{"id":271515,"date":"2026-06-12T12:41:53","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T11:41:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musically.com\/?p=271515"},"modified":"2026-06-12T12:41:56","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T11:41:56","slug":"how-superfandom-is-reshaping-music-streamings-next-chapter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musically.com\/2026\/06\/12\/how-superfandom-is-reshaping-music-streamings-next-chapter\/","title":{"rendered":"How \u2018Superfandom\u2019 is Reshaping Music Streaming’s Next Chapter"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By\u00a0Con Raso<\/a>, CEO and founder of music cloud platform\u00a0Tuned Global<\/a><\/strong>.

Streaming executives from SoundCloud, Audiomack, and Tuned Global say the future of music platforms lies in community, local scenes \u2013 and giving fans meaningful ways to participate, create, and shape what comes next.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Streaming has been the dominant format for music consumption for more than a decade, and in that time, the focus of many conversations in the industry has largely centered on catalogue size, subscriber growth, and personalisation algorithms. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I recently joined a panel of music streaming leaders<\/a>, where we discussed how the next phase would look quite different. The focus is shifting from passive listening to active participation, from global charts to local scenes, and from broad audiences to the small group of deeply engaged fans<\/a> who drive most of the revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The session, titled The Future of Streaming in the Superfan Era, was moderated by Janishia Jones<\/a>, CEO and Founder of Encore Music Tech Solutions<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was joined by Brian \u201cZ\u201d Zisook<\/a>, Co-Founder and Executive Vice President of Global Operations and Head of Artist and Label Services at Audiomack<\/a>; and Jordan Pettinato<\/a>, Senior Director of Business Development at SoundCloud<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What is a superfan?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Industry research suggests that roughly one in five listeners qualifies as a superfan<\/a>, and that that group accounts for the majority of music spending. Let\u2019s outline what actually is a superfan, given how often fans, followers, listeners, and audiences get treated as interchangeable.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Brian \u201cZ\u201d Zisook<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cWe often conflate words like fans, followers, listeners and audience as the same thing, but they all actually mean something different,\u201d said Audiomack’s Zisook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Someone could follow an artist, but that could simply be for timeline entertainment. They have no vested stake in that artist. They might not even know that it is an artist. They might find them to be funny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Superfans are an extension of that, meaning that they’re supporting [an artist] with [their] time and money. So, beyond just whatever it costs per month to subscribe to a DSP, they’re going out of their way to purchase merch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“They’re going to see you when you are performing in their city. They’re joining your fan club. They want to buy a physical version of your album so that it’s tangible and they can hold it.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Platforms are giving superfans more ways to spend, engage, and express <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If superfans are defined by what they do beyond pressing play, the question for streaming platforms is what they offer to fans prepared to engage more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Superfans are not just consumers but active participants in the ecosystem through remixing, playlisting, promotion, collaboration, and content creation. <\/p>\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Tuned Global\u2019s Social Radio<\/a> solution is a great example of how streaming experiences can become more participatory and community-driven. The format allows listeners, artists, and DJs to become creators themselves by hosting live shows that combine music mixing, commentary, and audience interaction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In that sense, streaming platforms are increasingly evolving from passive listening services into participatory communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While all of us experts work with a different model, the common ground is clear: badges, leaderboards, and patronage features that give fans a way to publicly back an artist<\/a> and unlock something in return.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My perspective draws from powering streaming services across different markets and use cases, and I frame the question as one of community rather than commerce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most useful thing a platform can do is enable communities to form organically, with superfans driving those groups, rather than platforms trying to manufacture them. Line Music<\/a> in Japan, one of Tuned Global\u2019s music backend clients, is one example of how these engagement mechanics can work at scale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Line in Japan is like WhatsApp in the rest of the world, and Line Music is their music streaming service, which is very successful in that market. