Introduction
If you want to grow your fanbase and boost your music income, you’ve probably heard the term superfans. These are the die-hard followers who buy your merch, attend your shows, and stream your tracks on repeat. They’re the most valuable segment of your audience and the music industry knows it.
According to the 2025 Goldman Sachs “Music in the Air” Report, superfans are projected to generate an extra $4.3 billion annually by 2026.
Spotify’s latest data provides further insights that superfans:
- Drive 18%+ of monthly streams
- Account for 50% of an artist’s ticket sales from spotify
- Are 9x more likely to share your music with friends
- Stream your music 20 times more than an average programmed listener
But superfans comprise only two percent of an average artist’s monthly listeners. Despite this segment’s value and visibility, artists can’t afford to focus solely on them.
That’s why fan engagement expert Dan Goldberg says artists should stop chasing superfans and start creating them. That starts with focusing on what Goldberg calls “the edges of your fanbase,” your casual listeners, and understanding the journeys they take: from discovering your music to becoming loyal fans.
Here’s what he shared in an exclusive Q&A session with CD Baby; (takeaways to help you action his advice provided by the CD Baby team).
Diagnosing the problem
Q: What are today’s artists getting wrong about their marketing strategies?
“A common mistake that I see is over-investing in existing superfans as if they’re an endless renewable resource. This normally then, in turn, means neglecting casual listeners who are the actual source of future superfans. Fandom is fluid; you can’t just double down at the top.”
Q: How are superfans both the “holy grail” and a dangerous distraction?
“To me, superfans can be a distraction because they’re the easiest ones to identify and reach. We live in a zero-sum world of time and budget, and I recommend spending more time and investment in identifying casual fans, converting them to known, engaged listeners and hopefully eventually into superfans versus exclusively short-term focus on high priced, limited offerings for the super fans. It’s a distraction and won’t lead to artist development or growth. But, it will lead to stagnation.”
Q: You called artist development “a lost art.” How have we gotten here, and what are core tenets of scalable artist development?
“I’m a very analytical and data-driven person by nature and shaped by education, so I love how much the industry has embraced this focus. However, one of the downsides of this is that we expect quick hit data metrics and short-term marketing wins because of our over reliance on data. Storytelling, world building, and artist development, in sharp contrast to the above is about being patient and in some cases adaptive. This is how you ensure sustainable growth. Slow. Intentional. Strategic.”
CD Baby Key takeaways:
- Shift your marketing focus to casual listeners by building out more avenues for discovery and retention. Play exposure shows, grow and nurture an email list, and pitch journalists and playlist curators to share your music with new listeners.
- Prioritize storytelling and branding to provide a strong and resonant foundation for new fans to latch onto via updating your EPK, nailing down your artist story and what sets you apart, and publishing a bio on your website and streaming platforms. Then thread those themes, aesthetics, and ideas through your marketing to lend it cohesion.
- Avoid stagnation by continuing to build your catalog (releasing new music) and playing live routinely. That maximizes chances for discovery and provides fans a reason to stay engaged.
Creating Your Fan Funnel
Q: You’ve said, “fans don’t magically appear—they need to be cultivated.” What early signals should artists look for when identifying casual fans?
“There aren’t hard and fast rules, but there are signals. Pay attention to them. Which listeners are adding a track to a personal playlist? Who is commenting, in a thoughtful way, on socials. Actions signal curiosity. Curiosity can be cultivated with dialogue. Dialogue becomes invested fandom.”
Q: Can you share examples of intentional pathways from “lean-back listeners” into community members?
“So many tried and true tactics work. Content in exchange for email, from there you can invite those casual fans into a virtual hang out, maybe a Q&A. It’s not easy to scale these but create your base, and let them tell the story. Respond to comments on social, involve your audience – this transforms passivity into active conservation.”
Q: Any tips for identifying fans’ first touch points and building momentum?
“I’d start by meeting fans where they are and prioritize which platform is driving the most organic interactions, not necessarily the highest numbers. Artists don’t need to be everywhere but should, ideally, have a deep understanding of a few channels where their fans are connecting, genuinely. This is where you double down. Create custom, tailored content that shows respect to how fans are engaging on that platform. This creates authenticity. Authenticity creates momentum, and in turn trust which is crucial for engagement.”
