At some point, every musician dreams of playing in front of a crowd numbering in the tens of thousands. But does massive crowd size really matter for musicians anymore? What about for the independent musicians who think a few hundred people would be a big audience? Does having a big crowd really affect your career or even a single night?
Obviously, there are benefits from seeing a big audience in front you watching you perform. You get an emotional boost and tend to be more active with your performance. You feel more like a star with a big audience watching you, and it can give you a feeling of success however big or small it may be. But just because the audience is there in large numbers, it doesn’t mean they are there for you and your music. It could be they are just the regulars at the bar or they are there for other bands playing the festival. Having a big audience isn’t key, but having a big audience showing interest is.
The same carries over to your online presence. Having a huge following won’t help you unless they are sharing and buying your music and other merchandise. This is why is so ridiculous that artists are actually trying to buy “fans” on the social media sites. People are selling Likes and Twitter follows in large numbers and artists are taking advantage of these offers with no real benefit. So what you just got 10,000 new Likes on Facebook. How many are actual people buying your music?
My point of all this is that both yes your audience size matters, and no it doesn’t matter. In a live sense, your audience size matters as far as how it makes you feel and how that affects your performance. It doesn’t matter how big your audience is if no one buys your merch or even cares what you’re playing. It doesn’t matter if you have 10 million Likes on your Facebook page if none of your fans are buying your music and generally supporting you as a musician. Don’t base your success on how many people know about you and how many people watched you play at this bar. Gauge your success on how your audience, no matter how big or small, appreciates your efforts and shows their support.