To know the listeners better, select the most passionate ones, and obtain more economic benefit from them, this is the path that the music industry has outlined in search of the superfan, the label given to the fan of an artist who is willing to buy all their albums, purchase their shirts, and attend as many concerts as possible. This figure is as old as the fans who used to scream at Elvis Presley’s concerts, but now it is being enhanced to increase streaming listens and earn more money, up to $4 billion according to a study by Goldman Sachs.
On this path, two brothers from Barcelona, Arnau and Homer Bosch, are working on SoundStorming, a platform that will connect artists with their followers. In June, they will launch this platform, which opens the doors to the musical creation process, allowing fans to contribute their opinions and become part of something as precious as the songs of their favorite artists. It’s about valuing the journey as much as the destination, reflecting the spirit of the times.
“Fans want a deeper relationship with artists and their communities,” explains Arnau Bosch, who has been the global creative director for Apple’s music division in recent years. Drawing from his experience in projects such as the relaunch of Apple Music, Bosch identified the challenges in converting the number of followers that artists have on social media into actual listens of their music. “Campaigns are carried out a month before the song’s release, a lot of money is invested, but the hundreds of thousands of Instagram followers turn into just thousands of plays on Spotify, and you don’t really know where the communities that support you creatively are, and who will spend money on concert tickets.”
The solution they have found to identify this more proactive audience is to open up the creative process. “In the rooms where we sat with the artists and talked about the release, I realized that demos, beats, melodies, and small jam sessions were coming out, exclusive moments that if opened up to the fans create a channel that does not exist in the industry today.”
This is the objective of the Soundstorming platform, supported by the Universal record label, which will be presented at the upcoming Primavera Sound with nine artists who will complete the recording of as many songs in front of their fans. “Fans will enter a studio where artists will show how an unreleased track is created from scratch,” describes Homer Bosch, a marketing expert who has worked with brands such as Monster Energy.
This project, which has an initial capital of half a million euros, has attracted the interest of John Maier, CEO of Bose, or the investor Chris Bower, and has the support of Jon Kraft, founder of Pandora, former Apple executive Steve Turner, and musician Dave Kushner. “Through Soundstorming, artists can share ideas, ask for opinions, and fans can vote for their preferences with live audio channels where the artist explains the process for fans to be part of this exclusive ecosystem.” A process that will culminate in encounters with the artist in small communities at high prices, “that’s where the artist can truly monetize it.”
Until reaching that point, the process will be free, taking advantage of practices that many artists already carry out through social media. “If you involve fans for months in the release of a track, the number of plays triples or quadruples.” The goal is to attract a segment of the audience, the superfan, who according to studies like Luminate, spends 80% more money on music than the average listener. These superfans represent 15% of the total population and act as music influencers; they want to be the first to discover new music, attend concerts, buy merchandise, and listen to more songs through social media. According to Spotify data, 2% of listeners generate 20% of an artist’s streams.
For the artist, this new way of working implies opening their sancta sanctorum, the place where the music originates, in a striptease that not everyone is willing to accept. “When we talked to some traditional artists, they would say they didn’t want to open up their process, but as the market evolves, you realize that it’s no longer about what they want, but about what the audiences want; they are the ones defining how artists release their music,” comments Arnau. In the case of younger audiences, “they want to get involved,” that’s why the platform looks for artists who believe in this process like BB Trickz, the artist from Raval who counts among her followers Rosalía, Bizarrap, or C. Tangana, to share content that they keep on their phones. “The musician doesn’t have to think about content for the platform, they already have it in their working tool,” Homer points out to downplay the process. “We distance ourselves from the artist’s private life,” adds Arnau, “there are no videos, only the profile picture, a very analog environment.”
In the medium term, the goal of Soundstorming also includes creating a database to observe market trends. “In five or ten years, we want to flip the concept: the song is the least important thing, the interesting part is being part of the process, feeling involved, and having access to an exclusive space.”
