An artist focused on fanbase growth is a startup artist. This can be determined by the following question: Would receiving 1,000,000 fans overnight solve most of your problems? If they answer yes, they are a startup artist.
Like Paul Graham says: "A barbershop isn't designed to grow fast. Whereas a search engine, for example, is". I got the idea of a startup being differentiated by growth from this essay. The startup artist, should revolve its strategy around growth checkpoints. Instead, I see many measuring consequences/tactics for the growth.
Here are some better ways to measure (not necessarily accurate numbers, or the only route)
| Idea | As A Consequence Of | As A Tactic |
|---|---|---|
| Open for a big band | show attendance average 100-200 | fans can convince friends to come + 1000 people there will yield maybe 100 new likes |
| Get A Budget For An Album | 200 fans giving 10 dollars each in kickstarter campaing | can promote album at shows, and turn likes into fans |
| Get Signed to a record label | exhausted local fanbase potential | can venture to other areas, and get promotion which can yield more fans |
Startup artists must focus on rapid growth. The strategies above should only be executed if they answer the following:
- does what we are doing have any growth potential?
- if so, are we doing everything we can to make sure we have that growth?
- is it the least amount of work we can do to get the most new fans?
If these questions cannot be answered the activity is just playing house.