Where Music's Going's Rob Abelow shares his detailed guide on running your direct-to-fan business.
openstage
openstage
Fan Club Tools
The most comprehensive artist-tailored CRM that consolidates all your fan data & communications in one place. OS integrates with streaming, social media, merch, community & ticketing platforms to give you a complete view of fan activity & power upgraded experiences for fans on & off platform. Use it for email, sms, pre-save & data capture, but it’s so much more. Ditch Mailchimp. Take full control of your fan relationships.
bonfire
bonfire
Direct to Fan
Creator Tools
Web3
Custom fan engagement experiences on your own url, in your branding, all with no code. From listening parties to memberships to exclusive content. And my favorite is the coming-soon Season Passes: time-bound memberships wrapped around your releases or tours, turning them into passports opening up more value, but without the endless maintenance & unclear value prop of a Patreon-like membership.
single
single
Direct to Fan
Direct to Fan
Single makes your Shopify storefront music & fan friendly: Sell digital music & bundles, auto-report to charts, offer memberships, livestreams, video. All on top of your store, paywalling whatever you’d like. When you graduate from Bandcamp, go here.
bandcamp
bandcamp
Digital Distributors
Concert Listings
I had to include it. An easy, free-to-set-up e-commerce store ideal for artists whose sales don't justify paying a monthly fee to Shopify. It also works well for selling records from multiple labels in the same storefront, with fulfillment & payments flowing back through to each label on the backend.
mainfactor
mainfactor
Storefronts & Commerce
Mainfactor provides a suite of tech-enabled services to artists doing $100k+ in annual merch sales. Everything from store-building to manufacturing & product to marketing to logistics & fulfillment. Mike & his team have built over 500 D2C stores, working with artists like Taylor Swift, Alicia Keys and Lady Gaga.
bonsai
bonsai
Artist Marketing
Creator Tools
Bonsais turn 1:1 fan engagement into a content flywheel. Here’s how it works:
- 1. Fans ask you questions on Instagram, Youtube or Discord & tag your Bonsai.
- 2. You answer the ones you want.
- 3. Your answer auto-publishes on Reels, Shorts & Discord - and tags the asker.
It gives you a chance to deeply engage with fans, while simultaneously creating content for everyone, bringing them a little bit closer.
planet
planet
Fan Club Tools
Direct to Fan
Your tour pre-sale gateway that either sells your allocated tickets directly or links out to partners, capturing the full demand & fan data in the process. What I like about Planet is it can put a tour access pass into your fan’s Apple or Android wallet, so they’re gated for future presales, you can then send them push notifications, or provide extras at the show. It’s a membership pass for your shows.
rostr
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.
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ROSTR
own
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Promoted
grouped
grouped
Direct to Fan
Fan Clubs
Email Marketing
Grouped is a music-focused Patreon-like platform that can be free, monetized, or a mix. The killer feature is the custom audio player where members can stream even while they leave the app. Go live. Chat with fans. And control all the data from your community.
fan-dynamics
fan-dynamics
Fan Club Tools
FanDX runs your artist fan community on Discord. They provide an onboarding flow that captures contextual info about your fans, provide a dashboard for the health of your community, and moderate fan communities for artists like Olivia Rodrigo & Machine Gun Kelly.
audiomack
audiomack
Digital Streaming Platforms (DSPs)
Audiomack may not be as big as others, but the platform is just as much about connection as consumption. Artists can communicate with all their followers for free via the Connect feature. Great for building an audience & momentum (genre-dependent - particularly strong for afro-sounds).
Also consider Soundcloud, where you can reach out to your biggest supporters 1 by 1.
where-musics-going
where-musics-going
Newsletters & Blogs
WMiG is a newsletter & agency helping artists connect directly with fans & build more sustainable audiences. How to think, how to do, and examples of what works.
Other Stacks
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Contributor
Rob Abelow
Rob is the founder & president of Where Music’s Going, a music industry research & advisory firm, and Head of US for direct-to-fan platform OpenStage. He previously spent 10 years as the president of Roll Call Records & Management, an artist management company & record label he founded.
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STACK
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gamechanger
ROSTR
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