Dunbar’s Number claims we can only sustain 150 meaningful relationships at once. Is that enough to build a career? We say yes.
Too many of us spend our days chasing numbers that don’t mean anything. We develop content to build our email list or grow our follower count. We spend money on playlist pitching and social media ads that may or may not attract new listeners. We worry about our monthly audience size on Spotify while simultaneously complaining that Spotify doesn’t do enough for the artists on its platform.
Is this what we want? Do we want a bunch of passive fans who occasionally engage with us only and potentially stream our music? Wouldn’t you rather have fans that serve as ambassadors for your music? Fans who go above and beyond to make sure everyone they care about knows of your music? If the latter is true, then we have a number for you.
In the early 1990s, British anthropologist Robin Dunbar suggested a cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships—relationships in which an individual knows who each person is and how each person relates to every other person. That figure, which we now call Dunbar’s Number, is 150. We have and maintain one-hundred and fifty personal relationships.
Dunbar didn’t pull his now-famous number out of thin air. He studied data on communities and relationships dating back to the hunter-gatherer age. He looked at how corporations and schools function, as well as the relationships of those within them. While we undoubtedly meet thousands of people in our lifetimes, we typically only develop meaningful relationships with a select few. Those we’re close to may change over time, but the total number of real relationships rarely exceeds 150.
More recent studies from the 2010s found a similar truth in social media. We may have millions of followers, but we only feel a connection to a select few. Those individuals are the ones whose posts we seek out and whose opinion we look for when sharing news or ideas.
Dunbar’s number can also work with music marketing.
Do you know how books become successful? Marketing and celebrity endorsements may play a role for some titles, but most books that reach the bestseller list do so through book clubs. Small groups of people who buy and discuss books select a title, fall in love with it, then tell others. Those who hear of the book then bring it into their book clubs, and the cycle repeats until thousands or even millions of copies are sold.
We may want the world to know our name our music, but casting a wide net rarely gives us the results we seek. Instead, focus on those who already care about what you’re doing. Find your biggest fans and work to improve your relationship with them. Engage with them, give them special access to your career, and make them feel as indispensable to you as your music is to them.
Think about how it feels to tell others about your music. You probably get excited when you recount your story, and others can sense that excitement in your voice. Your passion for the music you make is addicting, and it leads others to seek it out.
The same is true for your biggest fans. They have a passion for your work that is similar to yours, and if you can get them to share that passion with others, your audience will grow.
By developing a close relationship with your biggest fans, you will begin to build a community around your music. Those fans will get to know one another, and as they tell more people about your art, some of those individuals will join the community. If all 150 get a single person to feel similar, your engaged audience will double in size. That process will repeat as more and more people begin to feel passionate about your music and the people who support it. They will believe they are part of something bigger than themselves, which will create a sense of purpose that they cherish and actively work to preserve.
If you don’t have 150 fans right now, that’s ok! Focus on the ones who care the most, build those relationships, and the numbers will rise in time. As long as you emphasize the connection with your audience over your fanbase’s size, you will see your career take off. It may take time, but it’s better to spend years building lasting connections than to waste your efforts on engaging a passive audience who feels indifferent to the longevity of your career.
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