Laylo CEO’s Direct-to-Fan Tech Stack: 7 Tools for Artists to Build an Owned Audience 2026

Laylo CEO Alec Ellin shares his stack of direct-to-fan tools for artists to build an owned audience in 2026

Thursday, May 7, 2026

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Laylo CEO’s Direct-to-Fan Tech Stack: 7 Tools for Artists to Build an Owned Audience 2026

Laylo CEO Alec Ellin shares his stack of direct-to-fan tools for artists to build an owned audience in 2026

Thursday, May 7, 2026

laylo-ceo-s-direct-to-fan-tech-stack-7-tools-for-artists-to-build-an-owned-audience-2026

An artist with a million monthly listeners on Spotify can't message a single one of them. The artist with 20,000 SMS subscribers can reach all of them in 30 seconds.

If you're an artist, building a direct-to-fan strategy isn't a "nice to have" anymore. It's the only way to stop renting attention from platforms that change their rules every quarter. And in 2026, artists are getting more access to fan data than ever before.

Most teams in music already know this. The question I get every week is: "How?"

The answer isn't 20 tools. It's a simple stack that captures fans at high-intent moments, gives you the data to actually use, and lets you reward them on repeat.

If I were an artist investing in direct-to-fan today, here's the stack I'd use.

Contributor

Alec Ellin

Alec Ellin is the cofounder and CEO of Laylo, the CRM and drop platform used by teams behind Ariana Grande, Sabrina Carpenter, Laufey, John Summit, Outside Lands, CRSSD Fest, Nate Bargatze, and Matt Rife. Laylo has helped the biggest names in entertainment amplify their announcements through drops, driving 200M+ fan actions and over $1B in sales across tickets, merch, and content since 2021. Alec leads partnerships with Universal Music Group, Sony Music, TikTok, and DICE, and has raised $8M for Laylo to date from investors like Y Combinator, Eldridge, and the founders of C3 Presents.

Contributor

Alec Ellin

Laylo

The Drop CRM

laylo

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Direct to Fan

Music Marketing Platforms

(Obviously) – Drop everything direct-to-fan

Reach the right fans every time with Laylo’s Drop CRM.

Yes, I’m the CEO. I’m biased. But that’s why we started Laylo. It’s the single best way to get the most fans into your owned list and convert them at every key moment. Whether you’re Ariana Grande or an artist playing their first show, the goal is the same: create incredible moments for your fans and get direct access to them when you do.

Drops drive urgency and capture sign-ups. SMS and WhatsApp convert at multiples of email and social. Fan profiles show you exactly when fans RSVPed, what they bought, and where they live. Laylo integrates with Spotify, Shopify, Instagram, and the rest of your stack, so you're not guessing who your fans are or what they're doing.

The best leverage in the music business is fan data you can actually use. Laylo is how you capture it. And how you put it to work.

We set up this code for 25% off when you create a Laylo Pro account today: ROSTR25.

Laylo

The Drop CRM

laylo

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Direct to Fan

Music Marketing Platforms

(Obviously) – Drop everything direct-to-fan

Reach the right fans every time with Laylo’s Drop CRM.

The best leverage in the music business is fan data you can actually use. Laylo is how you capture it. And how you put it to work.

We set up this code for 25% off when you create a Laylo Pro account today: ROSTR25.

SET.Live

Hey Artists - Engage and reward your fans!

setlive

Direct to Fan

Capture fans at the show

The highest-intent fan-data moment in music. Free.

Your ticket buyers are your most valuable fans. They paid actual money to stand in front of you. Yet almost every artist walks off stage without trying to figure out who was in the room.

SET.Live fixes that. Fans opt in during the set to unlock exclusive content or enter contests. Their info lands in your Laylo list before the house lights even come up. You text them an exclusive the next day as a thank you.

SET.Live

Hey Artists - Engage and reward your fans!

setlive

Direct to Fan

Capture fans at the show

The highest-intent fan-data moment in music. Free.

Your ticket buyers are your most valuable fans. They paid actual money to stand in front of you. Yet almost every artist walks off stage without trying to figure out who was in the room.

genni

Simplifying collaboration between short-form creators, brands, and record labels.

genni

Direct to Fan

Your viral creator strategy

Connect with creators directly and incentivize them to share your music.

Virality matters, especially early on. Genni is a marketplace for artists to find thousands of creators and influencers across TikTok, IG, and YouTube.

It handles everything, from discovery to payments. You get creator campaigns that actually move the needle.

genni

Simplifying collaboration between short-form creators, brands, and record labels.

genni

Direct to Fan

Your viral creator strategy

Connect with creators directly and incentivize them to share your music.

Virality matters, especially early on. Genni is a marketplace for artists to find thousands of creators and influencers across TikTok, IG, and YouTube.

