🔵 Fan burner accounts: music's latest dirty secret
Why these accounts are on the rise, and what that means for where social is headed for artists
Fan burner accounts are something that have existed for a while in one form or another, but which have recently really started to come to the fore again. For the unaware, a fan burner account is run by usually a third-party agency, though sometimes in-house, and it exists to deliver high volumes of posts focused around one (or sometimes more) bands/artists.
In the new age of algorithmic social media, the logic is that by continually pumping out content, one is feeding the algorithm and ensuring that your band/brand is getting continued visibility in the social conversation.
A more recent development is that I’m seeing artists less willing to spend time on social media and therefore more willing to engage with the use of fan burner accounts. Frankly, this makes a lot of sense; it is getting harder and harder to find traction on social media thanks to its increasingly transient nature, all fuelled by the algorithm. As a consequence, it’s easy to see why artists are simply saying “enough is enough” and trying where possible to step back.
Ultimately, this feels like one more development in a race to the bottom. The speed at which social media churns is getting faster and faster. Constantly trying to match that need with an ever-increasing spew of posts is simply accepting that this is still a worthwhile use of time and energy.
For now (and yes, somewhat paradoxically) I would argue that this assertion may be correct. Things are changing, everybody is struggling to keep up, and these kinds of solutions allow both a delegation of intensive time use elsewhere, but also solve a problem that the artists themselves are understandably unwilling to step up to. After all, if we follow this logic, artists would be spending more time trying to create content to feed the algorithms than they would actually spend making music.
Zoom out, however, and an intervention of sorts is required. Time and resource is finite, and the way in which people are spending it may be up for question.
The kinds of fan burner accounts I’m seeing being run are costing out at easily over £1,000 per month per account. These accounts do not generate a meaningful connection with an artist. They insert them into the zeitgeist, arguably, but it is up for debate as to the value of that connection. Personally, I feel it is relatively low.
Alongside that, I have to wonder whether the money being thrown at these accounts -and it is worth stating that often, artists, management or labels are operating two or three of these at the same time - is a smart use of budget.
(Sidenote: this is all before we get into the frankly ridiculous space of agencies selling fan burner accounts back to artists’ management for five figure sums, which, I have to say, feels utterly wrong.)
I need to be absolutely clear on something here: I am not judging anyone for using fan burner accounts. I completely understand the logic, and the pitch for them makes a huge amount of sense.
What I am doing, though, is flagging a concern as to whether we are all simply buying into perpetuating an environment where more and more time and energy is funnelled into things that are of persistently diminishing returns.
In a week in which we’re now seeing the first social network appear, powered entirely by AI agents, I feel it is logical to see an endpoint where agentic AI is “flooding the plain with shit”, to quote a fairly unpleasant right-winger. Social media is already falling victim to gratuitous amounts of AI slop, and now that one can power on a computer and leave it spewing this stuff out 24/7, it’s easy to imagine this only becoming exponentially greater as a problem in time.
(Sidenote: the same could be said for AI submissions to DSPs, but that’s a story for another day.)
Artists and their teams need to focus on connection. Connection is everything. It is where value lives. Forge meaningful connections and you have fans for life. Equally, from a purely business perspective, these are the people who will spend the most on you - and therefore, they are eminently worth spending more money on to acquire.
Right now I would much rather throw thousands at an incredible community manager who can genuinely foster connection and experiences with fans than I ever would throw money at fan burner accounts. I hate to sound like a stuck record, but buying into the fan burner strategy is to buy in to a view that Big Tech and its platforms are the path to your artist succeeding.
I’m sorry, but that’s complete bullshit.
Success comes through connection.
I’ll say it again, connection is everything.
Have a great day,
D.
🎶 Listening to “The Onrush of Eternity” by by log(m) & Laraaji, over on Bandcamp. After my frothing review of the incredible Craven Faults LP last week, my buddy Neil sent me this, thinking I might enjoy it. And he was right. Spacey, loping, dub-infused touches, coupled with that synth sound that seems to figure in the works of Craven Faults, Pye Corner Audio and more. It makes for wonderful music to work to as well. Dive in!
📺 Watching “Suno, AI Music, and the Bad Future” by Adam Neely on YouTube. Adam’s video is a wonderful response to the propaganda of Suno and other Gen AI music platforms who would like us to think that they are bringing us a bright and shining future. Over the course of 90 minutes, Neely carefully deconstructs these arguments with a response to each and every one. It is absolutely fantastic. Please make time to watch it.
🤖 Loving Samply. I will admit that I’ve grown tired of SoundCloud, which feels like a hot mess of a product these days. Whilst looking for an alternative way to host demos to shop to labels, I stumbled upon Samply and I have to say, I really like it. It is very much in the “does one thing but does it extremely well” category of platform, and I’m all for that.
Gleefully accepting music recommendations!
I do really enjoy getting suggestions for either existing music or forthcoming releases to check out. So, if there’s something you think I might like, do feel free to get in touch. Always keen to hear the weird and wonderful things going on out there. And, with 6000+ subscribers, I’m happy to spread word on things I’m loving too.
Ah mate this stuff is wild. Some of the campaigns my mates are getting companies to run for electronic artists. Labels really have (as they always do) found a way to hack virality / shares etc. in a easy low effort way with this model
The proliferation of burner accounts is largely off the back of certain quite big artists using them very effectively to quickly push out large quantities of live content almost contemporaneously with the shows themselves. It's highly algorithmic and has worked really well for some BUT you're right that it won't work sustainably for most. Possibly you've seen the same retainer quotes for agency run accounts that I have? Those are way out of budget for most artists. The only application I can think of for burner accounts is to be able to publish content that artists don't mind being used but wouldn't want to publish themselves due to either aesthetic/creative boundaries around their official accounts. In that case I think there's a valid use in that content which artists/artist teams are making or commissioning can be used and fans get to see unvarnished video they wouldn't otherwise see. Eventually AI will probably be able to make all of this stuff without the artist even doing the gig, won't that be great.