If you’re passionate about a band, I must recommend that you join a fan club.

While there are many different types of fan clubs, all should afford you a deeper experience of the band’s material and insight into your motivations for liking them.

They range from the pay to play kind, where an annual fee will allow you access to tickets, merchandise, and forums that the general public doesn’t have, to simple email subscriber lists. For instance, The Nine Inch Nails fan club, The Spiral, has membership packages that include t-shirts, posters, ticket presales, and early entry to shows that sometimes include meet and greets and soundchecks. Smaller bands have email lists, that will alert you of upcoming shows and sometimes provide early tickets that don’t have the same fees attached to them as regular sale tickets.

MySpace Music pages can also be considered a form of fan club. As a band’s friend, you get access to news and content that you wouldn’t know about otherwise. We’ve also come into a phase where a band’s success is touted by the number of MySpace friends they have. It’s also interesting to see the amount of friends that a band has rise after a performance or an article.

The fan club is an old concept, but it is increasingly having more relevance today. You used to send letters to a fan club president, who then might hook you up with an autograph. Nowadays, you might post questions and wishes on a fan forum, and get direct responses back on them.

It’s good to be a fan.