The superfan fallacy: Key takeaways from our final webinar of 2024

By:Cherie Hu

Published:2024-12-18

On December 17, 2024, Water & Music hosted our final webinar of the year, in which we examined the uncomfortable truths behind music's "pivot to superfans."

Artists and executives alike are promoting superfandom as a potential saving grace, especially in a climate where streaming growth is slowing and content oversaturation is accelerating. But the reality is far more complicated than what most narratives suggest.

Nearly 200 members joined our webinar to hear from three leading voices — each of whom offered a distinct critical perspective on the emotional, legal, and technological challenges facing the industry's push toward superfan monetization:

Below are the full webinar recording and slides, followed by key insights and case studies from our discussion. A curated reading list is included at the bottom for those wanting to dive deeper.

Follow along

Recording:

Slides:

The emotional cost of stan culture

Monia Ali, writer of the Fandom Exile newsletter, opened the webinar by challenging the industry's aggressive push toward superfandom monetization. Her analysis traced the evolution from "customer evangelists" at the turn of the 21st century to today's hyper-engaged superfan economy, revealing how industry incentives increasingly push artists toward cultivating emotionally charged — and potentially unhealthy — fan attachments,

The consequences of this shift are already visible across the music landscape. Ali highlighted several telling examples:

These incidents point to a crucial disconnect that the industry often overlooks: Fans develop loyalty not to the artist, but to their idealized concept of what that artist represents. When reality inevitably fails to match this manufactured ideal, the results can be volatile. As Ali put it simply, "Fandom is pro-social; standom is anti-social."

For artists and industry professionals navigating this landscape, Ali outlined several practical approaches for artists and their teams to build more sustainable fan relationships. Rather than chasing maximum monetization through VIP experiences and exclusive access, she suggested:

The key, Ali emphasized, is patience: While cultivating intense fan attachment might drive short-term gains (like rapid ticket sales or merch purchases), building healthy, sustainable fan communities requires a longer-term perspective that prioritizes fan wellbeing over immediate monetization.

Andy Blair, Founder of Reverb Data and former Chief Privacy Officer at UMG, opened with his thesis that legal control of fan data will be the single biggest factor shaping the next phase of the music industry.

Blair’s presentation cut through common misconceptions about data rights — explaining that despite platform marketing claims about "owning your data," most artists have little to no actual “ownership” over their fan information. This is because privacy laws, not property rights, determine who can use fan data and how.

This disconnect between perception and legal reality manifests in several critical ways. For example:

All of this points to a telling paradox: Artists today have more leverage and influence than ever in choosing their label partners and technology platforms, yet they have almost zero control over their fan data.

For artists, managers, and music tech founders, Blair outlined what he saw as several strategic imperatives for 2025 and beyond:

The platform paradox in fan monetization

Hanna Kahlert, Analyst at MIDiA Research, challenged a core assumption driving many music tech startups — namely, that launching new standalone fan platforms is the solution to superfan monetization.

Drawing from MIDiA’s previous reports, Kahlert revealed that while fans are indeed willing to pay for exclusive experiences — with early access to music, tickets, and merchandise topping their wish lists — the fragmentation of investment across a growing number of platforms has created an unsustainable attention economy for both artists and fans.

This paradox becomes clear in MIDiA's platform engagement data: While established social networks like Facebook maintain weekly active use (WAU) above 60%, engagement drops precipitously for more niche platforms, with most struggling to break above 10% WAU.

The math becomes particularly challenging when considering fan behavior. Kahlert noted that the average listener follows hundreds of artists, with even top artists commanding only about 3% of their fans' listening time.

In this context, asking fans to adopt yet another platform — potentially with its own monthly subscription — for each of their favorite artists creates an impossible equation. The issue is compounded by social platforms' algorithms, which often reach only a small percentage of an artist's existing followers, making it harder to build momentum for new fan experiences.

For music tech founders and artists, Kahlert suggested several alternative approaches to building fan connections:

The key, Kahlert argued, is not to solve fragmentation with even more fragmentation, but rather to thoughtfully use existing tools to create focused, meaningful fan communities.

For deeper insights into these trends, below is a curated list of recommended resources, many of which feature or were authored by our speakers:

Thank you so much for your support, and happy holidays!

Stay tuned for upcoming webinars and articles where we'll continue exploring the intersection of music, technology, and business. For any further questions or to share your thoughts, please reach out to our inbox at members@waterandmusic.com