I’ve spent my whole life at gigs. The amount of thought, effort, energy and money I put into seeing my favorite artist from the very first row might seem alarming to some people, but I do genuinely breathe solely for live music. Apart from the great knowledge of the artists themselves, it helped me understand the music industry from a very different perspective in comparison to casual audience.

As a fan, you really get the chance to dive deep into concert culture. You queue for hours, which usually means you alone have to ensure smooth entry to the venue for the part of the queue you’re in – otherwise you’ll lose your spot. You give out numbers, you repeatedly ask people to stay in the same order they arrived in. You know all the big concert venues by heart – where to stand for the perfect view or cleanest sound, where to find the closest toilet or the emergency exit. You know which venue accommodates the newcomer act the best or which stadium held the most majestic sound for your favorite rock act. You’re an essential part of the fandom and hence you’re familiar with the wishes of said fandom – what type of services are missing in different venues? Which security teams are repeatedly forgetting to distribute water and therefore heavily influence the fainting statistics? Which marketing strategies work the best on you? What type of merch is always the first to be sold out? What angles to keep in mind when creating content for social media? What venues fit the artist the most?

Your ideas are based not only on your actual experience, but also on your expectations. You have a genuine interest in improving the concert experience because you are an essential part of it. Seeing how much of a boy’s club the music industry is and at the same time knowing how the real, very capable and knowledgeable fandom aches to be part of it, I just don’t understand, where are the fangirls? Why don’t you let the fangirls do it?

Fangirls form the culture. Fangirls build the artists before they even get signed to a major label. They recognize talent and community potential. They form the scene, the cult surrounding each and every artist. You need them as A&R. You need them in marketing. You need them in concert management. Hire the fangirls.