Cheat Codes for Growing Your Music Fanbase

So a few weeks ago I dropped my video that is the top line defining overview of how I see you growing a fanbase from zero fans to ten thousands and of the subjects I got into that piqued your ears was the idea of a cheat code. Meaning that in every micro genre there’s certain promotion methods that do absolutely nothing in one genre, but in another micro genre it is the entire game. And since that video I have been flooded with messages to give people the cheat code for their genre. So since I’m not a con artist what I like to do instead of keeping this information behind a paywall like some other youtubers, I called all my friends who are big managers or who work at record labels and I asked them what they thought the cheat codes were and I pooled it together with my experience and well you’re about to watch what I found.

So in this video I am going to explain a bunch of cheat codes in different music genres. Hi I’m Jesse Cannon a music marketing nerd who’s teaching musicians how to grow their fanbase from zero to 10,000 fans and this is Musformation.

Ok so I normally don’t stoop to this level of saying something obvious but after two years at this YouTube game I can basically see the keyboard warriors errr um virgins getting their fingers itchy ready to type comments of that they tried something and it didn’t work so let me say this – What I did here is I talked to my friends who have broken tons of artists about what works REGULARLY AND IN 2022 not some outdated method or something that worked one time as a fluke.

I hit the people I know are students of the game and I compiled their observations and put them against mine and wrote this script since I think when discussing something like this focusing on the rule not the exceptions is what’s important. I wanted to get the cheat code that works constantly for artists who have good material and this is important cause I know some dork is going to be mad in the comments saying they tried it but here’s the thing and it’s the same thing I have with all these idiots who tell me how great Facebook ads are for building a fanbase. Measuring these techniques and whether they are successful or not is all about is what level you call success.

So many people I know who say a technique didn’t work like let’s say putting $2,000 into a radio campaign where they put all their eggs in the basket and when they are not bigger than Dua Lipa they can’t believe it didn’t work and flood YouTube saying it’s bull****. Conversely people tell me Facebook ads are working when they have 10,000 monthly listeners that they spent x amount of money on and if anyone who works in breaking artists got that little of a result would be fired on the spot yet this keyboard warrior is bootlicking the money he gave to the worst boomer meme playground in the world.

So I say all this to say this – if you know me and my videos you know I work hard and vet them throughout the industry before I speak since I work hard to not be a fool online. While I would love to hear your experience this video is from people who have had repeated results. OK on with the fun. This video has chapters so if you’re not into hearing about a genre feel free to skip ahead but I think learning from each one is important and let’s be honest you have time, I know you have watched someone stream themselves unboxing a piece of gear before and you’ll get a lot more insight watching this all the way through as I actually discuss multiple genres in each section.

Pop Music

So let’s talk pop music first since it’s the most popular genre of music and the most crowded genre because of that. And when we say pop music what I mean by that since its malleable is music that is trying to be in the Top 40. So let’s talk about the cheat codes here – While it’s not unheard of what we are not seeing unlike so many other genres is it’s rare you hear a pop artist was made on building up the ranks through playlists or blogs. As well if you buy a radio campaign for pop music and you don’t already have millions of monthly listeners you may as well set the money on fire since pop music is the most sought after radio real estate and is basically a corrupt bribery system and yes I know payola is illegal but as always corporations find the way to evade regulation and apparently you don’t read the news as this is a story every day.

So then what is the cheat code – Literally with few exceptions when you see the singers, the producers and the writers who blow up in pop music it’s because they work with tons of other songwriters, producers or vocalists and eventually they get in an orbit of those who can open gates for them. I see absolutely demented comments on this channel about how this pop singer only got a record deal because they got in LA Reid’s office and sang for them and it’s like YEAH DAWG THAT’S THE GAME A PRODUCER LA REID RESPECTS SAID THIS PERSON IS GOOD AND BECAUSE HE TRUSTS THAT PRODUCER LA LISTENED AND SAW THEY WERE TALENTED.

So yet again and I hate to sound like a broken record this is why doing the community work is so crucial and if you know what I mean by that there’s a link in the description. But the game in pop music really is building that community since while you should build an audience directly with fans, pop music because it is the biggest audience by volume also only lets those in who come with a big audience because it’s a buyers market. So what the cheat code to get around that is to do collabs and work with others since that is what gets you a break and that can come with working with someone on a popular song that blows up or getting in the room with someone who takes a liking to you.

HipHop

And while you could argue HipHop is the most popular mainstream genre and maybe even more flooded than pop music, cause I sure as hell wouldn’t argue against that but despite that it has entirely different cheat codes. Many of the artists who break are discovered by producers who get how to produce beats and vocal performances and understand the flavor of what’s happening today. Those producers in turn have the ears of the A&R of today and send them the best tracks they make and let’s be honest about the game in hip hop it’s mostly about the vocalist’s performance so those producers in turn are the people who know how to coach someone and edit them to a good performance so it goes hand in hand.

So when they find someone talented they are good at delivering a pipeline to the A&R that is consistent. As well paying for radio promo or publicists is money set on fire aside from if you make music that is going to appeal to strictly backpack rap kids or whatever we’re calling the nerds who listened to positive hip hop. The market is too flooded to get through in a big way on radio but ironically this is a genre where some DJs and tastemakers still act as influencers who listen to the underground artists and if one picks you up you can see a massive launch and playlist pick ups.

But if you are self-produced and want to go a DIY route working playlists and the smaller influencers the bigger DJs and playlist curators watch is a pipeline that’s worked for tons of artists. And unlike the genre we’re about to discuss touring before you have an audience is probably the biggest waste of time of any genre.

