The Development of the Artist-Fan Engagement Model

Abstract

In an industry where the music consumer has unprecedented access and prefers ongoing interaction with music artists, it is important to identify how these relationships can be best leveraged. This would include engagement between a music artist and their fans through various social media platforms (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube, etc.). The Artist-Fan Engagement Model was developed as a theoretical framework to help explain this relationship between music artists and their fans. The model, created using hedonic consumption and parasocial interaction theory (PSI) as its foundational underpinnings, explores how the effects of music and artist help drive fan engagement, whether through access or ownership of recorded music. The development of the Artist-Fan Engagement Model, along with the initial study results from 2012, is discussed. However, given the sweeping changes within the music industry since the time of the original study, various components of the model are now being revised to better reflect current market realities. A second round of research is planned for late 2019 with the goal being to determine how the research outcomes have changed since the initial study was conducted.