14 brilliant tips to support your fave artist
I know, you are obsessed with your favorite singer. You never spend a single day without going online on blogs and boards to support him (more often than not it’s a “her”) as much as possible. You will charge against every negative comment and bring his positive achievements even when it’s hardly on topic. Guess what? You are doing everything wrong and your beloved star would be right to be mad at you coz you ain’t helping at all.
The Army, Swifties, Arianators, Selenators, Beliebers, Lambs, Smilers, BeyHive, Directioners, the Navy, Parawhores, Lovatics, Little Monsters, Katy Cats, etc… if you reached this blog, you most likely read at least a few of these names already. You may even claim belonging to one of these informal groups. Most of them count a lot of members, yet their action is hardly impactful or even of negative balance.
How to reverse this fact? How to boost the popularity of your fave? Here are 14 ways to do effectively support your favorite idol. We will start from the most obvious ones and go up to tricky but clever methods you can go by. For realism purpose, I’ll use her when referring to your favorite artist.
Give your fave more than only your likes and comments
1) Buy her records
Yes, we are in 2018 and streaming is all around. There is no better guarantee to reward your favorite diva – unless she is a newcomer who got a very poor contract – than buying her records. If you like something enough to spend hours daily talking about it, surely you may be able to give a few bucks to get a record as well. It will help her but also her team, lyricists, composers, producers, managers, etc, everyone involved in making her successful. If you are too young to have your own money, no doubt you can get it as a gift from relatives.
2) Stream her music
You may feel like you did your part already by buying an album. If you can also stream it, why would you miss this opportunity though? Of course, one may argue that sound quality of CDs is usually higher. While it’s true technically speaking, most studies show that unless you’ve got a high-quality player and strongly concentrate on listening to each sound, you will hardly notice the difference.
This buy first stream second logic is easily the most profitable for artists, which is why the ones popular enough to get a physical-only release supported by strong promotion try to force it into the general public. We’ve got obvious examples of that with last albums from Adele and Taylor Swift.
3) See her live
Music really has the strength to make us live wonderful moments even while simply sitting on a chair behind our desk. Still, we can live amazing experiences when seeing our favorite artists live. I personally spent over a decade listening to CDs of French cult rocker Saez before assisting to one of his shows. It was absolutely incredible and it also completely changed the way I appreciate his music, it grew on me even more. I have been given the chance to see Radiohead, Sufjan Stevens, the White Stripes, among others and I have never been disappointed. I also went to concerts more for curiosity than real interest, viewing shows of James Blunt and Pentatonix and they were great moments as well. We often switch on the radio and feel like hearing manufactured material, live we are reminded that singers are real artists.
Various singers who enjoy a huge army backing them online have been forced to cancel tours because of low ticket sales. Nicki Minaj, Cardi B, Jay-Z, Iggy Azalea, and even Rihanna and Beyoncé faced this situation. Obviously, when it happens they tweet that they weren’t healthy, haven’t been able to repeat enough, that it’s only a delay not a cancellation, whatever, it simply highlights how embarrassing the truth is. In a stans-war climate it also feeds haters with valuable arguments. Don’t let it happen. Go out of your comfort zone and enjoy seeing your fave live. Use this chance to invite your friends that can become fans too or to meet with fans you are used to talk to online.
Send the good messages to the music industry
4) Buy… but don’t rush to do so
As previously mentioned, we can’t do wrong when we purchase the album of our artist. You can do better still. Buy the album after a few weeks rather than on day 1. Record labels use various key indicators to size the marketing campaign of an album. There is many ways to predict sales of an upcoming LP. Labels adjust their plans accordingly. If they expect an album to sell 10 million units and after a week it is looking like a 2 million seller at best, they will quickly resize it to avoid losing a lot of money.
More than first day sales, the percentage of drop in sales from day 1 to day 2 and from day 2 to day 3 is a strongly relevant factor. The most frontloaded an album appears to be, the most cautious the label will be before putting in additional money for new singles, videos, TV ads, etc. Think about it, an album sells 100,000 units in its first week, 20,000 in week 2 and 10,000 in week 3 while a second album sells 60,000 units then 40,000 units then 30,000 units. Up to that point, both moved 130,000 copies but if you are asked to invest your money to promote one of them, which one you will support? Obviously, the second one.
That’s the irony of fanbases. They rush to buy albums but ultimately it sends a negative message to the music industry. Warnings ‘this may not actually be selling to the general public’ turn red and the project is quickly abandoned. Now that you can stream the album, resist before buying it and ask other fans to do the same. The album will seem to have legs and may end up being supported better by its label.
5) Request… but not all at once
Another time-related tip to support your fave refers to radio requests. Organized fanbases often share links to vote for the singer and to request it to radio stations. Requests are good but only when they are meaningful. Radio programmers aren’t dumb, if they suddenly get 100 emails asking to play the new song of Katy Perry, they won’t think that she is getting hot but instead they will be annoyed at these emails, immediately understanding that they are barely the consequence of a fan campaign. Radios aren’t interested in pleasing a fanbase that don’t even listen to them anyway, they need to please the general public. These campaigns are exactly the opposite of what they are looking for.
