Artists should embrace the waiting game
Fans create their own timeline between releases.
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Let’s dive into today’s topic:
Artists should embrace the waiting game
The space between releases matters more than artists think.
Why it matters
Most artists focus intensely on release moments: the single drop, the album launch, the tour announcement. However, fans spend significantly more time in the spaces between these moments, creating their own content, theories, and discussions.
Understanding how fans behave during these "waiting periods" offers artists untapped opportunities to deepen engagement and build stronger communities. The anticipation phase might generate more genuine fan interaction than the actual release.
How it works
Fans naturally create what fandom academic Owain Gwynne terms "fan-made time": periods where they actively engage with an artist's world even without new official content.
As explored in the book “Fangirls: Scenes from Modern Music Culture” by Hannah Ewens, who applies this concept to fangirls queuing for many hours for concerts, this phenomenon demonstrates how fans transform passive waiting into active participation.
This connects directly with storytelling theory. According to Brewer and Lichtenstein's Structural-Affect Theory, suspense is evoked by delaying a story's outcome, exactly what happens during release cycles. Artists who understand this can strategically craft anticipation using emotional triggers:
Suspense through delayed reveals: Gradual album artwork reveals keep fans emotionally invested in the unfolding narrative. The longer the delay, the stronger the anticipation.
Curiosity by presenting outcomes before events: Posting TikToks using the music before announcing the single flips the traditional timeline and hooks attention.
Surprise through unexpected moments: Unannounced collabs break the anticipated pattern and create memorable fan experiences.
This storytelling approach extends beyond music releases to virtually every aspect of music culture:
Tour announcements follow the same pattern: artists tease dates and cities, build anticipation toward the on-sale moment, then sustain excitement during the months between ticket purchase and show night.
Rumours and speculation about major artists' next moves create industry-wide suspense, with fans analysing everything from studio check-ins to producer collaborations for clues.
Festival season transforms into an annual guessing game as fans predict lineups based on tour gaps, social media activity, and cryptic festival hints.
Electronic music fans try to "ID" tracks: unreleased songs that DJs play at shows, creating months or years of fan speculation about titles, artists, and release dates.
In each scenario, the waiting period becomes as engaging as the actual event, with fans creating theories, sharing insider knowledge, and building community around shared anticipation.
Yes, but..
Creating anticipation requires careful balance. Too much mystery can frustrate fans, while revealing too much information can eliminate the excitement. Some artists worry that extended waiting periods might cause fans to lose interest.
Sustaining engagement between releases demands consistent effort and creative content ideas, which can be challenging for artists who are less content-savvy.
Take action now
Fan-made time should be considered separately from strategies of hype and marketing. Artists could monitor fan accounts on Instagram, TikTok, Reddit, Discord, and other platforms, learn how to engage with them, and send them some news occasionally.
Your thoughts
Further reading
Fan-made time: How fans enjoy waiting (The Fanbase Builder)
Improve storytelling by evoking suspense, curiosity, or surprise (The Fanbase Builder)
Gwynne, O. (2017). Fan-made Time: Power and Play in the Production Paratext of The Hobbit (Thesis, Doctor of Philosophy). University of Otago. [link]
'Fan-made time' - a study of Hobbit fans (Otago Post)
Brewer, W. F., & Lichtenstein, E. H. (1982). Stories are to entertain: A structural-affect theory of stories. Journal of Pragmatics, 6(5–6), 473–486. (pdf)
Hoeken, H., & Van Vliet, M. (2000). Suspense, curiosity, and surprise: How discourse structure influences the affective and cognitive processing of a story. Poetics, 27(4), 277–286. (full-text)
Artists shouldn’t rush releasing music to streaming platforms (The Fanbase Builder)
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