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Janishia Jones<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Line allows superfans to display badges of artists they love. Superfans can elect to be a superfan of someone, but you can only elect to be a superfan of so many people. So you’re going to have to choose who you are really being a fan of. And then badges [displayed on your profile] represent the amount of your fandom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Line Music has a dedicated team that manages benefits for those superfans, including merchandise and meet-and-greets. The badges serve a social function as much as a transactional one, signaling fandom not only to the artist but to the rest of the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There’s this real engagement that’s occurring between the artist and the fan, and the fan really just wants to not only use that badge to show their fandom to the artists themselves, but it really is about community. So they want to show that badge to everyone else in the community and really vie for that as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6% of Lil Uzi Vert’s fans on SoundCloud generate about 78% of his royalty income<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Audiomack runs a parallel system through its Supporters feature, launched in 2021. Zisook described it as a patronage tool that lets fans purchase a support badge priced from 99 cents to $25, with the revenue sitting on top of standard streaming royalties. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Artists can offer extras in exchange, including merchandise discount codes, unlisted YouTube links, and presale ticket access.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This is revenue that is bucketed on top of traditional royalties,” Zisook said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Patronage features add a new revenue layer, but the underlying royalty structure of streaming has long favoured the biggest artists. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jones noted that less than half a per cent of artists on Spotify earn more than $10,000 a year through streaming, despite the platform paying out 65 to 70 per cent of revenue to rights holders. Calling out the disparity, raised what newer payout<\/a> models had achieved in practice.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Jordan Pettinato<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Pettinato referred to SoundCloud’s fan-powered royalties model<\/a>, launched in 2021, which pays artists based on what each individual user listens to, rather than pooling all subscription and advertising revenue and dividing it by overall stream share. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea behind the model was that small but highly engaged audiences should generate more income for the artists they actually listen to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“In the first year, we showed that independent artists on SoundCloud made on average 60% more through streaming royalties than they had the previous year, or if they had not been on fan-powered,” Pettinato said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Will Page, who was the former chief economist at Spotify, did a report with us, and he basically did a case study on Lil Uzi Vert, and it showed that 6% of his fans on SoundCloud actually generate about 78% of his royalty income.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pettinato also noted that the headline figure does not always translate to large absolute sums, with many independent artists seeing increases of a few hundred to a few thousand dollars. Those step changes, he said, are meaningful for artists still trying to make music a full-time pursuit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Engaged users can change how platforms think about discovery <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Before discovery comes engagement, and both Pettinato and Zisook pointed to a quieter but telling signal of how superfans actually behave on their platforms: they build their own libraries and playlists, and return to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zisook said he was particularly proud that of all the possible stream sources on the Audiomack platform, the listener library is the number one stream source.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“That means someone heard a song, liked it enough to know that they wanted to return to it, and then returned to it. It signifies great resonance and stickiness, as opposed to opening up a streaming service, pressing play on personalized recommendations or an editorial playlist, and just having the music exist in the background.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pettinato said the SoundCloud platform also sees and revels in this trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We see most users in SoundCloud starting sessions from their library. And, specifically, the custom playlists that they’ve made themselves are not algorithmic playlists, not recommended playlists, but the ones that they’ve designed themselves. There’s high intent when they go to listen.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, for users to build those libraries and playlists in the first place, they need to find the music. That brings the conversation back to discovery, and to a long-standing criticism of the major streaming services: that their recommendation systems favour global hits over regional repertoire. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Experts agreed that the next phase of streaming will need to surface music that resonates within specific cultures and geographies, not just within shared languages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Audiomack’s Zisook discussed how the company rebuilt its approach with a sensitivity to what was more locally relevant, focusing on geography rather than relying solely on listening history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“What we did was we created global cohorts, which are groupings of countries and regions within these countries, with similar musical tastes. And now, depending on where you are in the world, your experience on the Audiomack app will feel uniquely tailored to those markets so that when you open the app, you don’t see Drake and Taylor Swift immediately,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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