Thug Life Army

Building a fan base is one of the consistently challenging aspects of artists'' career. Finding and developing an audience for your art is also one of the great appeals, the golden fleece of a record deal (or a book deal, a movie deal, a show at a gallery), because a major record deal is perceived to be the quickest means by which to gain a broad audience and develop fans. And that can be true because major entertainment companies have the budgets and access to large audiences via major media and retail outlets.

But even with a major deal, most artists will quickly lose their deal because they are unable to develop a large enough fan base in a short enough time period to support the cost of their deal. If it is difficult for artists with a major deal to establish a fan base with all of the marketing power behind them, what does that mean for the independent artist?

It means that money and airtime doesn''t necessarily translate into fans, so not having a major deal does not limit your chance of building an audience for your music on your own. It just means that building an audience for your music is always hard work under any circumstance.

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