Fans vs. Followers: Where Independent Musicians Should Invest Their Time
By Sarah Jamieson
Follows don’t guarantee someone cares about your music. They won’t guarantee that people will buy your merch or show up at your gigs.
In other words, followers are passive. Fans are invested. One looks good on paper, and the other builds your career.
In this post, we’re breaking down the illusion of vanity metrics, digging into why cultivating a core audience beats chasing numbers every time, and mapping out how you can grow a career that stands the test of time.
- How Can I Get More Followers?
- Why Aren’t My Followers Engaging With My Music?
- How Do I Convert Followers Into Fans?
- Should I Focus More on TikTok or YouTube?
- How Do I Go Viral?
- Why Musicians Chase Followers (and What It Costs Them)
- The ROI of Committed Supporters
- Shifting Your Mindset: From Metrics to Meaningful Connections
- What If I Lose Reach by Focusing on Fans?
- Advanced Fan-Building Tactics Most Indie Artists Overlook
- Building a Career That Lasts
How Can I Get More Followers?
Almost every artist has Googled “how can I get more followers” at some point. It’s natural to want to expand your audience. But here’s the hard truth: followers don’t always equal engagement.
The big platforms (Spotify, TikTok, Instagram) all reward you for those big, shiny numbers. And sure, they can get your foot in the door with industry professionals.
But so many of those followers are passive listeners. They don’t know your deal. Heck, some of them don’t even know your name.
Vanity metrics shine, but they rarely convert. They’re just inflating your ego, or worse, leading you down a path that doesn’t pay off in the long run. If you’re wondering about how to build a fanbase for music, you have to change your mindset from getting numbers to getting connections.
Why Aren’t My Followers Engaging With My Music?
Followers are not invested in you or your music. They might’ve discovered you through a viral TikTok or a Spotify playlist, but if that’s the only touchpoint, how much do they actually help your career? Did they save the track? Share it? Or did they just scroll past your video or skip to the next song after that 30 seconds of exposure?
A study of 107 artists on Spotify found that on average, only 24% of their listeners were actual fans. That same study found that smaller indie artists had just 11% of their listeners convert to followers, with bigger artists like Dua Lipa having a 26% fan conversion. Of course, this conversion goes up if you’re on multiple platforms.
And those are artists who are nurturing relationships with their fans. If you don’t actively make those connections, most of your followers won’t be engaging with your music at all.
For example:
- If artist A has 14 million monthly listeners with 6 streams per listener, that’s a healthy sign of fan engagement because people are seeking out their tracks.
- If artist B also has 14 million monthly listeners, but only 1 stream per listener, that’s surface-level success. People aren’t sticking around to explore the catalogue, engage with the artist, or join the journey.
See the difference?
If you’re playing for keeps when growing a music audience, don’t just aim for more listeners. Focus on the methods that get fans to stick with you as well. That means being where you can find fans, not just getting on random playlists where you might get a blip of fame and then fade out again.
How Do I Convert Followers Into Fans?
Now we’re getting to the good stuff. If you want to transform followers into superfans, here’s the basics of where you should start:
Personalized Engagement on Social Media
Reach out to followers who comment on your posts. Send a quick DM, or even better, a voice note. Make it personal. It’s the reason followers become fans. This may seem awkward at first, but remember, people appreciate being appreciated.
Just look at Doja Cat, Ariana, Lady Gaga, and BTS, who engage with their fans on a personal level all the time (especially before they became megafamous).
Email & SMS Lists
These lists are gold because you own that connection, and the algorithm isn’t going to tamper with your outreach. You can’t say the same thing for social media.
Artists like The Weeknd, Lana Del Rey, Run The Jewels, Billie Eilish, Ed Sheeran, and Dua Lipa know the power of a good newsletter. They share news and exclusive content to keep their subscribers engaged.
SMS is also a direct way to engage fans and get around the din of social media. Krewella set up a “text to play” campaign where if fans signed up, they’d get a sneak peek at their new single. The electronic duo sent a mix of automated messages and personal, one-on-one responses to their fans.
Using both is a smart, strategic way to put a connection with fans front and center.
Share the goods your average listener won’t get, like:
- Behind-the-scenes footage
- Demo versions
- Personal stories
- Live Interactions
Another method to build connections is hosting livestreams. Metric answered questions and played acoustic versions of their songs during the pandemic, as did many artists who did “fireside concerts.” Later, Metric released the recordings from the livestream as vinyl singles, and most sold out in a week. It was a great way to connect with their fans in a time of mass isolation.
You can also set up a hangout on Discord, like Sadie Jean did. She often engages with fans and gets their feedback on songs directly. Give the people what they want, right? Plus, you’re building a community that feels more like a group of friends than a fanbase. And that’s something people are looking for more and more these days.
Some musicians have been throwing tiny backyard shows, which have been making a huge comeback. Just look at the way the All-American Rejects blew up for their surprise shows, which also helped get them back in the spotlight.
Tell Your Story
It may sound harsh, but nobody cares about your music. They care about your story.
Talk about what you’re going through in your career, and what inspired the song you’re going to release.
Make sure it’s more than an antidote. You’ll want to tell it from your POV (and don’t be afraid to talk about your emotions, if it applies). Stories with feeling make you relatable. Polished content without heart makes you forgettable.
Show Recognition
Shout out to your most loyal fans. Tag them in your posts. Let them know they matter.
As Hunter Scott says, “People will like the music, but they will love you.” And that is exactly what you’re aiming for.
If you’re looking for more ideas to show fans recognition based on where they are in the fan engagement pyramid, check out our post.
Should I Focus More on TikTok or YouTube?
This is a common question, but it’s the wrong one because the platforms themselves aren’t the answer.
The real thing you should ask is: Where can I connect with the people who truly care about my music?
Here’s a quick breakdown of platform roles:
| Platform | Best For | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
TikTok | Discovery & Virality | Quick exposure, trend participation |
YouTube | Depth & Long-Form Storytelling | Build connection through visuals & behind-the-scenes |
Instagram | Engagement & Updates | Stay top-of-mind with consistent posts |
Email / SMS | Intimacy & Loyalty | Bypasses algorithms, more direct relationship |
Every platform serves a different purpose, but the goal is always the same. Use the right one to turn those surface-level followers into fans who share your work and show up for you.
How Do I Go Viral?
Going viral can be a huge win for visibility, but a flash without fuel fades fast. What you’re really after is loyalty.
Say an artist went viral on Spotify and gained 100,000 monthly listeners. That’s great! But if 80,000 of those streams came from random playlists, and only 20,000 were actual organic listeners, that’s a huge gap.
This is yet another reason why getting on the right playlists with organic listeners (as opposed to ones populated by bots and fake streams) is so important. It may look great to get on a bunch of playlists and have that spike in your SFA profile, but you want to show up where your ride-or-dies are listening.
Same goes for TikTok. It inflates your monthly listeners dramatically, but those numbers don’t always reflect loyalty. Viral TikTok songs had an average fan conversion rate of just 0.83%. That means for every 1,000 people who heard the song, fewer than 9 followed the artist on Spotify. People may know the song, but have no idea who made it.
That’s why content that builds identity and connection is essential. Otherwise, your success disappears as fast as the trend.
If you’re lucky enough to catch that viral wave on TikTok or Instagram, you’ll still want to take control of it (of course!). Use it to introduce yourself. Build a narrative people can follow, reply to new followers, and guide them to yo...
