How Artists Can Validate Fan Demand Before Booking Shows

13-Jul-2026 By Meagan Clements

Independent musician Taylor Hanson performs at The Hotel Cafe,
an intimate, 250-capacity venue in Los Angeles, Calif. on March 20.

Published: July 2026 | Reading Time: 8 minutes | For Independent Artists, Managers, Booking Agents & Touring Musicians

Introducing the youbloomConnect audience validation pilot:

Artists spend thousands of dollars and countless hours trying to figure out where they should play next.

What if fans could help answer that question?

That’s the idea behind youbloomConnect, a new platform that helps artists identify where genuine audience demand exists before committing to venues, travel costs or tours.

youbloom supports:

Independent Music
Venues in the 50-500 space

Part 1: The Problem

youbloomConnect Pilot

youbloom is inviting a small number of artists — roughly five to 10 — to participate in a youbloomConnect pilot focused on turning fan demand into real, confirmed shows. The pilot reduces booking risks, identifies stronger markets and supports smarter routing decisions.

youbloom CEO Phil Harrington is optimistic about new things on the horizon.

The only way that artists can make money at the moment in any consistent way is playing live, he said.

The pilot is designed to help artists, managers, and booking agents better identify where meaningful audience demand exists before committing to shows, travel or venue costs.

Part 2: How the Pilot Works

The Power Within the Fans

The concept is simple. Fans request the cities where they want to see an artist perform. As demand builds, artists gain visibility into audience interest by city, fan engagement levels, sharing activity and local momentum and potential early ticket intent.

Harrington thought for a moment.

Artists are very, very stuck to be able to get gigs and tours, he said.

Where strong demand exists, fans may later be invited to place a refundable pledge toward a potential event. The purpose is not crowdfunding, but rather validating genuine purchase intent before moving forward with a show.

Part 3: Why it Matters

Reducing Risk

Harrington weighed in on the importance of the pilot in reducing risk.

What we’ve got for [artists] is gold dust, he said.

Picture this — you’re a German hard rock band signed to an independent label. You have fans in The States, but you don’t know where demand is strongest. Why guess when you can see where fans are actively requesting a show? Momentum is building. Before committing to venues and travel expenses, let youbloomConnect solve your touring dilemma.

In a recent blog aptly titled, A Sit-Down with Sam Lewis on Career Longevity and Creative Control, the independent songster praised youbloom and the upcoming pilot.

“There’s a great place right now for youbloom and what it has to offer,” Lewis said.

Part 4: Who Should Apply

We Want You!

Youbloom is interested in speaking with artists who have an engaged audience, are currently touring or planning to tour, are open to actively engaging fans during the pilot and see value in audience and market validation tools.

Harrington paused.

We just have to communicate clearly [to artists] what we’ve got for them, he said. They’ll do the rest themselves.

The pilot will involve a small number of selected artists and campaigns over approximately six weeks.

Part 5: About youbloom

Building on Experience

youbloom has spent years working with artists, audiences, showcases, festivals, and live events internationally. This pilot builds on that experience and explores new ways to connect audience demand with live event opportunities.

Harrington reflected on the current state of the music industry, speaking to concert promoters, tour managers and booking agents.

They need to get the picture that [touring] is the biggest problem that artists have at the moment, he said.

Once demand is validated through youbloom’s pilot program, artists will need to prepare their performance — check out youbloom’s Ultimate Concert and Live Show Planning Guide for step-by-step tips on how to deliver a great show.

Interested in participating in the youbloomConnect pilot and discovering where demand already exists? Apply for the free youbloomConnect Audience Validation Pilot by July 31. Selected artists will test fan demand by city before committing to shows.

Apply for the youbloomConnect Pilot.

Making Money Online From Your Music

11-Jun-2020 By Tanay Mulukutla Leave a Comment

Zac Green shares with you some practical tips for making money online from your music. The stereotype of ordinary musicians being constantly broke is still floating around. This by itself is bad enough, but what’s worse is how much it discourages young musicians from fully pursuing their creative dreams.The truth is that not only is it possible to make money from music, but the technology we have now means that making money online from your music is so much easier than it ever has been in the past.

Licensing

Creating music for use in soundtracks is a great way to turn instrumentals and music that doesn’t fit your usual genre into an extra source of income. Indie music licensing is growing more and more as film, tv and commercial producers are looking further afield.

