Fans, Friends, and Followers – A Must Read for Entrepreneurs and Artists Alike

Welcome to the era of digital creativity – building an audience and a creative career in the digital age. The era of digital creativity is a term coined by Scott Kirsner in his new book Fans, Friends, and Followers - Building an Audience and a Creative Career in the Digital Age
. The premise behind this new, intriguing book is that the old promotional machine is dead – labels, movie studios, and publishing houses no longer have the clout to make or break artists’ careers.

Consider this: In 2000, 973 full-length films were submitted to the Sundance Film Festival. By 2008, that number had risen to 3,624. (Just 121 were accepted.) Apparently there 50 FM radio stations in LA – so what is a struggling band to do? Read Fans, Friends, and Followers.

The book
not only offers a slew of ideas of how to build a career DIY, it contains interviews and tried-and-true advice from 32 real, genuine, authentic artists who made it in this new era – ground-breaking filmmakers like M dot Strange, musicians like Ok Go, and comedians like Mark Day.

Scott shares a set of successful strategies used by most of these artists – strategies that apply not only to developing artists’ careers, but also to emerging businesses who are looking for ways to build a strong brand. Example: create opportunities for participation. Everyone online, says Scott, craves recognition and connection – and I could not agree more – this is precisely the premise behind OurStage
– the biggest online community for new and emerging music. People today want to have a say – as they did in campaigns we at OurStage did with T-Pain
and John Legend
recently.

Even the language artists use in this new era of digital creativity is different –Scott found most artists don’t talk about “audiences” – they talk about building communities, a fan base, co-conspirators. Yup, they are absolutely right.

You can buy the book here
.

I religiously follow Scott – his blog
, and his Innovation Economy
column in the Globe. I suggest you do that too.

Scratch