Get to know your fans using this survey

Building fan personas can be extremely helpful when it comes to marketing and promoting your music. So, get to know who your fans are in age, demographic, values, and more with this survey.

by Dayna Young of Fred & Augustus

Music Fan Personas allow you to understand exactly who your fans are. When you know who your fans you can tailor your content, messaging, voice, and tone to what your fans really care about. You can learn more about How to Create Music Fan Personas on our blog here.

If you’re here it’s possible that you’ve decided to create your Music Fan Persona, have completed most of your research, but perhaps are stuck on the survey portion of your discovery. What questions do you ask? Whom do you ask them of? 

Below are some suggested Fan Persona questions. You can deliver these as a written survey if done with real sensitivity and to a limited number of fans who have opted-in to this form of communication, or you could do one-on-one interviews and pose these questions more informally. You might want to offer an incentive to fans who participate too, perhaps a discounted ticket to your show or 10% off your merch store. Take note of the value of the information your fans are providing you with in these questions below – your incentive should hold weight and value equal to or above the value of what they provide.

Suggested Questions:

Q1: For the purpose of this survey, please give yourself a name that aligns with your preferred gender pronoun. For privacy, this doesn’t need to be your real name.

Q2: Age 

• 18-24, 
• 25-34
• 35-44
• 45-54
• 55-64
• 65+

Q3: Gender 

• Female
• Male
• Non-binary
• Prefer not to say

Q4: What’s work for you, or alternatively, what’s your fancy job title? 

Q5: Oooh. That is fancy. What industry do you work in to earn such a fancy title?

Q6: What does a typical day in your life look like? As an example, [insert band member eg Joe’s] day often looks a little like this [insert general day-to-day activities]

Q7: What are some of the challenges in your daily life? [insert band member name eg Joe] wants you to know that for him it’s [insert challenges]

Q8: What’s a goal you’d love to achieve? Did you know we’re working on new material? Our goal is to [eg release an album in the coming months. Standby! ]

Q9: [insert band member name] enjoys [activity] and has recently developed an interest in [activity]. What are some of the hobbies you enjoy? 

Q10: Some of us love it, and some of us don’t. But when you do, where do you prefer to shop? You can check more than one option, and if you say ‘in-person’, we might do a pop-up shop when we’re next on tour! 

• Online, In-person (small or local shops)
• In-person (malls or shopping centres)
• Spontaneously (any of the above)

Q11: We truly enjoy the connection we get to have with our fans online – thank you for engaging with our posts. What are some of the social media platforms do you use? (You can check more than one) 

• Facebook
• Instagram
• Twitter
• TikTok
• YouTube
• Snapchat
• Other (list)

Q12: [insert band member name eg Joe] uses social media to keep up with the [insert hobby or interest eg gardening] community – it’s an excellent avenue for [him/her] to share information and find information for [his/her] beloved hobby. For the social platforms you use, why do you use them? 

• To interact with friends
• To make new friends
• To socialize casually
• To find a suitable date
• To promote products/services
• To find employment
• Event planning

Q13: What blogs, news sources, or other types of online information do you typically consume? Feel free to list a few below either by name or link. 

Q14: We often discover new music from our friends and we guess you might too. How do you discover new music? (Check all that apply) 

• Via recommendations from friends
• Music services eg Spotify
• Live music
• Social media
• Online blogs, news sources, etc
• Radio

Q15: We know you LOVE music. But what are some of the specific music genres you like? (Check all that apply) 

• Americana/ Folk
• Hip-hop
• Rock 
• Jazz
• Heavy metal
• Punk 
• R’n’B
• Electronic Dance Music
• Classical
• Soul 
• Alternative
• Other (please list)

Q16: Loving music as much as we know you do, there must be a tonne of artists you love. We’d love to hear who some of them are?

Q17: When you do go to see your favorite artists, what types of venues do you prefer to see live music in? Feel free to check all that apply.

• Small
• Medium
• Large

Q18: We’re so grateful for the support you show us. We want to ensure that when you support us you’re being offered the products you most want to buy. What type of offerings are you most likely to purchase directly from an artist? Feel free to check all that apply. 

• Music
• Merchandise (tees, hats, sweatshirts, etc)
• Tickets
• Experiential offers (Meet-n-greets, cameo shoutouts, exclusive recorded performances)
• Fan club membership)
• NFT’s

Q19: What are some typical music offerings that you purchase in any given year? Click any that apply. 

• Streaming subscription (Spotify, Apple, etc)
• Artist merchandise
• Live shows (1-3 per year)
• Live shows (4+ per year)
• Artist Fan clubs
• NFT’s
• Other (please list)

Q20: How do you prefer to hear from or interact with artists you love? Feel free to check all that apply. 

• Email
• Magazines
• Online Blogs or News sites
• Social Media
• Performances

Q21: Where do you typically listen to music? 

• Online streaming platforms (Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Music, Pandora, Deezer, YouTube)
• Radio
• Apps
• Live Music
• Social Media

Q22: Thinking of some of the artists you love… What is it about those artists that made you a fan? You can choose more than one reason.

• Connection with the band members
• Connection with the songs
• Quality of music production
• Quality of live performance
• Inclusive, diverse, and active Fan Community
• Consistency in how the artist communicates with fans

Q23: Now, let’s think of some of the things that artists do that you don’t like? Check all that apply, and we’ll tailor our approach to what you – our fans – most enjoy!

• Spam messages
• Repeatedly contact fans without providing new content
• Aren’t engaging during live interviews or shows
• Don’t engage with fans on social media
• Don’t share exclusive fan offers
• Don’t share exclusive fan content
• Actively speak out about current events/issues
• Don’t actively speak out about current events/issues

Once you have responses to these questions captured you’re ready to create your personas. Music Fan Personas are fact meets fiction, and are based on using tools you have on hand to research your existing audience, while then telling a story about who some of those individuals are, or might be. Using your survey data and information you have on hand including reviews, your team’s understanding of your fan base, and leveraging analytics from tools including Google, Social Media, CRM, and so forth, you can create ‘personas’ based on the knowledge you have gathered. Take for example this persona of Adele that Semrush built. 

Once completed they can be used to more concisely define your advertising target audience, shared with your social media team (so that they can create content more inline with fan wants and needs), and used in your EPKs to indicate you know who your fan base is, and much much more.

MORE: How to get to know your fans by creating Fan Personas

Dayna Young has 15+ years of global experience in music, entertainment, and leading creative teams to success. She is the Founder of Fred & Augustus,  and an expert in music marketing and digital artist development. Ultimately, what gets her up in the morning is the knowledge that she’s creating opportunities for artists.