Tutorials

If you’ve been spending years or even decades mastering your instrument, why not show others how to get to where you are now? All you need is a good quality camera and a microphone, which you may already have. Both are relatively inexpensive. Plus, with ad revenue from sites such as Youtube.com they can quickly pay for themselves.

Ghostwriting

Much like being in a supermarket, music can be a ‘cash or credit’ situation. You can either take credit for your work, or take cash. Once you’ve developed a bit of a following you can take both, but it’s nice to know you can start getting paid very quickly by writing music for others to perform. This is incredibly common in the music industry, and many of the biggest music stars actively use ghostwriters.

Mastering

Finding somebody who can master a track or even an entire album is easier than ever thanks to websites such as Fiverr and other platforms that allow people with different skill sets to collaborate. By mastering music for a fee, you can make a very healthy income and build a formidable skill set at the same time.

Digital Sales

This can either be through your own website, or through a third-party such as iTunes. Be aware that third party retailers will take a commission of the total price, which can be quite high.To get the most exposure, make sure you gather a few favourable reviews from friends, family and anybody else you can persuade. This will dramatically increase your chances of selling online to people who may have never heard of you before.

High quality artwork

I know, I know. You’re a musician so why should you care about how the album looks? However, you’re missing a great opportunity to show off your band’s aesthetic with a visual representation as well as having a bit of fun. High quality, interesting artwork is also much more likely to catch somebody’s eye as they flick through all of the music available to them – so it translates to more sales and downloads too.

Crowdfunding

You don’t have to work 8 hours a day at a job you don’t want just to fund your music, nor do you have to persuade a record company. Instead, take your music public from day one and encourage others to chip in to help take it from a concept to a polished album or single. Online crowdfunding platforms such as Kickstarter or Gofundme are excellent for this.

Podcasting

Doing guest appearances on internet radio shows and podcasts is a great way to boost your profile. Just like a normal radio show, being part of an interview or doing a live performance is a great way to reach a massive audience without having the hassle of building one from scratch. Be sure to let the listeners know where they can find your music online for download or streaming.

Micro-producing

Instead of creating whole tracks, create tiny snippets of music. This can be in the form of loops, sound effects and samples. Developing new content for other music producers is much more exciting now thanks to user-to-user online marketplaces being supported by DAW developers. You can get in on the action in tons of different ways. Everything from programming brand new VSTs to making presets.

By now you should be feeling much more confident about having a career in the music industry. Whoever told you that you can’t make money online from your music was wrong.

youbloom is a platform that helps you as an artist to grow, sign up here and find out more: https://www.youbloom.com/artist-apply/

If you enjoy this blog about music and want to know more about youbloomConnect be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

Zac Green is chief editor of popular music blog ZingInstruments.com. He believes that music isn’t just a thing you do – it’s a mindset, an attitude, a way of life.

How to Promote Your Music on YouTube – And Keep your Subscribers (2018)

21-Jul-2018 By Robert Loustaunau 3 Comments

Promoting your Music on YouTube

Promoting your Music on YouTube isn’t exactly revolutionary. In recent years, the content-sharing platform has beefed up its incentives for creatives looking to grow a subscriber-base and monetize their music. For the DIY musician, the challenge is rising above that seemingly infinite noise of YouTube content and its pesky algorithms. Here we’ll outline how to make your channel a hub of unstoppable, watchable content that the algorithm’s just can’t keep at bay.

Put Your Best-Flick Forward.

Nick Aslam – youbloomDublin Music Festival 2018

Have your best or newest music playing at the start of the page or readily clickable. A majority of viewers decide whether or not they’re going to subscribe to a channel in the first 30 seconds of scanning the page. If they’ve ended up on your page then that’s already a great start for you. But now you need to hook them. Have your newest release or most popular upload playing automatically as they enter your channel. That, or have a welcome video that immediately makes the page personable between you and the viewer.

Clear Call-To-Action

You don’t want it to be hard for your viewer to find more of what they like. At the start and end of videos, as well as throughout your profile, make your call-to-action easy to see, and simple to click. The Backlink channel with Brian Dean has a really useful tutorial that explain the “In and Outs” of creating an effective call-to-action as well as tips on all aspects of YouTube strategy. A call-to-action can be links to your other social media, website or BandCamp album. Also, end your videos with explicit calls-to-action for viewers to leave a comment. Anything that will provoke further engagement among viewers is key.

