Bas Grasmeyer has been studying the new music business for his degree thesis and really gets the big picture. In fact you can download a brilliant pdf he has written from our site here - music promotion pdf.
But this post talks about an overall approach to being discovered, engaging and retaining fans and letting the relationship flourish.
My favourite bits:
...the basic formula for defining your story is that you have to be able to complete the sentence "[Artist-/bandname] is the [artist/band] that…" (eg. "Lady Gaga is the singer that always shows up in the most fantastic outfits")
and from the comments:
"Be remarkable, be easy to discover, turn your fanbase into a party, connect, listen." That's it right there. Awesome.
Please read it and let it sink in!