I did my independent learning on fan bases in the music industry. This may not seem very related to my project but in fact it is essential to the whole thing. I designed to be an immersive experience for fans of artists. I have learned that the key to getting fans to be loyal followers is to make them feel like they personally know the artist.

I did my research via a book I have been reading this semester called “Get More Fans” by Jess Cannon and Tom Thomas. More importantly I watched a lecture on Lynda.com called “Super Fans – The Future of the Music Industry.” The video was made by the founder of Pledge Music, a company that helps connect fans and artists. The major lessons I took away from this is how important it is to give your fans what they want – access. Specifically, there is a large market for experiences and things for super fans. Super fans are willing to pay more than just 99 cents on a track or 12 dollars on an album. Neilson projected that there is a 2.6 Billion dollar market for superfans that would be willing to spend money to interact with their favorite artist. This is where VR comes in. I think that super fans could be the first to experience and get their hands on VR musical experiences because it is the ultimate platform to feel like you are getting to know your artist . This inspired me to shoot in the artist’s bedroom – I thought it would be a really intimate thing to share with a fan. The video stressed the importance of not just letting your fans into your musical life but into your personal story. I also learned that some kind of interactivity helps because the fans want to authentically feel like they have input in the artists endeavor. This sparked the idea for me to actually record different versions of the same scene and have the viewer be able to pick which version of the song they like better, or what kind of effect they should put on a sound. Ultimately, I did not follow through with that idea because it is very ambitions. Instead I tried to really incorporate personal choices in the hotspots that allowed you to connect with specific members of the group. I think the interactivity of Viar 360 is really great because it adds an extra level of immersion into the experience, on top of the actual power of being in a VR headset. My interest this semester in artist management and looking on Lynda for some more information on growing fan ba