Instead, if a dozen of fans request the song through a pair of weeks, in a polite way and asking also for one or several songs of other popular artists, the radio will receive it as a positive indicator. Again, play the game of taking their job, think as if you were a radio programmer. One day you reach your work and see 30 emails that you got in less than one hour requesting a song, will you give it value or rate it as spam? The following day, you get a request in the morning to play Shallow plus a new song of Katy Perry, then during the afternoon you are requested the latter again along with Taki Taki and then one day latter it is requested one more time along with Happier and Promises. Now you will think “ok, that new song may become a hit” so you start playing it.
6) Play from popular playlists and repeat
You won’t be surprised to hear that streaming platforms’ playlists are increasingly important. To feature into the biggest ones will fuel to death streams of any song. The prime example is the heavyweight Today’s Top Hits of Spotify which has nearly 22 million subscribers. Of course some do better than others, but a hit will get more streams if playlisted well, just like a flop will also get more streams if playlisted well. In any case, it’s a winning situation.
It’s fundamental to understand that streaming platforms are data companies. Their decisions rely on that, data. They too analyze indicators to build their playlists. The data they use is nothing else than the data you send to them. Spotify’s editor Daniel Breitholtz confirms it, stating “Every track we have is ultimately at the mercy of you the listener, the fan. It’s all about the data we get on how you listen to the song in our playlist“.
Which indicator do they use? The most popular one is the skip rate. The most a track is skipped on a playlist, the most it will go down on next days until ultimately dropping out. It means that every time you stream a song of your fave from your own playlist, you are missing a chance of improving its skip rate by listening to it in full elsewhere. Identify large playlists which include your fave act, skip some songs until yours and stream it from there. Do not skip them all, be fair and stream the ones you like, think that dubious behaviors are kicked off metrics anyway.
Since repeat listens from playlists and play-through rates are also indicators used to update playlists’ orders, do not hesitate in playing a track in full and multiple times. Think about every time your fave issued a new song and you streamed it like 10 times in a row from her artist page. That’s a waste! Do it from a popular playlist instead. Oh and since they also consider how many people save a song in local, do it for every new song which pops up!
7) Play from devices of others
Logically, streaming platforms’ data is related to users’ accounts. A handful of persons streaming a song 10 times is always better than one fan playing it 50 times. If you can chose if you stream a tune from your phone or the one of your sister, use hers. When you invite friends, ask one to put a playlist that includes your fave if it doesn’t sound weird at that point. Each time you end up putting music for a group of people, also play the song along with popular tracks.
It may look of minimal impact, but since it’s all about algorithms, at times songs will miss playlists because their strength is just a few percent’s weaker than the strength of some other song. If all fans use two devices instead of one, that may impact indicators enough to switch the ranking of these songs and impulse a huge boost. Also, a successful song is a song that is in the air, so air it. A song that everyone feels like hearing even when they don’t go after it. Your half a dozen friends may not even notice the song during your dinner, still when they will hear it again later they will be more receptive because they will feel familiar with it and that will relate to a positive moment. This is how songs grow through the general public.
Don’t be a pain
8) Avoid gross stanning
It may sound obvious but when we are fans and kind of young we don’t always notice that we are going too far in our way of stanning. Fans fighting daily online are failing to understand that their main impact is to massively discredit their favorite artist. On its definition for fanaticism Wikipedia points out a very telling quote from philosopher George Santayana who resumes it as “redoubling your effort when you have forgotten your aim“.
Fanaticism is regarded as being based on excessive feelings rather than critical mind. The general public regards it as an immature behavior. Nobody want to like the same things as immature people. On top of that, if an artist is loved by someone we rate as immature, we assume these artists with many fanatics must be uninteresting and cheap. You certainly don’t want the general public to feel that way about your personal hero.
9) Don’t be overly insistent
It’s nice that everyone you know recognizes you as the number one fan of your fave. Nobody wants to be forced into something though. Speaking about her again and again doesn’t help. When someone speaks about a song he discovered or a movie he saw, he wants to share something. Bringing your fave as an answer will basically raise the animosity of your friend towards her.
Clearly, the biggest pain is online. There is millions of people who have nothing against a diva that hope she flops simply because they are bored of reading her fans bring her into every discussion with excessive comments. You may feel like defending her, instead you surround her with negativity. A good balance is key in most subjects so the most overwhelmingly positive you are, the most others will be instinctively negative to balance out your comments. There is very little reasons to hate an artist, instead it’s her fans that are just too harassing. More often than not, when you consider someone else an hater, you are the one who made him one. Do you really want to create enemies to your diva?
