sided.blog is a digital celebration of sound, culture, and what Andrew Weatherall once referred to as 'the punk rock dream'. It broadcasts those who experiment not just in name but also through action.

It's also the online home of Michael Donaldson, a slightly jaded but surprisingly optimistic fellow who once competed under the name Q-Burns Abstract Message. He was the widely disputed king of sandcastles until his voluntary exile from the music industry.

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