The audio archives at the SF MusicTech Summit website are pretty… robust, and incredibly informative. If you have a few spare hours, I recommend you head over there and listen to a couple of the panel discussions.
Here’s one discussion from the 2011 summit called “Turning Fans Into Guerillas” where band managers and developers talk about some of the ways in which successful bands (Michael Franti, Linkin Park, REM, etc.) interact with fans and motivate them to participate in the band’s marketing.
One of the parts that interested/frightened/inspired me most was when the panelists discussed the current lack of “off-time” or “downtime” in a musician’s career. The advent of social media has forever changed the creative ecosystem in a way where fans now demand constant access and engagement, even when the band is not touring, not recording, not writing. Fans may even require that engagement in order to stay interested and excited about the band.
In other words, bands used to be able to disappear for 8 months out of the year; no longer!
Take a listen: