Grow A Fanbase And Remain Anonymous Options

[PosterBoy]

Thinking about growing fanbase and gaining some sort of following, inspired by Fireball's thread.

Do you think you can do it without the 'human element', no one ever knowing who you are and what you look like (obviously this is looking at purely recording projects rather than live work). Video with animation or actors etc

[Nihilist1]

Thinking about growing fanbase and gaining some sort of following, inspired by Fireball's thread.

Do you think you can do it without the 'human element', no one ever knowing who you are and what you look like (obviously this is looking at purely recording projects rather than live work). Video with animation or actors etc

Yup. There are plenty of Black Metal musicians that do it(myself included). Just operate under a pseudonym. There isn't necessarily a reason to have a video just because it is on YT or something similar. Just use a black square with some text or something if you can't think of anything creative.

[Opetholic]

Thinking about growing fanbase and gaining some sort of following, inspired by Fireball's thread.

Do you think you can do it without the 'human element', no one ever knowing who you are and what you look like (obviously this is looking at purely recording projects rather than live work). Video with animation or actors etc

Has been done.
Search for Devil Doll and Mr Doctor..

[Ben Higgins]

Thinking about growing fanbase and gaining some sort of following, inspired by Fireball's thread.

Do you think you can do it without the 'human element', no one ever knowing who you are and what you look like (obviously this is looking at purely recording projects rather than live work). Video with animation or actors etc

Yep ! Anything can be done !!

[Nihilist1]

Has been done.
Search for Devil Doll and Mr Doctor..

WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT

THAT IS MY FAVOURITE BAND EVER. WHY DIDN'T I ALREADY KNOW THAT YOU LIKE THEM?

[Opetholic]

WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT

THAT IS MY FAVOURITE BAND EVER. WHY DIDN'T I ALREADY KNOW THAT YOU LIKE THEM?

Oh hehe Yea they are pretty amazing I think It looks like we have a lot of music taste in common..

[Gabriel Leopardi]

It would be amazing to do something like this... I would like to experiment with this.... If I ever do it I will share the experience here.

[Nihilist1]

Oh hehe Yea they are pretty amazing I think It looks like we have a lot of music taste in common..

It seems like we do... GET OUT OF MY HEAD

[thefireball]

I am disappointed right now. I have this huge fanbase but no interaction when I post a sample and ask for feedback. How come only a small percentage of people see things in their news feed? I see almost everything in mine. I scroll slowly enough to at least skim. Only a couple hundred of people out of my 2000 see my stuff. That's what my posts' statistics are saying.

This post has been edited by thefireball: Jul 16 2012, 05:40 AM

[PosterBoy]

The news feed is a strange thing, I think it looks at which likes and friends you interact with and gives you their feeds, obviously there is the power to block news from certain pages and friends on your feed too. I know friends who I don't see any news from for ages and have to go to their page to see what's happening and then it starts showing up again automatically in my feed.

Then there is the fact that many facebook users are fickle and click happy.

Back to the initial discussion though.

Do you think the human element helps?

People are attracted to personalities, image and perceived lifestyle as much as the music. Though if you as a person and the music you produced seemed like polar opposites it could have a negative effect (or I guess a positive).

I think of an emerging guitarist like Nolly from Red Sea Fire, with his glasses and looking and sounding very middle class. It doesn't seem very Rock n Roll.

Gorillaz worked just using cartoon characters, but obviously had huge marketing budget and with Damon Albarn's very distinctive vocals it wasn't a mystery that it was his new project.

Anyway enough thinking about marketing and I should actually finish writing some songs before worrying about how to promote them. Vague riffs and half written lyrics will get me nowhere

[Ben Higgins]

I am disappointed right now. I have this huge fanbase but no interaction when I post a sample and ask for feedback. How come only a small percentage of people see things in their news feed? I see almost everything in mine. I scroll slowly enough to at least skim. Only a couple hundred of people out of my 2000 see my stuff. That's what my posts' statistics are saying.

Hi Brandon. I think FB band pages have changed where people now have to manually select an option to receive updates from your page. It's really annoying !

[Todd Simpson]

"Likes" and "Fans" are often VERY different things and this is a great example.

Getting responses on social media is at Art and GMC does a darn good job. Take notice of their FACEBOOK strategy of how they often interject polls and question relevant to their audience to increase 'engagement". Another tactic is to offer some incentive. Eg. Free MP3, etc. for commenting/sharing etc. In short, bribery!

Ola Englund is another great example (facebook/his blog/youtube), a veritable Master of Social Media. Notice how every post generates a huge Flurry of responses. He has found his audience and he gives them what they want. But it's taken some time.

I am disappointed right now. I have this huge fanbase but no interaction when I post a sample and ask for feedback. How come only a small percentage of people see things in their news feed? I see almost everything in mine. I scroll slowly enough to at least skim. Only a couple hundred of people out of my 2000 see my stuff. That's what my posts' statistics are saying.

The Human Element. You can do it either way really. Creating a "persona" is a good way to protect your identity and allow for your music to be associated to more of a character than person. Some musicians rarely use their name or show their face, or wear makeup etc. As you mentioned, if you are wanting to avoid having a "middle class" look, creating a persona through which to interact with fans can be freeing. You can invent anything and it can bring a sense of theatre to the music. Ozzy, Kiss, SlipKnot, etc. Good examples of creating "characters" for their music.

The news feed is a strange thing, I think it looks at which likes and friends you interact with and gives you their feeds, obviously there is the power to block news from certain pages and friends on your feed too. I know friends who I don't see any news from for ages and have to go to their page to see what's happening and then it starts showing up again automatically in my feed.

Then there is the fact that many facebook users are fickle and click happy.

Back to the initial discussion though.

Do you think the human element helps?

People are attracted to personalities, image and perceived lifestyle as much as the music. Though if you as a person and the music you produced seemed like polar opposites it could have a negative effect (or I guess a positive).

I think of an emerging guitarist like Nolly from Red Sea Fire, with his glasses and looking and sounding very middle class. It doesn't seem very Rock n Roll.

Gorillaz worked just using cartoon characters, but obviously had huge marketing budget and with Damon Albarn's very distinctive vocals it wasn't a mystery that it was his new project.

Anyway enough thinking about marketing and I should actually finish writing some songs before worrying about how to promote them. Vague riffs and half written lyrics will get me nowhere