Keep it Consistent

Choosing a day and time of the week to consistently upload content will more likely gain you a consistent fan base. Followers are more reliable if they can rely on you to stick to an upload schedule.

You’ve most likely spent a lot of time developing your band or music to fit a certain style. You want the feelings fans associate with that style to transfer over into your YouTube page. Work on developing your page to mirror your music. This could mean creating a layout with video thumbnails and color schemes that match that of your album artwork.

No Returns Without Tags

The tags you choose to represent your videos with will be your first line of attack in ranking among the ocean of YouTube videos. You want to cast a wide net but you also want to be casting it in the right place. Tags are the primary source that YouTube algorithm’s use to place your video.

Peco – youbloomDublin Music Festival 2018

Your first tag should match the keyword you have chosen to represent your video and should also be included in the video title. If the video in question is your “Music Vlog at the Hollywood Bowl,” than an appropriate first keyword might be “Hollywood Bowl or “Music Vlog.” For your next view tags, use variations of that keyword. Perhaps “Gig Vlog,” “Vlog,” or “Hollywood Music.” For your final few tags, use general terms that encapsulate the big picture of your video: “live music” or “LA music scene.”

Another way to get your tags working for you is by using the same ones as other popular videos that are similar to your’s. Websites like TubeBuddy and vidIQ allow you to quickly check the tags of high ranking videos allowing you to slap on the same tags for a chance to show up beside them in a search.

Keep it Short Lengthy

This isn’t Twitter folks. 140 characters isn’t excessive. In fact, research has shown that writing longer descriptions for your videos actually helps your ranking. 100-200 word descriptions seems to be the sweet spot here. This is because the more specific you are, the more YouTube bots have to work with when sorting you for organic searches.

By the same logic, longer videos, usually 8-15 minutes long, rank better. Just by making longer content you are quickly increasing the chances that your video will get more watch time. So if you’re wondering how to turn that 3 and a half minute music video you’re premiering into ideal-length content, get creative. Add bonus content to the ends of your music videos; a behind-the-scenes feature or heartfelt message from you and your band to your followers serves two purposes. It gets that run-time up closer to the sweet spot and it humanizes you and your content, giving fans a connection to you and your band that would otherwise be lost in cut-and-dry music video.

Co-Market

The Burma – youbloomDublin Music Festival 2018

Many YouTubers rely on one another to promote their own channels. Teaming up with other artists, collaborating, or guest appearing in each others’ videos is mutually beneficial when both parties exchange niches of fans and followers. Websites like youbloomConnect make this co-marketing simple by matching you with compatible artists that suit your style and are based nearby. This makes collaboration seamless and if you end up finding a good match, youbloomConnect will even help you to set up gigs with the other artists. Check out our Connect Guide to learn more about everything youbloomConnect can do for artists.

Make this Space a Home

Finally, you want your channel to be more than a glorified playlist; that’s what SoundCloud is for. YouTube is the perfect platform to show your followers the minds behind the music and to establish a personal connection with subscribers. Feeling a relationship with a YouTuber promises a much higher return rate of loyal viewers between uploads. This can’t be done with a music video alone. Create band interviews, behind-the-scenes gig vlogs, or an informational video. And don’t forget to end each video with some specific call out to your viewers: “Leave a comment about your favorite part of that gig, what band we should collaborate with next,” etc.

Stay tuned or subscribe to the weekly youbloom Newsletter for our follow up article on promoting your music on YouTube. In our following post we’ll be getting into the nitty-gritty of perfecting your SEO score and how exactly you can beat the algorithm.

Knowing the If, When, and How of Hiring a Manager

18-Jul-2018 By Josey Dunbar 2 Comments

Knowing when hiring a manager (and whether or not to hire one at all) is right, can be a tough call for artists…

Chasing Felix at youblooomDublin 2018 Music Festival & Summit

When deciding what’s right for your band, it’s important not only to weigh the obvious pros and cons, but also to consider the methods of attracting and choosing the best manager for your individual group of artists.

