Jansport J's Simple But Brilliant Approach to Connecting with His Fans
In 2012 the Los Angeles producer learned a valuable lesson about ignoring mass appeal and focusing on his core audience.
Los Angeles-based producer Jansport J dropped his first instrumental album The 2 AM Tape in 2009. Nearly four years later he released For Love. [Instrumental LP], an important and enduring moment in his expansive catalog. After celebrating a five-year anniversary in late 2017, For Love. [Instrumental LP] has experienced newfound interest from both fans and peers in recent years.
In addition to the resurgence in attention, the album is notable for being the last project Jansport produced entirely with FL Studio before switching to Maschine. “I think at that time I figured out how to use Grose Beat and some other stuff on FL Studio,” he told me in a 2019 Micro-Chop article. “I was figuring out a lot of things as far as how to make something loud but still compressed.”
The project represents Jansport’s peak performance on FL Studio, as he employs a multitude of vocal snippets and sample chops while conveying a broad spectrum of emotion to the listener. When it came time to share the album, which includes deeply personal cuts like “Malcolm (History).,” he took a unique approach that deserves continued consideration today.
Released in a pre-streaming era where popular blogs and websites were still responsible for generating a great deal of industry buzz, Jansport opted to go for a quality over quantity approach instead of chasing mass appeal. He sent his die-hard fanbase a personal email with an advance download when it came time to promote For Love. [Instrumental LP].
In addition to thanking his most avid followers for their support over the years and encouraging them to spread the record around, he held off on submitting the album anywhere else—opting instead to monitor the project’s organic growth. “I didn’t send it to any blogs until a month after,” he told Jesse Kuss in a 2013 Stimulate Your Soul interview. “However during that time, what started off as an email to 150 fans spread to 1000 downloads before an official press release.”
Even though For Love. [Instrumental LP]. dropped in late 2012, the lesson Jansport learned still holds value for today’s artists. Producers and musicians are often encouraged to chase unobtainable levels of mass acceptance and viral fame instead of focusing on building a small but loyal group of supporters. Jansport demonstrated that if you speak directly to your core audience, show them gratitude and love, and make them feel valued as an individual, they can help lift you and your work up in return.
Whether its an email/Substack newsletter, an OnlyFans account, or Patreon, forging an intimate and direct connection with your audience is still of vital importance today. Other social media platforms have become so crowded and messy that sometimes the direct method yields better results.
In late 2012 Jansport demonstrated the value of nurturing a group of dedicated listeners amid ever-shifting industry trends and changes in technology. These days he continues to experiment with different methods of connecting with his core base. In 2019 he put out a new Bandcamp beat tape every month, starting with yeaaight. [Beat Tape] and culminating with NoLetUps. [Beat Tape].
Though artists are often encouraged to upload their work on streaming for easier listener access and increased discoverability, Jansport ignored streaming channels and put his monthly beat tapes exclusively on Bandcamp, a platform known for being one of the most artist-friendly digital outlets around.
This might not yield 1,000,000 streams or prominent playlist placement for the beats featured on his monthly releases, but it could earn Jansport J something of even greater value—the love and support of those who care about his music the most.
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