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Vol. 13, No. 6: Dec.-Jan. 2008
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Building A Community Of Fans
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by Tim Sweeney
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Page added in
February, 2008
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About the Author
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Author Tim Sweeney is head of Tim Sweeney & Associates, who are entering their 18th year of being, "the only true artist development company in the world."
Tim is one of the music industry's most sought after experts and consultants, and has written several influential books including "Tim Sweeney's Guide To Releasing Independent Records".
Send comments or questions to Tim Sweeney.
© Tim Sweeney
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Community Building is a theory that I have developed and have been teaching independent and some of the most successful major label artists (including your musical influences) for the last 25 years. Community Building is based upon understanding who you are as an artist and what the messages and value is in your music.
Two of the key first steps in building your fans into a community of people who interact with each other and will actively support you for years, starts with your Artist Story and knowing who your fans are. Your Artist Story is a key component of your Artist Profile and expresses to people who you are as an artist, the messages in your songs and how they are valuable to your fans. (It is the replacement for the long outdated press kits that went out 7 years ago).
Too often artists mistakenly believe the lyrics in their songs will deliver the desired message. However with everything going on in your fan's lives, you need to get them to refocus on what is important before they can hear what you are saying. Along with your song insights, your Artist Story needs to express your value and what people are going to get from your music. Skip the history of who you played with or where. Your fans don't care about that, they want to be connected to you.
To build a community of fans you must get them to interact with each other. When your fans interact with each other before your shows and with you, your shows transform in their minds from them standing and watching you play, to a valuable experience where they can meet other people with similar interests they will want to hang out with in the future.
To learn more about building a community of fans that will come to shows and support you, order a copy of my audio book, "Tim Sweeney's Guide To Understand Who You Are As An Artist" and an Advanced Copy
of the new documentary, "800 CDs" to see how independent artists are putting my strategies to use.
Call me directly at 951-303-9506 with any questions.
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Additional Columns by Tim Sweeney
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- And 42 more in the Guest Columnists series, view the index
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