When I first heard deadmau5‘ work 3 or 4 years ago, I was immediately excited. Here was a guy doing something new, developing a sound that was completely his own. Even though he was only known by perhaps a few dozen people per country, it was obvious that this guy was going to be influential and blow up.
He has pulled it off in a spectacular way (awesome branding) and when I finally started following him on Facebook, I was thrilled with his level of engagement with his fanbase, or ecosystem (remember?).
In the beginning of December, this interesting development took place, where deadmau5′ marketing team decided they should get involved in communicating to his fans.
Apparently deadmau5 didn’t like the fact that his management was disturbing the trust and rapport he had built up with the ecosystem, because those status updates were followed by deadmau5’s:
Then he checked the backend of his Facebook page…
Excellent choice, in my opinion. This is the best thing he could do to earn back the trust of the ecosystem, because you really don’t want to get on the bad side of the ecosystem. The ecosystem can reject you, the ecosystem can move on, the ecosystem doesn’t need YOU in order to survive.
And the cool thing is, he wasn’t thinking about marketing or self-preservation or strategy in the process of making his choices. It’s just him, genuinely. And I guess the status update he posted 1 minute later shows just that:
Lesson learned: keep it personal and have fun in the process!
Oh, and I do not recommend everyone to get into a fight with their management, because you can get fired from your label, but maybe you’re better off without that particular label anyway.
Now, let’s chat on Twitter.
P.S. Ok, it’s not a thesis excerpt, but it will find its way into my thesis somehow. Click here to subscribe to email updates on my thesis (for excerpts, subscribe to this blog or just bookmark it).
P.P.S. Yeah, the formatting and text sizes are a bit off. I suck at screenshots, sorry. 😉
Comments
2 responses to “Thesis Excerpt: Connecting With Fans deadmau5-style (Mini-Case Study)”
How can an up and coming musician build a fanbase online?…
Andrew and Angie both left great answers. Thanks! To expand, here’s how I see it: First, a band, producer, label, whatever first of all needs to create some awesome music that stands out. This is the most important thing. If you’re not going to follo…
[…] The key is basically authenticity and consistency. Be clear, and when things go wrong; fix it. […]