“Together we can do anything!”: A study on fan involvement in pop music marketing

With digitalization and the rise of social media, there are increasing opportunities for fans to be involved in music marketing. However, research on this matter is limited, and it can be observed that the preference of music fans toward engaging media is a challenge for industry workers. This research aims to provide an answer to the research question: How do music fans perceive their role in co-creational marketing of pop music? In order to answer the research question, theories on fans and fandoms, artist-fan interactions, consumer’s musical engagement, brand communities, and co-creational marketing are discussed. Twelve semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with the aim to gain answers about fans’ opinions and experiences in the context of fan-involved music marketing. Through thematic analysis, different perceived roles of fans in the context of music marketing were identified: fans as marketeers, fans as members of the artist’s marketing team, fans as content creators, and fans as active listeners. In support of answering the research question, fans’ motivations to interact with an artist and their content were explored, which revealed the significance of the feeling of connection with an artist, the connection with music, the experience content gives the fans, and a feeling of belonging. Important takeaways are the potential of fan contributions in combination with the knowledge of a marketing team, as well as fans’ motivations that contribute to a higher level of interaction with an artist, which has beneficial outcomes for music sales and artist recognition. Limitations of the study and implications for future research are discussed, which include the advice for a larger, more diverse research sample, and the recommendation for multiple coders during the data analysis stage.