When You Don’t Need New Fans
When live music and touring start buzzing again (and fear not, it will) there’s going to be a new amphitheater in Nashville called Graystone. It’ll be kinda like Red Rocks. Cut out of a quarry, really beautiful.
In order to sell out that venue you’ll need five thousand people.
Not five thousand and one. Not ten thousand. Five thousand of the kind of people who will buy a ticket to see you play.
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One of the oldest, iconic venues in Nashville is called Exit/In. It’s a mid size club and just about every touring artist has rolled through there.
In order to sell out that venue you’ll need five hundred people willing to buy a ticket.
So why does this matter?
Whether the goal is five hundred ticket buying fans or five thousand, it’s helpful to decide when you’re going to stop putting your time and energy into trying to convert new fans.
If need to sell out Graystone and you accomplish that, the prize is that you no longer need to sell to any new customers. You did it. You get to put all your focus on thrilling the fans you have.
And the same thing applies with Exit/In. If you have five hundred eager ticket buyers, that can be enough to wash your hands of ever having to advertise to strangers.
This is not to say that the number of people who come to see you can’t or won’t grow or that you should never consider growth. It’s about where you’re putting time, energy and recourses and the reasons why.
When are you going to stop focusing on new people and simply focus on the ones you have?
You get to pick that point, whatever the number you want, but you have to pick.
***Seth Godin has been talking about this idea, the smallest viable audience, for a long time. Start here and here.
***And the best way to sell five hundred tickets at Exit/In is to have two hundred and fifty excited fans and then incentivize each of them to bring a friend.
***Two ways to get new people. You promoting to new people. You giving your fans a reason to tell others.
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Drop me an email: gabe@gabethebassplayer.com