You may have noticed that most profitable companies look for subscription opportunities to keep you hooked. This can range from products like printers or razors to Netflix and GamePass. Being in the independent music game I see the majority of efforts are based on creating a retail product, individual sale hustle.
Maybe this is all backwards. It’s the way things have been done and I understand that a lot of people make money based on what’s proven. On the other hand, disruption of an industry is real and disruptors make a lot more money. There has got to be a lot of money in cool subscription based music.
If you follow American news, it appears their economy is doing really well. Unfortunately the Canadian economy is not doing anywhere near as well. Given I live in Canada, this presents a real conundrum. If people have less to spend on individual efforts, how do we get them to subscribe over time, so we can make some real money?
A independent scene pass - Music as a subscription
There are a whole lot of promoters out there in Montreal throwing shows. They create the lineups, find their own designers and plan the event. They scout out the venues and they find hosts and DJs. Then they throw their concert creating promo materials and jump into the league vs league battle for attention I documented the other day.
I want to propose a potential path forward that is more collaborative. What if everyone who threw shows in the local scene got together. Or maybe 20 individuals. This group started a network of sorts where any shows thrown by these folk would share a common banner. Let’s jack CY’s name for the example and call it #MTLunited.
Now instead of selling individual tickets, the team pushed a singular Patreon. At 10$ a month a subscriber would have access to every #MTLunited affiliated event. Now the entire group of people wants to push the Patreon. This will lock in a lot of individuals contributing 10$ a month, over time, even when they don’t go out.
Each events can still sell tickets at the door and whatever other artist ticket flip schemes people think of. But done correctly, with each promoter getting 15 people to subscribe, that is a 3000$ a month revenue pool that can finance the events in the first place.
Then you can create more expensive and cheaper tiers that have different incentives and really spike that number.I am just saying if 20 of us teamed up, we could create a crowdfunded experience that would literally finance the local scene. The squad could create bonus content like interviews and music previews that incentivize fans to join further. If we made enough money off it we could even pay performers.
It sounds like a safer and more secure way to show corporate sponsors that they should add their money to the hypothetical Patreon money and make even bigger shows bypassing the socialism of grants. Imagine in your pitch deck you can show 200 paying Patrons.
Merchandise on a subscription model
You should definitely sell your merch items individually. People will likely buy them. On the other hand you could effectively create a merch bundle that would allow you to sell merchandise on a subscription.
I realized there are a lot of smaller items out there. Things you can buy at less than a dollar per unit. You should stock up on those when you see them on sale. You can buy custom shipping bags with your branding on it too. Get yourself a couple of nice items like a toque or a hoodie. Then create some bundles.
Maybe for 15$ a month the person gets 4 trinkets. You throw a sticker, a patch, a temporary tattoo and a button into a branded envelope and voila. They get a little gift every month. For 30$ a month they can get a T-Shirt and two trinkets. I’m making this up but as you build out your inventory, you can price the merch boxes appropriately.
Calculate how much money you need to make for profitability. Then charge a bigger number monthly for a bunch of cool stuff on a frequent basis. Or you can do something like 10$ a month and every 3 months you get a gift box. It’s up to you to test the models out and find the right value proposition.
The reality is if you can get people to subscribe to you and pay you regularly it becomes a habit for them. You become a budget item that regularly gets anticipated. Over time you can squeeze up your pricing and people will accept it because they are already used to paying you. A paying subscriber could literally become a lifelong client.
If your brand provides enough value, people will stay subscribed even in patches of life where you don’t produce new visible results for them. In a sense, your life becomes like the stock market in their perception.
Once converted you don’t need to sell them
You may doubt my knowledge on this but I was part of a team of people that migrated a piece of software from single-use licenses to account based subscriptions. I saw the before and the after. I learned about the churn rates and in truth it’s a lot more profitable to get them renewing every year.
In the past there was always this big buildup to try and convince people to buy the latest and greatest version when the new update came out. On a subscription, each client is always entitled to the new version. You can just charge them indefinitely and not have to convince them to put a credit card number in until the card expires.
While you do need to put real effort into convincing people to stay with you, you’ll have time for that because you aren’t having to re-sell them. Then whatever you do to retain those people becomes new selling points for future prospects. You can be like, come join our version of the product, we make it comfier in these distinct, or common, ways. The extra effort you put into spicing up your product offering will make people want to come back and stay.
Loyalty isn’t easy to earn but it is worth a lot. The main point of all this is for you to try and think about ways to get people to subscribe to you. If you make a lot of music, create music exclusive for Patreon. If you do visual arts, share extra art to the Patreon. Give people a reason to support you.
Live Long and Prosper Everyone
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