Fans or Friends?
When an indie artist starts getting famous and forms a band, at first, he finds his friends attending all his shows and suddenly, getting audience becomes so easy. Feels like you have a dedicated crowd. Seeing familiar faces in the crowd gives the confidence that you need to kick-start your career. A few people calling out your name is better than a silent audience. That’s what our friends do when we are just beginning our career as an indie artist. The glamour, my friend, waives off soon. And when you see the change, it frustrates you.
My blog “E-mail Marketing for Indie Artists” talks about how customers are believed to take e-mails more seriously than Facebook and are willing to pay more than double, if they have received an e-mail offer. I could go on about the benefits of e-mail marketing. But why bother? Every indie artist faces a time in his career when no matter how many e-mails you have sent out to everyone, no one turns up. It makes you wonder if you aren’t as good as you used to be. Or, have you done too many shows and lost people’s interest? Or, have you started writing rubbish?
When your friends start skipping your performances, you start believing that they don’t care about you. Think again. Is it possible that they care about you but they don’t care about your profession? You must understand that not everyone is as passionate about music as you are. Your friends don’t have to attend all your performances. After all, they are your friends, not your fans.
When our friends attend all our initial performances, we start believing that we’re doing really well and that the crowd is going to last forever. But as you move on in your career, you will see less of your friends and start thinking that your friends have changed and you are losing them. Do not let their absence affect you. Imagine a friend who is a professor and is very passionate about his work. How many lectures would you be able to attend, just to make him happy? Our friends do not have to behave like fans to prove their friendship. You must accept the fact that friends are friends, even if they don’t attend your performances.
If you mix your expectations from friends with your expectations from fans, you will be harming your confidence in yourself as well as your friendship. It is also going to impact your performance in a lot of ways. Playing in front of friends is much easier than playing in front of an audience. Unless you let yourself go out there and perform, you will never know if you have the confidence and the charm to hold the audience. Your friends will always like you. It is only when you perform before total strangers that you will know your worth and aspire to do better.
You’ve got to treat every performance as a chance to win new fans. As I have mentioned in my blog “Music Festivals”, any indie band or a solo indie artist, no matter how talented, is likely not going to become famous overnight. Understand that success doesn’t happen in a day. Be reasonable in your aspirations and act smartly. Mark important places around you on a map that can be beneficial to you for a performance. Aim at getting a festival gig in these places and give your best at those performances. Crazy rehearsals, and long work hours are required to make sure you nail every performance. Only then would you be able to build fans who are going to decide the length and height of your success.
While there are websites like Hyper Effects to help you create a website to display your talent, sell your indie music or indie art, or general maintenance of your website, it is very important to keep getting better at your work too. While Hyper Effects helps connecting with your target audience easier, you should aim at turning your fans into friends with the help of social media, instead of trying to turn your friends into fans. You don’t want an emotional drama associated with your career.
It’s alright to not be famous overnight. Just keep trying to continue winning the hearts of more and more fans. Expand your horizons and remain visible; with your music or your presence.
Please leave your experiences in the comments section and I will add them to my future blogs.
