11.8.11 OUT100/Aaron Hicklin Interview, Queen+Adam

[quote author=carrieb board=daily thread=552 post=117495 time=1320772699

When I moved into working with non-authors, I really had to re-orient my thinking, promotion and pricing due to the different nature of the audiences. In my experience, there is a HUGE difference in the shelf-life of an author*and others. This difference is due to the differences in the perceived nature of the products (long-term, permanent value versus short-term gratification) and the nature of the audiences.

As an example, I booked a gig with an author who hadn't issued anything new in many years, but was a big star amongst a smallish audience before and the response at booking was tremendous. At the same time, I booked a gig with a pop musical act that had moderate but more widespread success just two years prior and got a big yawn in response. Luckily, their fees were commensurate with the size of their audiences.

I will also add one commonality, however, is that the ease of promotion after a hiatus is largely (although not exclusively) dependent upon how big a star they were before s/he went on hiatus. It's far far easier to promote an author whose been on hiatus if that author was a mega-star or had a deep cult following and/or deep industry respect BEFORE they went on hiatus -- I have found that aspect to be the same with sports or performers.

*I've also found that sacred or classical music performers can be put in the same category as authors -- their work is consumed by people who are looking for and reward those who create what they consider permanent works of art that will stand the test of time. Therefore, being timely and current is not a high value.

So the question is -- do I as an individual consumer see Adam Lambert as a performer whose product I will buy now and consume for a short period of time or do I see him as a long-term part of my entertainment options? That to me is the difference between a core fanbase and a mass audience.




Adam’s a pop star. Therefore, he sells music to people who want new music/videos/tours as entertainment and stimulation. If they’re not getting what they want, they’ll move on. If I were Adam, I'd consider myself lucky that my pop music fans are telling me that they don’t want to move on, that they want to keep buying product. In that, he’s far luckier than most pop stars whose mass audience has no loyalty at all.

If Adam wants to be a mega-star in pop music and by all indications he does, his business plan has to deal with the fact that by its nature pop music is time-sensitive and current and has to appeal to a mass audience. A mass audience must extend beyond Adam’s core fanbase. A mass audience for pop music is inherently focused on its own stimulation – hence why Madonna wisely changed her persona with every album and Gaga less wisely changed it with every walk through an airport. They don’t have loyalty to a performer because they are not that invested in them beyond consuming their products and their persona right now.

I expect that with these delays, Adam is going to lose a slice of his current mass audience fanbase because he’s not fulfilling their desires. It’s not that his new music won’t be able to extend his fanbase beyond what he’s achieved in the past – I have every hope it will. Nonetheless, these fans expressing their disappointment at the delay are just being normal pop consumers who buy what they want right now, don’t care about future music because they know their taste might change and therefore don’t know what they’ll want in the future, and who will lose interest if the present doesn’t meet their needs. That's the reality of trying to be a pop music star.