Venture Music founder and president Chris Nardone proposes that artists build fan relationships around service and impact, arguing that revenue and audience growth alone cannot explain those connections.
His approach separates business management from fan engagement: retain entrepreneurial discipline while using a philanthropist’s focus on whom to serve and what to contribute.
Research into lasting fan connections
In April 2026, two researchers published a decades-long study examining fans’ enduring attachment to Bruce Springsteen. Responses from 1,100 participants yielded three themes.
Nardone describes those responses as containing little feedback about the music itself. He argues that artists and their teams should examine the role they play in fans’ lives before seeking commercial returns.
A separate 2013 study explored why people listen to music, drawing on decades of philosophy, psychology, anthropology, musicology and neuroscience research.
The researchers narrowed more than 500 proposed functions to 129 for participants to rate, then grouped them into three categories.
Streaming volume and live revenue
Nardone contrasts consumption measures, including sales, streams and engagement, with live music revenue. The figures cited in his argument include:
- 253 million tracks on streaming services, with roughly 106,000 added daily, according to Luminate‘s latest report.
- In 2025, 88% of tracks received fewer than 1,000 streams; nearly half received fewer than 10.
- The world’s top 100 tours generated $8.9 billion in 2025, an increase of 61% from 2019.
- Goldman Sachs forecasts annual live music growth of 7.2% through 2030.
Measuring service and impact
Nardone argues that the creator economy has pushed artists to handle recording, distribution, marketing and monetisation with little or no outside assistance over the past two decades.
While that independence requires business skills, he contends that an emphasis on transactions can weaken fan relationships.
His proposed approach asks artists to identify the people they can serve, allocate limited resources accordingly and assess the effect of their work alongside audience size.
For social media, he suggests considering what fans need and what an artist can offer them. He also advocates concentrating on existing supporters rather than treating them primarily as a route to a larger audience.
Nardone launched Nashville-based artist development and marketing company Venture Music in 2012. His experience spans more than 15 years across artist management, marketing, behavioural science and audience psychology.