Step One: Consider the Pros of Hiring a Manager

1) Experience

Managers can provide outside knowledge of the music industry for your band. Whether you’re an up-and-coming group or have years of experience preforming, hiring a manager will provide knowledge that can prove to be essential when dealing with hosts, venues and sponsors.

2) Third Party Ear

In addition to providing knowledge of the industry, managers can also serve as a third party perspective when disputes arise within the band. Having an unbiased opinion can help to resolve budding conflicts between artists.

3) Concentrate Vision

Hiring a good manager can also be a perfect way to narrow in on a brand for your band and develop a solid vision for your group’s future.

Step Two: Consider the Cons of Hiring a Manager

Chasing Felix at youblooomDublin 2018 Music Festival & Summit

1) Money

Managers aren’t free nor are they cheap. If your band is going to end up losing money or barely breaking even by hiring a manager- maybe consider holding off for the time being.

2) Loss of Artistic Freedom

It’s no secret that a band loses the total control they started with when they decide to hire a manger. Though releasing some control may prove to be beneficial for the musician’s future, you must decide if the end goal is worth it.

At the end of the day, hiring a manager is an investment that only you can deem worth the expense and risk.

But the important decision-making doesn’t end there; after deciding if a manager is the right move for your band, it’s time to decide how to attract and choose the right one.

Step Three: Attracting a Manager

Katie Ferrara

After deciding to find a manager for your band, you’ll learn the first step in finding the right one is to not look. No you did not read that sentence wrong—don’t go looking for a manager; the right manager will come looking for you.

With that said, there are certainly methods of speeding up the process.

1) Growing Your Fanbase

The more buzz there is around your band, the more managers will know who you are and where to find you. To learn more about growing your fanbase check out “How To Hook the Super-Fans.”

After you attract managers who embody the same vision you have for your group, don’t be afraid to give them some control while still maintaining your own individuality, of course.

Maintaining some control of your own booking and touring can be made easy for those who choose to hire a manager and those who fly solo through youbloomConnect. Learn more at youbloom.com

How to Hook the Super-Fan

07-Jul-2018 By Josey Dunbar Leave a Comment

Contrary to popular belief, a super-fan is not always a crazed group of followers or a die-hard groupie. All brands have super-fans. They’re a key component in building and sustaining a successful career by enagaging a solid fanbase.

The question then becomes: what classifies as a brand and how do you build one that attracts enough super fans.

Dreaming of Jupiter at Musikmesse 2018

The term super-fan refers to an individual who supports a brand and everything that brand produces. Artists depend on super-fans as a bedrock of support. When on tour, a band can trust that their super-fans will show up, buy merch, and be tweeting about the show long after it’s over. When band’s establish a healthy base of super-fans, they are establishing a continuous body of support that can last throughout their careers.

From Starbucks to your local coffee shop that plays nothing but bluegrass, all brands attract super-fans. This comes down to the fact that people are drawn to originality. Every brand needs its own niche to attract a sustaining number of super-fans.

Who will your super-fans be?

Before a company, artist or individual can successfully attract, engage, and retain super-fans they must have a well-established brand. At the end of the day, there are billions of different people in the world with trillions of different interests; this means every brand who successfully markets a clear and individual niche has a high likelihood of attracting super-fans.

Building a brand comes down to three things: intended audience, clarity of product, and quality of service.

Whether you’re trying to market your sound or attract a wider demographic of ticket-buyers, your brand begins with your unique offerings and intended audience. Detecting what sets you apart is the quickest way to identify the basis for your brand.

After establishing a solid brand with individualized characteristics that will attract super-fans, the task becomes maintaining engagement from those fans. This maintained loyalty is often seen when artists create personal relationships with fans and release a steady flow of their branded product (shows, recorded music, etc.).

In addition to establishing these bonds, the branded product must retain its super-fan as the brand grows.

Joining a community with inter-industry connections can make a huge difference too. Today, a lot of artists are finding security in artist networks, like youbloomConnect, which help bands grow their fanbase and develop their brand through artist-partnering and co-marketing tactics. Definitely check out our guide to how youbloomConnect works if you want to learn more about our strategy.

Ultimately, developing a brand comes down to originality. Pursuing what sets you apart and working to maintain relations with super-fans as your brand-base expands will ensure your success in the future marketing of your music.

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