Metal, Hard Rock, Prog, World

So while wading into Metal, hard rock and prog rock is a complicated world to wade into with so many micro genres having so many different rules. Like I am positive some dude who still smells like the sandwich he ate 10 days ago as it’s still on his shirt will tell me how wrong I am but here’s what me and my crew see here. In this world today if you are an aspiring DIY artist having a publicist and doing all the things I tell you about consistent sustained promotion is crucial.

But I know a lot of you mouthbreathers are like JESSE WHAT THE HELL A PUBLICIST GOT ME A PREMIER ON METALBOOGEREATER DOT COM AND WE ONLY GOT 800 STREAMS FROM THE PREMIER. Cool bro here’s the thing those 800 are the people in this scene who checkout everyone in your micro genre who work at labels, clubs and talk to other influential people all day. But here’s the facts this is still a genre that while it’s increasingly online it’s also the message boards of musician nerds who are talking about the sick playthrough or how brutal a mix is of a group that gets the first fans.

The publicist getting you a premier on a blog gets you in front of the right ears of those people who begin to tell everyone about you. Now unfortunately while this world is increasingly about online buzz playing the club circuit touring is also still a big deal as this is a scene based around a bunch of insufferable nerds telling each other what they know that the other one doesn’t know so the cheat codes really are to engage an audience online, work with a publicist and then take it on the road.

But truly this genre is one of those genres where SPECTACLE is everything and what I mean by that is as this world is largely driven around conversations on forums and among friends giving a story of why the group is so sick and inceptioning that story into a scene works in every genre BUT in metal I never cease to be amazed that when there’s a good gimmick or story of why an artist is exceptional it will turn heads attention to them.

EDM

But now let’s go to the polar opposite world of that which is EDM. Artists in the EDM world come up so many different ways but one thing I can tell you is that everyone in dance music based spaces is so in on what I talked about recently as features, collaborations and remixes are the number one way these artists are growing. Even when my friends at indies and majors in this world sign artists earlier on in their journey they go all in on building them up by trying to strategically build them up with these collaborations as it will grow their fanbase faster than anything else and if you don’t know what I mean head to description and watch my video on this.

But as I am sure you guessed there’s more to it than this. EDM is a weird world when it comes to live music since the real big trick unlike any other genre is to try to build up a live presence at a particular night in that city at maybe a handful of venues at most and then eventually with presence in your community you get offers to take your show on the road. But running out and touring blindly is a full on sucker’s game as is trying to pay for radio or video promotion when you aren’t already established as it’s a way too crowded genre and radio airplay is not where this community lives.

Instead what works is working your consistent sustained promotion, working playlists and constantly keeping an eye on your community and inviting others to do collaborations, features and remixes and expanding your audience through them and as your numbers grow you can get connected to bigger and bigger artists and grow through that as well as placements on bigger playlists and hopefully invites to DJ bigger and bigger nights.

Indie/DIY/Punk

The last two genres are kinda the wild cards of this all so in the world of indie punk DIY music yet again different micro genres can be totally different but like metal the publicity get you covered on websites that the right people listen to and touring is the ingredient that really helps you spread. The big difference in this genre is that for some parts of it radio promotion can be huge as this is what’s still played on college campuses and can be a small investment that gets a big investment and the same goes for video promotion. But yet again what I really see working here more than any other genre since collaborations are less common is doing your community work and finding the artists who are like you and aspiring and teaming up to trade shows and put each other on each other’s artists playlists and interact with each other online.

The people who follow this genre that are the early adopters who lift up the artists they love to those less engaged with it are watching every band and can find bands with 200 monthly listeners and once everyone is talking about them they are fast at 2,000 monthlies and 10,000 soon after, but this comes from keeping these kids talking and reminded to build a relationship with you and that comes from consistent sustained promotion.

Live Music Based Bands

The last type of band I want to talk about is what I call live music based bands. These are the ones who usually appeal to musicians or college aged musician nerds, they are unlikely to put up huge numbers on streaming but their fans would never miss a show since they want to see them play live let’s call these the jam bands, the artists playing to loops or the really sick musician collectives who can are the more musically agile among us who really have a command on their instrument. While online forums are really where the word is spread about them, finding playlists for the micro genres they exist in that will really work is rare so instead the key is to do a franchise expansion type take over of your local area where you continually focus on cities with lots of college aged kids and concentrate on playing them regularly and doing diligent flyering for those events as what you want to do is one city at a time create the illusion that everyone should know who you are in this area since obviously your name is everywhere and the kids who are most bored (you know the ones who are paying 10000 dollars to go to school) will look you up at the age they are most susceptible to new music and latch on to you and become part of your fanbase and never miss your show.

But the mistake so many of these bands do is rushing out and touring the whole country and playing to 18 people a night instead of slowly expanding from city to city and trying to build up slowly locally with weekend jaunts until you have to tour to reach cities as your buzz starts to build.

All Genres

But here’s the cheat code for all of these genres, all of the things I talked about can help you build up but the work you do everyday with consistent sustained promotion, appealing to algorithms and working on building your community gets fans to notice you and in your fanbase there’s countless people who will tell other people about you and in turn grow your fanbase if doing something exceptional its going to spread if you do that work. So while you can pursue those cheat codes if you do the work I always talk about on this channel and people really find your music to be some of the best of the genre all is going to work out cheat code or not.

The real cheat code is to pursue your genres cheat code while also talking to fans directly and getting that work done as when you do both at once that is what actually really fuels growth. Also if you’d like me to make videos where I go longer than this on each genre please drop a request in the comments. OK that’s it on this channel this is the type of stuff we discuss so if you’re interested in that you should definitely like subscribe and most of all get notified so you don’t miss crucial.