A few weeks ago and just out of curiosity, I looked up how much it would cost to jion the fanclub of a group I liked when I was about 11 and what you got for your money. For this group it cost $40 a year and for your money you got exclusive songs, access to exclusive events, the chance to win Meet and Greets with the band and discounts for the online stores. Pretty straightforward fanclub stuff really but the range of prices offered by other acts varies so much with the most expensive of these fan club packages being at $159 per year.
This has got me thinking more about the purpose of fanclubs and whether they are just a way of exploiting the loyaly of fans.
The fans are what makes an artist successful, they're the ones that buy the albums when they first come out, they're the ones that buy the concert tickets. Isn't that enough? Why do they have to be charged even more to get 'exclusive' content that could easily be offered for free? What about those fans who have been loyal to an artist but cannot afford the membership charges? They would be the ones who were losing out.
On the flip side of the coin, you could argue that you get for what you pay for and why should you get something for nothing? Surely it's enough that the artist releases new albums and goes on tour? You buy your ticket, you see the concert? The concert is your reward for the money you spend on the ticket.
Meat Loaf doesn't have an official fanclub anymore and I think it is a shame that he doesn't have one anymore as I'd have loved to have seen it offer some of the things I have read about from other artists. At the moment we pay nothing so in the theory of getting what you pay for, we should expect nothing other than what would normally be expected out of an artist.