In March, Kevin Kelly published a long post on his blog detailing his theory that to survive as a long-tail content producer you have to cultivate 1,000 “true fans.” Trent Reznor, the musical legend at the helm of Nine Inch Nails, is hardly a long-tail content creator — you kind of have to forgo that moniker when you have had four platinum albums in the US, and two that have peaked at #1 on the charts. But even so, Reznor has come to embody Kelly’s true fans theory since his split with Interscope Records last year.

今年3月，凯文·凯利(Kevin Kelly)在他的博客上发表了一篇长篇文章 ，详细介绍了他的理论：要想成为长尾内容制作人，要生存就必须培养1000名“真正的粉丝”。 特伦特·雷兹诺(Trent Reznor)是《九寸指甲》掌门人的音乐传奇人物，他并不是一个长尾内容创作者-当您在美国拥有四张白金唱片，而其中两张已经达到第一名时，您就不得不放弃这个绰号。在图表上。 但是即使如此，自从去年与Interscope Records分手以来，Reznor仍然体现了Kelly的真正粉丝理论。

According to Kelly’s theory, in order to succeed in the long tail, you have to gather about 1,000 true fans (the number varies depending on what sort of content you’re creating — it may be more for an author than for a musician, for example). True fans are people who will do anything to own a piece of your creations.

根据凯利(Kelly)的理论，要想在长尾上取得成功，您必须召集约1,000名真正的粉丝(人数取决于您所创作的内容的种类-对于作者而言，对音乐家而言可能更多，对于例)。 真正的粉丝是愿意为拥有自己的作品而竭尽全力的人。

They will drive 200 miles to see you sing. They will buy the super deluxe re-issued hi-res box set of your stuff even though they have the low-res version. They have a Google Alert set for your name. They bookmark the eBay page where your out-of-print editions show up. They come to your openings. They have you sign their copies. They buy the t-shirt, and the mug, and the hat. They can’t wait till you issue your next work. They are true fans.

他们会开车200英里才能看到您唱歌。 他们将购买您的东西的超豪华重新发行高分辨率盒装，即使它们具有低分辨率版本。 他们为您的名字设置了Google快讯。 他们在eBay页面上添加了您的绝版版本的书签。 他们来到你的开口。 他们让您签署副本。 他们买了T恤，杯子和帽子。 他们迫不及待地想等您发布下一份工作。 他们是真正的粉丝。

Once you have that group of core supporters, you can make a living creating and selling directly to them, says Kelly.

凯利说，一旦有了那批核心支持者，就可以谋生并直接向他们出售产品。

Earlier this year, Reznor released his first album since splitting with a major label, Ghosts I-IV, independently via the Internet. The first part of the album Reznor gave away as a free download, with the full album available as a $5 download, a $10 double CD, or even more expensive “deluxe” packages that included things like vinyl copies, signed art prints, and Blu-Ray discs. The “deluxe” packages were aimed squarely at Reznor’s true fans and sold out in short order, earning the artist at least $750,000 in the first three days. Not too shabby.

今年早些时候，Reznor发行了自己的第一张专辑，这是他与主要唱片公司Ghosts I-IV分开后通过互联网独立发行的。 Reznor的专辑的第一部分免费提供了下载，整张专辑的下载价格为5美元，10美元的双CD或什至更昂贵的“豪华”套装，其中包括黑胶唱片，签名艺术作品和蓝光唱片-雷盘。 “豪华”套票直接针对Reznor的真正粉丝，并以短期订购而被抢购一空，在开始的三天之内为艺术家赚了至少75万美元 。 不是太寒酸。

Later, Reznor gave another album away completely for free under a Creative Commons license and asked fans to remix it. Clearly, Reznor wasn’t going to make money from this second new album’s release, but it was definitely a good way to please his core group of fans and build awareness about his music and 2008 tour. (There’s a lot of value in awareness, and Reznor knows this.)

后来，Reznor在Creative Commons许可下免费赠送了另一张专辑，并要求粉丝对其进行混音。 显然，Reznor不会从第二张新专辑的发行中获利，但这绝对是取悦他的核心歌迷并树立他的音乐和2008巡回演唱会知名度的好方法。 ( 意识有很多价值 ，Reznor知道这一点。)

According to Mike Masnick of Techdirt, innovative album releases isn’t the only way that Trent Reznor has been cultivating his true fan user base. Prior to leaving Interscope he would hide USB keys in the bathrooms at his shows with songs from his new album on them. Lucky fans who found the thumb drives would generally upload the songs to the Internet, which helped build buzz for the new album. More recently, Reznor has been hiding concert tickets around Los Angeles and then putting up clues and coordinates on his web site and letting fans race to find them. (Which brings to mind images of a goth version of It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World.)

根据Techdirt的Mike Masnick的说法，发行创新专辑并不是Trent Reznor培养真正的粉丝用户的唯一途径。 离开Interscope之前，他会在自己的表演中将USB钥匙藏在浴室里，上面放着新专辑中的歌曲。 幸运的发烧友发现了拇指驱动器后，通常会将歌曲上传到Internet，这有助于为新专辑建立嗡嗡声。 最近，雷兹诺(Reznor)一直在洛杉矶附近藏着演唱会门票 ，然后在他的网站上提供线索和坐标，并让粉丝们竞相寻找。 (这使我想到了《 这是一个疯狂的疯狂世界 》的哥特版本的图像。)

Certainly, Reznor had a lot of help from the labels along the way in establishing himself and building up those core fans. So it’s hard to say that there is no longer a place for the labels (a topic we’ll explore more in depth in a future post). However, since parting with Interscope, Reznor has become sort of a poster child for Kevin Kelly’s true fans theory, and he’s continued to innovate new ways to connect with his true fans and grow their ranks, and done so with much success.

当然，Reznor在建立自己的品牌和培养这些核心粉丝的过程中，从标签中获得了很多帮助。 因此，很难说标签不再存在(我们将在以后的文章中更深入地探讨这个主题)。 然而，自从与Interscope分手以来，Reznor成为了凯文·凯利(Kevin Kelly)的忠实粉丝理论的典型代表，并且他继续创新与他的忠实粉丝建立联系并提高其排名的新方法，并取得了很大的成功。

The lesson here, though, is that Reznor’s blueprint can work for any content creators that exist in the long tail. From music to novel writing to web applications, if your goal is to make a living from your craft, it may be possible to do so by cultivating a group of “true fans.”

不过，这里的教训是，Reznor的蓝图可适用于长尾中存在的任何内容创建者。 从音乐到新颖的写作再到Web应用程序，如果您的目标是依靠自己的手艺谋生，那么可以通过培养一群“真正的粉丝”来实现。

Image via Jennaphoenix.

图片来自Jennaphoenix 。

翻译自: https://www.sitepoint.com/trent-reznor-and-the-theory-of-true-fans/