Make your voice count
10) Be objective, worth of advices
Just like wild stanning is discredited by all, people listen to the ones who are objective. Stop saying each new song of your fave is the best piece of music you ever heard. All artists are less inspired at times, say it when that happens. It won’t hurt, quite the opposite that will give a meaning to your words when you point out a new song is really good.
Similarly, speak about songs you like from additional singers. It isn’t because you are a huge fan of Ariana Grande that you can’t love a song from Selena Gomez. By mentioning the songs you like from the latter, her fans will start paying attention to your comments, including the ones about Grande.
11) Turn into an influencer
As Steve Jobs said, one home run is much better than two doubles. One positively influential fan is worth thousands of stans. Rather than arguying over and over on boards, create your own thread where you provide your feedbacks and feelings about songs and more. If you are ready to invest more time, you can create a blog, a YouTube channel, a themed Twitter or Instagram account, a Facebook page, whatever fits you best.
You can find a lot of resources online to learn the basics about running an influential media. Main focus: people won’t follow you for no reason, you need to deliver quality content. A fan account isn’t that much helpful, there is a lot of them and they appeal people who are already fans anyway. It’s ok, just create a popstarsthatmatter.com blog and share videos of new songs you like with a few insightful comments. There is zillions of great ideas you can have that can bring some light to your favorite artists.
Be artistically proactive
12) Create mood-themed playlists
Many tips listed here aim to raise the profile of a song among the general public, which helps make it a true organic hit. It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t improve her performances among her own lovers yet. Even fans don’t listen exclusively to one artist. If they love an AC act, they will listen to other singers on parties. When you break up a relationship, you may prefer a sad songs-themed playlist rather than hits of your fave too. There is a lot of situations where streaming a specific playlist seems more convenient than reaching your artist’s page and play.
List these situations: sad mood, drive to school / work, morning wake up, ambiance for dinner, running songs, etc. Create a playlist for each context with spot on songs of your fave and share them on her fan sites and social media. Call them Wake up with Demi, Run with Bey, Dance with Rih, Tay feels sad for you, etc. Now, when a fan will want a playlist that fits one of these needs, he will have a handy way to do both at the same time, listen to more appropriate music context-wise and stream his favorite star.
13) Add her songs to your videos
Bruno Mars‘ Marry You is a super selling song although it was never released as a single. Recently, Drake’s In My Feelings got viral thanks to online videos too. We can’t forget about Baauer‘s Harlem Shake hype. This phenomenom was so wild that it prompted the Billboard to rush-include video streaming into its Hot 100 ranking.
I know what you are thinking, a video from you won’t shot a song to #1 on Billboard just like that. True, but it doesn’t matter. Every help as tiny as it may be is welcome, it doesn’t need to be a global buzz to contribute to your fave’s success. Fan of Lady Gaga? Film your lazy sleepy cat with Born this Way in background. Struggling with your homework and fan of Rihanna? Share a video of your boredom on Snap or TikTok with SOS resonating. Don’t wait for others to make things happen, do it yourself. Check advices from experts and try it.
You still think that will remain unnoticed? It’s possible, but it’s also possible it will not. You lack creativity? It’s ok, just create a video competition on a fan board, ask everyone to share a funny and short video using a song from her. Vote for the best one and share it together on influential twitter accounts. Wouldn’t it be better if fans fight friendly with creative videos rather than with trash talks?
14) Link her to positive vibes
It’s true that the general public will like a song or not according to his tastes. It isn’t the only factor though. People also gauge songs as per their emotional connection with them. Have you ever notice that when asked how much you like a firstname your mind automatically think about people you know who have that name? It’s because your opinion is linked to your emotions. It’s also why a song like Sad! went to #1 in the US after the death of XXXTentacion. When you wonder if you like a song or not, you consider the song itself but also everything that you relate to it.
That’s why sharing funny videos using a song you like can be strongly efficient, because it creates a positive vibe around that music for people who view it. You can go further and link your fave’s music to additional moments. It’s Halloween, purchase a Toxic-like dress, put dark and bloody make up all over your face and call yourself Britney Spears‘ zombie. It’s a fun way of having her mentioned and that will also remind people a song that most of them liked. Do memes with her, add her music to your school presentation, etc. There is thousands of ways to expose your favorite artist positively.
Conclusion
We all go through difficult moments during our life, especially during teenage years when everything seems so hurtful. Often, our idol helps us face these dark periods, when we listen to her, we forget what goes wrong. A fascination is a safe haven. That’s nice, but you can give it an extra dimension and make it an amazing journey.
As seen in this article, you can use it to develop your creativity, learn valuable marketing skills, assert your own personnality, raise the value of your opinion, try new experiences, and live great moments with great people. These tips won’t only help your favorite artist, a fair reward considering everything he brings to you. They will also bring you a lot.
Have you got additional ideas? Share them in the comments! We would also be truly glad to see examples of how you applied them so post your playlists, videos or creations right here!