Failed fan pandering and AI in music: reading the fandom signals

Quick hits for the weekend.

Welcome to Fandom Exile, your destination for anti-nostalgia fandom analysis and cultural criticism.

ICYMI: I wrote about true crime fandom being weaponized by legal actors for Pirate Wires.

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It could simply be the season or my personal situation (see: open to work) but a lot of the topics I’ve felt inspired and motivated to write about don’t really warrant standalone essays, so this weekend you get two in one.

Female Sports Fandom

Female sports fandom has been a hot topic lately. When SXSW London declared that fandom was the future and pointed to sports fandom as growing, I asked if the companies that were accelerating their pandering to fans were ready for the weight of fan rage which can so easily be activated.

Sky Sports was not ready.

They attempted to maximize profit and engagement from female sports fans by launching a girl version of the main Sky Sports account, this one named Sky Sports Halo. It lasted three days before being officially shut down.

The coverage of the channel mentions that this was an account for female sports, but it wasn’t: it was an account for female audiences, in general.

The execution of the account showed a real ignorance about how fandom operates and what they want. In one way, they would’ve been better off calling this the “alt meme account” because the posts were really just hopping on social media trends, delivering tired memes about being rizzed by Mamdani and regular sports updates overlaid with sparkly pink fonts.

Fandom dynamics are complex and require more research and investigation than flattening them to clichéd target demographic stereotypes. That the account was officially shut down after three days is the biggest red flag that they were pandering and trying to tap into a market they knew nothing about. Were they serious about this project, they could’ve pivoted and revised their strategy. Instead, they got snarky before calling it quits, completely unable to pivot and adjust.

If you actually have a fandom project you believe in, you have to be prepared for backlashes because they will come, and you need to know that what you’re doing is worthwhile and have a crisis strategy on deck.

Companies need to future-proof themselves, because even if they manage to enter the fray without this type of controversy and getting audiences emotionally attached and invested, those good feelings will not last forever. They have to be prepared for the anti-fan and vigilante turns that come with that type of investment.

If we really are serious about catering to fans and building fan communities, we have to do it with the right strategy. There is a world in which Sky Sports Halo was more accurately branded and marketed as a humor account, but even if it had been embraced right away, there’s no telling what might set people off in the future.

The shape of music fandom in the age of AI

The music industry has moved into the adoption phase with AI. Lawsuits have been settled, collaborations and investments have been announced, and all major labels have their hands in the pie. With that in mind, I’m trying to picture the ways this adoption might play out, the way that it might shift the landscape.

Virtual artists and fan objects, in general, are not a new thing. But it would be naive not to expect the adoption of AI to add to the glut.

The first step to making the general public amenable to AI music is to emphasize that the AI artists that are being promoted by the industry have human creators. The creators are framed similarly to how producers and songwriters can be framed, while the ‘artist’ is a product that peddles more product. So in a way, I’m not that surprised. Artists can and often are devalued in the process as is. This is merely a signal that more of that is on the way.

I can picture an era where labels overwhelmingly profit from AI generated music. Whether it’s their catalogues being used to generate new output by long since inactive artists, or original content. Both can be supplemented with digital likenesses and avatars.

Human performers will continue to be worth supporting in some ways. Touring infrastructure is something that still works best with humans, since holographic technology is not affordable or widespread enough to populate live calendars across the US.

Still, that hasn’t stopped the virtual singer Hatsune Miku from touring the world, performing at Coachella, being platformed by Letterman and opening up for Lady Gaga. But even these performances were supported by a live band while the set was broadcast on LCD screens.

Deepfake technology has already been used to produce music videos for a virtual girl band in South Korea, so the use of stand-ins to support live appearances and in person events feels likely. Not that different from the actors tasked with portraying Disney characters at their theme parks. These virtual artists will be skins that can be worn by performers for a much smaller price than investing in an actual artist. The cost savings would be huge.

The quick industry adoption of Xania Monet has been alarming, but I don’t know that virtual artists that pretend to be human are going to amass passionate fandoms. That doesn’t mean it can’t be profitable. But while fandoms and attachments absolutely form around fictional characters and worlds, they know it’s fictional going in. And that makes all the difference.

Middle class musicians will struggle the most. There may erupt a new economy for human made and performed music, but it won’t be easy. This may end up the domain of rich kids who can afford not to be paid a living wage for the sake of being a musician. Unless Ireland’s basic income for the arts model is widely adopted.

I genuinely think this is partially why music artists have been adopting Substack. The site—or notes, at least—has been aflutter with the arrival of some heavyweights coming aboard, and the discussion has been fairly predictable.

For some, the increased eyeballs and engagement sounds like something that will benefit everyone. More traffic means more likelihood that people will find your content. I think this is a fair, and optimistic way to embrace inevitable change in our current ecosystem.

There’s also been some claims that there’s no need to be threatened by these new additions because writing, which is what this platform is for, is not what these celebrities specialize in. They are unlikely to shift gears to full-time Substacking because their hustle is elsewhere. But I don’t think any of them intend to change lanes. Substack isn’t a career, it’s diversification in a fractured, unpredictable market. It’s Patreon, but less desperate.

And it’s a great way to garner and deepen affect and emotional investment. Which is what really sets human artists apart from the much cheaper AI counterparts.

That’s just smart business. But I am cynical about what it means for the climate on here. I don’t like what this means for me as a user, the spread of fan culture that comes with these types of brands is one I’ve tried to avoid. I’ve already noticed a lot more fannish accounts through the grapevine. But I get it from their perspective.

AI Music creation as fandom?

But the most surprising thing about AI and music right now is MIDiA’s research that suggests the people who use generative AI to create music are superfans.

“gen AI music users over-index for every music fan metric. And by a lot. This includes being four times more likely than overall consumers to buy merch and one and a half times more likely to have a music subscription. They also strongly over-index for all streaming consumption metrics.”

The way MIDiA’s Mark Mulligan explains it, generating music using AI prompts is fitting into the existing mode of transformational fandom. This is a discovery that is well worth paying attention to from all sides.

How to separate these users from creators intent on generating music for a career, and how to measure the returns of this type of devotion, I’m not sure.

But it might be a reassurance to artists that the users that engage this way see it as an act of appreciation rather than disrespect. If it is seen as an expression of devotion, it may lead to more artists adopting and embracing generative AI. Not for themselves, but for their fans.