When Superserving becomes Supersqueezing

‘Superserving the Superfans’ is a no-brainer for IP owners. They are your biggest advocates and your highest margin segment. Treat them right and you have an engine to propel your IP to great heights.

But when does Superserving become Supersqueezing? Providing more products, access and experiences is great, but at some point there is a limit to what you can charge.

The Superfan Buzzword

The music industry has been going crazy for the Superfan concept, mainly since Goldman Sachs issued a report sizing the Superfan opportunity at $4.5bn (through a fairly random set of assumptions, I must say).

Lucas Shaw of Bloomberg reports that Spotify plans to launch a $5.99 Music Pro tier on top of existing subscriptions later this year, offering higher-quality audio, remixing tools and access to concert tickets.

Music Business Worldwide reports that Warner Music is building a Superfan app (though CEO Robert Kyncl is reported as saying “it hasn’t really been figured out”).

HYBE’s Weverse app is the furthest along. It enables fans to DM their favourite K-Pop stars and purchase content, merch and tickets. Weverse has already grown to over 10 million Monthly Active Users (although this dipped once BTS went into the Korean army!), and it launched new premium subscription tiers in December 2024.

Universal Music Group (UMG) invested in Weverse in 2024 and is itself banging the Superfan drum, telling investors they plan to target Superfans through physical collectibles, premium merchandise, and live and digital experiences. UMG is also supporting the idea that music streaming services should offer a premium tier that gives Superfans early access to new music, deluxe editions, listening party invites, artist Q&As, and higher-quality audio. Live Nation confirmed in their last earnings call that they have held ticketing talks with Spotify, Apple, and Amazon around presale access for super-premium tier subscribers.

Beyond music, anyone with a fan relationship can monetise their keenest fans with additional content and closer access. The top-tier podcast subscribers to The Rest is History pay £200 a year for benefits including a quarterly Zoom quiz with the hosts. YouTubers The Sidemen have their own subscription app Side+, with exclusive content and access to the Sidemen themselves. Meanwhile, Lily Allen has disclosed she makes more money selling photos of her feet on Only Fans than she does from her music career.

Superfan subscriptions are easier said than done

The challenge with superfan subscriptions, though, isn’t so much getting the fans to sign up. It is keeping them there and providing enough value each month to justify the ongoing fee.

When Wizarding World Gold (later renamed the Harry Potter Fan Club) launched in 2019, it provided Hogwarts fans with a beautifully-designed, content-rich app, some delightful merch, offers and discounts, and access to the Harry Potter novels in ebook form, in return for a £59.99 annual fee. There was even a Christmas Party in the Great Hall at the studio tour in Leavesden.

But once you’ve been sorted into your Hogwarts House, discovered your Patronus, and taken some trivia quizes, it takes a lot of ongoing monthly content and value to convince even the most ardent Gryffindor to keep paying the fee.

Wizarding World Gold quietly shut down in 2021.

If the Boy Who Lived can’t keep fans paying a subscription, who can?

The fine line between superserving and exploiting

As subscription fatigue mounts and music and TV streaming services continue to raise prices, there will surely be a limit to what fans will pay. Particularly if their fandom is spread across multiple apps, each squeezing them for more.

Artists will also need to avoid appearing to exploit their fans, which is not a great look.

Although, like Oasis when surge pricing spiked their ticket prices, they can always plead ignorance and blame their management…

[postscript: since I published this post the talented exec who led the Wizarding World Gold service, my friend Paul Kanareck, has pointed out to me that it was "replaced by direct fan engagement to 50 million opted in members and monetised through regular exclusive merch drops". Arguably a much better model!]

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DC Franchise Update - 'Gods & Monsters'

DC Studios’ James Gunn and Peter Safran held a press conference updating on the forthcoming ‘Gods & Monsters’ phase of connected DC film and TV content. They plan to release two live action and one animated DC movies per year to theatres, plus two live-action and one animated series per year to Max (though only one series this year: S2 of Peacemaker, launching in August).

The DC woes that led to this course correction were summarised by Safran:

“The DC brand was being defined by different creative teams at the company, and each was pursuing their own distinct vision of the characters, the stories, and it left very little room to collaborate or cross over, so it wasn’t one DCU but many. Ultimately this fracture proved very challenging for consumers and chipped away at the very identity of our brand. So, this is part [of] what brought us to DC Studios, bringing a sense of unity, cohesion, consistency to this universe [-] not only [does it] make sense to us as storytellers, it has to be the future of the DC brand. People want to see these iconic characters interacting, they want to experience this timeless IP as one.”

Sounds good to me. As long as the movies and shows are, you know, actually good.

But the most refreshing part of today's DC update?

🎬 No project gets a greenlight until they're satisfied with a completed screenplay.

“It is hard enough making a good movie with a good script,” Gunn said. “It’s almost impossible making a movie with a script that you’re writing on the run.”

It seems so blindingly obvious, but a finished script is so often not in place before franchise movies are announced and dated. Marvel, I'm looking at you 👀.

I'm looking forward to seeing whether/how DC's quality-control translates to the screen when Superman arrives in July.