emirbursa.eth

Superfans are a $4.2 billion opportunity in music, according to Goldman Sach’s Music in the Air report. Goldman estimates that 20% of music listeners are superfans of at least one artist and are willing to spend 2x more on music than the average listener. The music industry is eager to build products for the us audience. Last week, there were two superfan-focused platforms, Bandcamp and Letterboxd, that were acquired, and say a lot about the highly coveted superfan. Bandcamp is a marketplace and community for music enthusiasts to buy music directly from artists. It was acquired by Songtradr. a B2B music licensing company. Bandcanp was previously acquired by Epic Games. Letterboxd is a social network and review-based community for movie lovers. It was acquired by Tiny, a Canadian investment firm. These platforms were beloved because they focused on attracting a passionate community. Both companies likely left money on the table as a result. This was a feature, not a bug. Now, the opportunity (and challenge) is to find the right balance between leaving too much money on the table and not treating superfans like an ATM. Could Bandcamp and Letterboxd charge more for their services? Maybe. Bandcamp’s take rate is 15% on digital items and 10% on physical goods. These users don’t want to be charged more for the same, but as Songtradr brings Bandcamp under the fold, there are likely value-add services that can justify a higher take rate. The same applies to Letterboxd, since its premium tier costs less than $5 monthly. What are the digital and in-real-life opportunities that could elevate its service? In music, a lot of that superfan revenue has gone to live music, vinyl purchases, and other experiences that attract a subset of an artist’s biggest fans. The opportunity is to maximize that. But again, without treating “superfans” like and ATM. That’s the fine line to balance for the entire industry that’s eager to attract superfans.