By Maddie Hardwick
Every year, over 20,000 fans of Americana music flock to Nashville to attend AMERICANAFEST in mid-September. Coming from all over the globe, both returning and first time spectators get to experience the heart and soul of Americana across 40 different venues in the city. As an independent Nashville-based Americana management company, this week is one that Olivia Management looks forward to every year.
Part of what makes the week of AMERICANAFEST so special is the fans that come. Without the fans, artists and industry professionals would not have these outlets and platforms to create and provide art for others.
The fans are such a special part of this industry and a recent study shows that they are planning on keeping these spaces and platforms open for Americana artists as long as possible! This article from DIMA (which you can find linked here) shows that fans are reaching almost superfan levels of spending and streaming to support the Americana artists that they love. Important points that I would like to point out from this article include:
Americana fans will spend twice as much on music annually than fans of any other genre
Fans will spend 24% more time listening in one week
99% of Americana listeners choose to stream their music
76% of Americana streamers are under the of 44
74% of fans say that they have discovered new music through Americana
All of these stats are majorly important and exciting to companies such as OM who are incredibly involved in Americana music. Having this kind of research is incredibly helpful as it reflects that the fans are incredibly receptive and are willing to spend their time, money, and attention on these artists, especially with many of them being smaller indie artists. It says a lot about how much the fans truly love the art and music that they are consuming.
This article is also talks about the growth that Americana music has had in recent years. In a direct quote from the article, President and CEO of DIMA, Graham Davies says, “This research underlines the passion of the Americana community and how streaming is deepening that engagement. Americana has grown from a regional scene into a genre with national and international reach.”
I think this quote is a great way to summarise this article as it is reflective of all of these number and statistics that are given. In a world of streaming, it is much easier to access everything at your fingertips at any given time and Americana fans are taking full advantage of this convenience at an incredible rate, almost skyrocketing the reach of Americana.
To the fans of Americana: a major THANK YOU! You are part of what keep this industry running, without your involvement, there would not be an audience for artists and that plays such a vital role in allowing artists to perform around the world! <3
