Fans are the currency of your bands success.
They buy your music, they come to your Gigs. They even buy your merchandise and wear your T-Shirts.
But what is a fan really worth to you and your band?
I have asked myself this question over the last few days. Not because I am a Musician (though I do love music), and not because I have anything to do with managing a Band.
However I do work with lots of Bands and Entertainers from a self Promotions standpoint.
I help them with their Band & Gig Backdrops, band stickers, the stuff to help them get noticed and more importantly be recognised.
I thought it would be interesting, for me and the bands I work with to find out what their fans and their future fans are actually worth to them.
I Started with Ten Bands For My Calculations
I chose ten bands to be my target group for my analysis. Bands covering different types of music, both past and present.
To answer the question of fan worth, I started researching these ten.
How many fans did they have, and what are these fans worth, in real dollar terms to the bands that they follow?
The number of fans varied so much from one internet resource to the other, in the end, I decided to turn to Facebook for this part of the answer.
Facebook with its 1.35 billion active users every month, (30% of which are now mobile only, would help democratise the fan numbers for easier comparison.
I understand that the Facebook fan numbers don’t reflect the entire number of fans these bands have worldwide. Though I think you’ll agree, that it is probably an accurate way of being able to compare one bands fans numbers to the next, as we will find anywhere.
I then used the bands fan numbers, and divided this into their net worth.
Each bands “estimated” value or Net worth numbers are all freely available online. And I used lots of sources to compile this information.Two of the online sites being Forbes.com (Forbes Magazine) and celebritynetworth.com .
The results of which started to shed light on what the value of a fan really is.
This is by no means an exhaustive list. But it does show in real dollar terms what these fans are worth to the bands selected for my calculations. And what they can mean to you as a band already on your way.
The calculations are not complicated. It is just the bands net worth divided by the number of fans to give us a value per fan ratio.
Even the Two Bands I Ignored was Interesting
To minimise the statistical blips and improve the accuracy of my calculations, I removed the highs and lows from my sample group. Like they do when judging the Diving at the Olympics.
The two bands I ignored in the calcs, to come up with a final Fan Value Ratio, were U2 and Pink Floyd (go figure), and the answer wasn’t 42.
The bottom line is, that on average, each and every Facebook fan, that a band has (on average), is worth about $20.30 (US) – or about $23.90 in Aussie dollars as I write.
As you can see from the table below, the value of each bands Fans varies from one to the next. Though when we take into consideration that not all of these acts are currently at their peak, still producing, still performing or indeed still alive :(, it starts to make some kind of sense.
Since doing the initial calculations I have applied the FVR (Fan Value Ratio) to a few other headliners. I found that the “Fan Worth” numbers, for the most part, ring true.
You might want to try it on a few of your favourite entertainers and see how they stack up.
And if you are working in the industry, do the calculation for yourself. See how your fan numbers correlate with how you are doing from a commercial standpoint.
Multiply the number Facebook fans you have by U$20.30. Does this equal what you think your band is worth today?
I am not telling you this to score points. I just wanted to demonstrate what having more fans can mean to you.
It’s a Long Way To The Top.
I know it’s about the music and I am sure Angus Young still enjoys playing his guitar when he’s not on tour or in the studio recording.
This Scotland born, Australian Guitar Legend is worth a cool $140 million and ranked by Rolling Stone magazine as the 24th greatest guitarist of all time.
But think of it. Are there better guitarists playing their music out there that none of us has ever heard of? Chances are there is, it could be you.
It is just that Angus and AC/DC decided that they would promote themselves – what do you think the school uniform is all about anyway?
Think of the good they can do for friends and family as a result of their success.
How many fans know and enjoy their music today? Fans who would have been denied the simple pleasure of listening to Angus and AC/DC if he and the band had not worked out ways to have more people listen to their music and know who they are.
The little things do add up.
What are you doing to promote your band right now?
Just food for thought.
All the Best
Steve
The Gig Backdrop Guy