Ah, this was a fun one.  This week of Music Success in Nine Weeks (MSi9W) centered around connecting with fans through the ol’ mailing list. 

Before beginning with the MSi9W program, I had a mailing list set up through HostBaby but barely used it at all.  Like a lot of musicians, I don’t really comfortable sending out emails to the list unless I feel like I have something to talk about.  So when I started with MSi9W back in August, I launched that songwriting project I keep yapping about, Year of Song, so that I’d have something that I’d be excited to talk about with my fans, even if nothing else was on the plate. 

So eight weeks in, I’ve gathered just shy of 90 followers and have sent out 6 newsletters, about one per week with songs + blog entries. 

Sounds like a good time to assess who my fan base is so far.  

I got my list compiled into a .csv and went through it, noting certain trends, etc.  It wasn’t too hard, as the majority of them are good friends that I’ve met through playing music; I just had to sit down and think about it.  

How would I describe my fans?  Hard to say, but here are a few interesting factoids and gleanings from interactions over the years (and list statistics):

• 2:1 ratio of females to males
• 80-90% fall in the twentysomething crowd (either recent graduates or still in college)
• love eating.  food is often the center of socializing, whether it be cooking, restaurant-ing, or boba (BOBA!)
• an interest in the visual arts — many designers and photographers
• they’re super-connected in the social media world; Facebook and LinkedIn are the most used, with Twitter slowly catching up
• YouTube is tops when it comes to procrastination
• enjoy outdoors-y activities, from running to hiking and hanging out in parks (holla, golden gate park!)
• many peruse the New York Times  
• conversation topics:  life, “what does it all mean?,” love and relationships

Using this information, I brainstormed ways to better engage my fans through my newsletter:

• A bi-weekly/monthly video greeting
• Survey on what fans would like to hear in my Year of Song project
• Talk about my favorite music/visual artist at the moment
• Start a running/hiking club
• Have periodic meet-ups for boba, coffee, etc.

I decided to try the video greeting for this week’s newsletter; I’ve copied and pasted it below — sign up for my mailing list at http://andrewplan.com to receive any of the goodies listed :)

Take care, and till next week…

-Andrew

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Greetings ________!

Lookie, a video! (warning: classic Andrew awkwardness after the jump)

I hope you had a wonderful weekend! On Friday I played my first show in almost four months (!!!) at the Red Victorian Hotel in San Francisco; I was really nervous, but in the end it was really amazing to be back on stage belting songs I really cared about.  It was also a lotta fun getting to meet the awesome musicians there as well as reunite with some good friends.  Thanks so much to everyone who came!

In other news, I’ve now moved Year of Song to a podcast format — if you’ve been following along, please subscribe!  You can subscribe through iTunes here or visit the podcast site to subscribe to the RSS feed.  All future Year of Song releases will be released primarily through the podcast; this way, there’s a centralized venue for you to download new content as well as comment on it and interact with each other!

And what better way to celebrate the new podcast than a new song?  This week’s song is called “One of the Boys,” and it’s a real rockin’ number despite being a reaction to violence in relationships (the email subject line makes a lot more sense after listening to the song). 

Download:  Andrew Plan - One of the Boys

read about the inspiration

Let me know whatcha think in the comments section!

Take care, and I’ll talk to ya soon :)

-Andrew

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Andrew Plan

andrew@andrewplan.com

fearless folk for the wandering soul.

free music every week!  http://andrewplan.libsyn.com