There’s a good article on the MIDIA Research website about how self releasing artists Jack & Jack went to Number 1 in the US iTunes charts with their self-released debut album Calibraska.

Self releasing artists Jack & Jack.

The article comes with some interesting and thought provoking stats.  The group have 1 million YouTube subscribers, 5.7 million Vine followers and 1.2 million Twitter followers.  Their biggest video on YouTube has had a rather impressive 4.7 million views.

The Calibraska album received 446,000 Tweets around the time of its launch and it went to number one in the iTunes chart upon release however it only achieved a meagre sales count of 38,000.

MIDIA recon this 38,000 represents 2% of their combined YouTube and Twitter base which is up on the average online business engagement rate of 1%.  That in itself doesn’t seem like a large amount but you have to remember a 1 to 2 percent rise is an increase of 100%.

So what does this mean?  Well, I think first you need to be realistic with the sales you can expect (whether it is music, or merch or ticket sales) from your online fanbase.  You mustn’t think that if you have 2,000 or 5,000 followers on Facebook they are ALL likely to rush out and buy your music.  That simply isn’t the case, only a small proportion of them will put their hand in their pocket and buy from you.  That said if you are effective at engaging your social media audience they will be more inclined to go out and buy.  And, if you can turn them into superfans, those fans will spend even more money on you.

Read the article in full here:
http://www.midiaresearch.com/blog/view/social-media-becomes-a-hit-maker.html

Got any questions about this post or how you can better market yourself?

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