Few things can propel a band to success faster than an active, engaged fan base. (After all, would anyone have listened to KISS without an army of fans behind them?)

Often, the best music marketing is an engaged fanbase. If you have fans who don’t just buy your music, but who honestly want to see you succeed, you’ve got a great foundation for your own musical success!

Tips On The Proper Care And Feeding Of Your Fans

1.  Freebies!

If you want to get people on your mailing list or your Facebook, giving away free music always does it. Hiphop group De La Soul recently made waves by making their discography free for a day to celebrate an anniversary. Other artists, like Trent Reznor, frequently make side-projects and experimental tracks available as freebies.

2. Creative Projects

Speaking of Reznor, he’s also found a lot of success involving fans directly in projects. He’s had one or two “fan remix” projects, giving people access to his raw project tracks. He also once made a concert video entirely out of fan-shot material, another creative music marketing idea.

If people love your music, they’ll love contributing to it even more.

3. Crowdsourcing

Trying to pay for a tour, or a new album with better production? A crowdsourcing project can be great music marketing. It gets the fans involved, and pre-funds your operations. Just be certain you can deliver what’s promised, or probably won’t donate again.

Crowdsourcing has actually worked for music longer than in most industries. In the late 90s, Euro prog band Marillion was already funding their albums this way.

4. Engage With Them

At the end of the day, few things are better for building an active fan base than also being active yourself. Respond to posts on your Facebook and Twitter. Add comments to your own Soundcloud. Drop in on unofficial fansites from time to time.

The Internet gives you virtually unlimited ways to interact with fans, even on the other side of the world. Being seen as interested in your fan communities will inspire them to share your music even more!