The Fan Platform Principle: The New Independence for Artists?
(Photo by Casey Horner)
The fan platform principle is easily explained. Artists, who already have a standing fan base on social media, guide these fans to a new online contact point. There, artists are offering them access to exclusive content next to free general information. Fan platforms provide artists with new ways of direct marketing; artists can address their fans directly and convert their fans’ enthusiasm for their œvre directly into cash.
Proceeding digitalisation facilitates this: nowadays, fans are much easier and quicker to activate than ever before, complex content is easily created, stored and shared; and on top of this, transactional cost are low even for smallest amounts.
However, it is the small things that cause problems. An artist may gain independence using a fan platform only if that fan platform is being played well and if it has the most suitable concept of treating artists and their contents in terms of data security, proprietary rights and payment processing.