CD Baby Key Takeaways:
- Meet fans where they are by focusing on platforms where you see the strongest engagement and feel your most authentic.
- Engage new fans by noting signals such as playlist saves, social media engagements, and in-person connections. Build relationships with those fans by personally reaching out, resharing and shouting them out over social media, and demonstrating appreciation.
- Retain new fans by creating exclusive or valuable content that connects. Examples include running a monthly newsletter, behind the scenes footage, or hosting AMAs on Instagram or Reddit.
Building a Brand and Community
Q: You mentioned brand should precede product pushes. How can emerging artists solidify their brand?
“Being yourself, but cohesive[ly]. Define your voice, and story from the beginning. Fans gravitate towards consistency, and storytelling. Cohesion, surprisingly, is a differentiator because many aren’t doing it.”
Q: How can artists build community authentically yet scalably, especially on their own?
“Authenticity at scale isn’t easy, but it comes from creating a culture of tribalism in your fandom, and rituals such as curated content series, member driven discord groups, and more. If you empower your biggest fans as admins/moderators, they will tell your story for you.”
Q: You emphasize community-building philosophy over tech as the real driver of loyalty. Core tenets artists should follow?
“To be clear, I’m very pro technology. But, technology won’t solve philosophical problems.”
Key principals
- Connection before Transaction/Monetization
- Two-way conversations: Listening in addition to speaking
- Fans love vulnerability and transparency (or at the least the perception of it). This creates authenticity, and imperfections resonate deeply
“This creates a very deep human connection that lasts. Maybe good life advice too, not just for music.”
CD Baby Key Takeaways:
- Be consistent with your branding such that fans can identify with your music. Your photoshoots, posts, videos, cover art, and sound should cohere into a series of statements and feelings.
- Put connections before monetization by building a community around your music. That looks like listening parties, organizing shows with friends, and creating two-way conversations online.
- Be transparent as a path toward authenticity. Though it’s a somewhat exhausted word in the industry, authenticity cuts through the noise. If you share honest insights to your creative process and challenges, tell sincere stories behind songs, and market your music in ways that align with your talents, you’ll find an audience.
Conclusion
Superfans should be a marketing strategy goal, but not the main target. Review the key takeaways above and create an action plan to begin implementing them into your marketing strategy.
Here are a few tips to get started.
Get to know your fans: What types of people resonate with your music? Short of creating exact fan personas, you can get a sense of your fanbase by analyzing their music tastes, leveraging native demographic analytics on social media and streaming platforms, and polling your audience. You can use this data to better target and create marketing content.
Assess your fan funnel: Identify the main ways new fans discover, engage with, and share your music; how casual listeners engage with you across channels and what types of shows you’re currently playing; and how superfans resonate with and promote your music organically. Then identify any gaps in your channels where fans are failing to find you or falling off. Then create plans to fix them. Examples include launching an email list with routine sends, creating artist playlists for sharing, scheduling some repeating or “boosted” content that fans can look forward to, and launching a channel to get to know your fans better and build relationships.
Reflect on your artist identity: Do you have a story about your music ready to tell in long and short form? If not, spend some time answering key questions about your artistry that you can roll into a bio. This is crucial for giving fans a narrative to grab onto, having a focal point to revolve your branding around, and tightening up your pitches to industry professionals offering new opportunities.
Dan Goldberg is a global strategist, brand builder, and fan engagement expert with 20+ years of experience driving innovation at the intersection of culture, commerce, and community across the music, entertainment, and sports industries. He previously led global e-commerce, CRM, tour merchandising, and VIP experiences at Warner Music Group, and later launched the music & entertainment division at Fanatics, where he spearheaded breakthrough collaborations between artists and major sports brands. Over the course of his career, Dan has delivered more than $1B in revenue through talent-first strategy and cultural commerce. His work lives at the convergence of fandom, IP, and brand innovation.
One of the few executives recognized as both a strategist and operator, and with a background in entertainment law, Dan brings a multidimensional perspective to strategy and dealmaking, combining creative instinct, commercial acumen, and cultural fluency. A certified boxing trainer and lifelong fan of Nina Simone and New York hardcore, Dan balances his professional intensity with deep passion for his wife, kids, music, dogs, and the culture that shaped him.