New Economy of Fandom

Abstract

This article discusses five new roles that fans can play: sponsors, co-creators of value, stakeholders, investors, and filters. These roles are elements of new types of relationship between fans and artists, which are manifestations of the emergence of what can be called a "new economy of fandom." The new economy of fandom is understood here as a condition in which empowered fan communities use the democratizing potential of new social media to communicate and cooperate with artists, without the mediation of the traditional recording industry. The emergence of the new economy of fandom may lead to a redefinition of what it means to be a fan. It also requires finding new theoretical frameworks that will help analyze new types of relationships between artists and fans. The article argues that concepts of value co-creation, and "prosumption" may help explain the ongoing changes.

Stop hitting the woodwork! CRM for better fan-identification in Romanian second division football clubs

“…Apart from Poli Timișoara and UTA Arad, which are clubs run by fangroups, most of the other clubs do not make the necessary efforts to encourage their fans to create and distribute online media content through which value for the football brand may be raised. Galuszka (2015) discusses about a "new economy of fandom", where brand owners should empower their fan communities to use social media, in order to draw benefits from them. Benefits can be either monetary or emotional.…”

Artist and Repertoire Goes Online: Evidence from Poland

“…In the case of music, social networks have always existed, for example, in the form of fan communities. 27 What record companies' A&R experts did before recommending that a record company sign a new artist was to a large extent based on the observation of social networks, for example, watching listeners' interactions with artists and with each other during concerts. Following this line of reasoning, it can be argued that independent record companies were considered to be better than major companies in discovering new talents 28 not because of their ability to foresee the future but because of their embeddedness in music scenes-scenes that were composed of social networks of fans, artists, journalists, club owners, and so forth.…”

Shine a Light: Surveying Locality, Independence, and Digitization in Ottawa’s Independent Rock Scene

“…Patryk Galuzska (2015) identifies a broader blurring of production and consumption in the "new [digital] economy of fandom," surmising that contemporary music fans now work, particularly in the more experimental fields of independent music, in a wider range of capacities for musicians and labels. His is a narrative of consumer empowerment though, in which he suggests that in this "new digital economy," the "traditional recording industry" plays a role of diminishing importance; instead, it is fans that are now more involved in the business of music, working as "sponsors, co-creators of value, stakeholders, investors, and filters" (pp.…”

“…The local scene recurs in this service, but when reframed through the vantage of labour, it works as user-generated content for the service and a largely offsite source of warehousing and shipping/receiving for physical album sales. The styles of proximity promised by indie music scenes is translated into click-based transactions of money and attention, thus reinforcing the boundary between fan and musician supposedly troubled in both independent music (Fonarow, 2006;Oakes, 2009) and new media technologies (Jenkins, 2006;Galuzska, 2015).…”

“…It has been recognized that the influx of digital recording and performance technologies since the 1980s has blurred the boundaries between production and consumption (Théberge, 1997). This has spurred greater degrees of labour and participation by music fans (Morris, 2014;Galuzska, 2015) and produced institutional indeterminacy, rooted in cross-industry convergence, and in particular, the increasing presence of the computational industries (Morris, 2015b). The example of Bandcamp indicates a translation of both consumers and producers into service subscribers.…”