It handles everything, from discovery to payments. You get creator campaigns that actually move the needle.

FanMoments

The all-in-one fan engagement and automated marketing platform for savvy music creators.

fanmoments

Direct to Fan

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Collect UGC and fans for your list

Incentivize your fans to film content at the show. Keep their data forever.

Every concert generates thousands of videos that die on camera rolls. The fans behind those videos are your most active, and most artists have no way to identify them, let alone get the footage.

FanMoments and FanVids both solve this. Fans upload their concert content directly to you, and you capture their contact info in the process. You walk away with a library of authentic UGC and a direct line to the fans who cared enough to film it. Those are the fans you want on your list.

FanMoments

The all-in-one fan engagement and automated marketing platform for savvy music creators.

fanmoments

Direct to Fan

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Collect UGC and fans for your list

Incentivize your fans to film content at the show. Keep their data forever.

Every concert generates thousands of videos that die on camera rolls. The fans behind those videos are your most active, and most artists have no way to identify them, let alone get the footage.

Shopify

The entrepreneurship company.

shopify

Storefronts & Commerce

Direct to Fan

Merch Design

Monetize merch, sync buyers to your fan list

Turn online merch sales into a list of your most committed fans.

Superfans buy merch. Selling it to them through Shopify puts you in control of the entire journey, and the data. It also syncs to Spotify so it’s pretty much a requirement.

Sync it to Laylo and you can segment fans by what they've bought and how often they come back. Lifetime value shows up directly in their fan profile. If you're not doing this, you're missing out on the easiest way to identify and re-engage your biggest fans.

Shopify

The entrepreneurship company.

shopify

Storefronts & Commerce

Direct to Fan

Merch Design

Monetize merch, sync buyers to your fan list

Turn online merch sales into a list of your most committed fans.

Superfans buy merch. Selling it to them through Shopify puts you in control of the entire journey, and the data. It also syncs to Spotify so it’s pretty much a requirement.

Instagram

Capture and Share the World's Moments.

instagram

Social Media Tools

Where superfans convert

The #1 social platform for fan acquisition.

Wow Alec, how original, you wrote Instagram. Yeah, because time and again, Instagram has proven to be the single most important social platform for conversion.

Across Laylo's data (250M+ fans), Instagram drives the highest conversion from follower to fan list. And it's not even close.

Why? Because the acquisition happens in-app. With the Instagram x Laylo integration, fans just have to comment on a post or story to sign up for your drop and opt-in to your list. Instagram lets you capture the moment of excitement in real time and makes it frictionless to act on it.

TikTok may be where fans discover you. Instagram is where they convert.

Instagram

Capture and Share the World's Moments.

instagram

Social Media Tools

Where superfans convert

The #1 social platform for fan acquisition.

Wow Alec, how original, you wrote Instagram. Yeah, because time and again, Instagram has proven to be the single most important social platform for conversion.

Across Laylo's data (250M+ fans), Instagram drives the highest conversion from follower to fan list. And it's not even close.

TikTok may be where fans discover you. Instagram is where they convert.

Linktree

Link your audience everywhere.

linktree

Social Media Tools

Creator Tools

Direct to Fan

One link in bio, every drop

The single link that houses everything you do.

Every artist needs a single link in bio that houses all their links: music, merch, tickets, drops, socials. There are a lot of options here, but Linktree has the cleanest experience and the most useful add-ons and analytics. We’ve also found that many link in bio tools have now turned into “just another artist website” where fans have to click, scroll and search to find anything. That kills conversions massively. Linktree is built right.

It acts as your always-on hub, showing you exactly what your fans are clicking and where they're converting. Combined with the rest of this stack, it's how you make sure no fan ever has to dig to find you, no matter what platform they discover you on.

Linktree

Link your audience everywhere.

linktree

Social Media Tools

Creator Tools

Direct to Fan

One link in bio, every drop

The single link that houses everything you do.

ROSTR

Music industry directory, contacts, data & jobs.

rostr

Collaboration

Analytics

Industry News & Trades

"We use ROSTR constantly. It’s the best resource in the music business." - Marc Geiger, Chairman and CEO @ SaveLive

Music industry professionals use ROSTR to build their network, discover artists, save time & stay in the loop.

Promoted-Listing

Promoted-Stack-Item

stack-launch

ROSTR

own

Promoted

My Take
Going direct-to-fan doesn’t have to be complicated. But building an owned audience is the most strategic move you can make for your career.
Here’s how to put it to work:

Use the tools above to build a fan list you actually own.
Analyze and understand how your fans behave.
Reward the fans who take action, on repeat.
The artists who win the next decade won't be the ones with the most followers; they'll be the ones who know their fans on their own terms.