💡✍️ ADN:019 - The Love Hate Strategy

Hey Friends -

Welcome to the Artist Development Newsletter.

Every Sunday, I send an email providing actionable tips for artists and industry on one area of the music business.

Last week we talked about mastering the art of songwriting.

You can re-read last week’s newsletter here if you want to refresh.

Today we will discuss the “Love Hate Strategy” for getting people talking about you and your music.

Let’s jump in.

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“I’d rather people love me or hate me than have no opinion about me. Indifference is scary.” — Lady Gaga

Friday, the band I’m in released a new song.

Across the internet, it got positive reactions.

These reactions were primarily from people who are already fans of what we do.

It’s always nice when people love a song you write or a show you play.

Yesterday we also played a show opening for our buddy Koe Wetzel.

It was at an arena in Evansville, Indiana.

When you are the opening band, you may have some fans in the crowd or be playing for an entirely new audience.

We’ve been around long enough that we have some fans out in the crowd, but with close to 10,000 people in the room, many new potential fans are checking us out while they wait for Koe to come on stage too.

This scenario is what we want.

It’s an excellent opportunity to make a strong impression.

We always go on stage intending to win over the room, but more than just winning over the room, we want to make people feel something strongly.

Last night we did just that.

How do I know?

Because not only did we have the room singing along with us during our show, but we got comments on social media after the show saying, “that was the best show I’ve ever been to,” AND “y’all suck ass in Evansville.”

THIS is EXACTLY what we want.

We want people to form an opinion.

We don’t want indifference.

We want the person who “saw the best show ever” and the person that “thinks we suck ass” to go and tell all their friends about how they feel.

It’s incredible to have people love your band and great to have people hate you.

Here is why:

Hate is free promotion, just the same as love.

If that guy goes and tells five of his friends how bad he thinks we were, two or three of them will look us up.

I can guarantee of those two or three that one of them will like our band.

If he had left the show and we had made no impression on him, we wouldn’t get his free promotion.

The other thing is the people that ARE fans see the haters’ comments, making them feel even more strongly about how much they love what you are doing.

They get defensive about someone hating on something they love.

All of this is good for your career.

No artist needs the whole world to love them.

You only need a tiny fraction of the world to love what you do to have a successful career.

The fastest path to finding that fraction of the world is to make people love or hate you.

Indifference will only keep you from your goals.

Be different and watch indifference fade away.

Here is a “Love Hate Strategy” visual.

And love vs. hate in action.

Love vs. Hate in action :)

See you next Sunday!

Neil Mason

Artist Development

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