Final answer:
Email mailing lists are most effectively utilized for marketing recorded music when they are built around an artist's fan base, as fans actively engage on social media platforms and promote an artist's work through community-driven efforts.
Step-by-step explanation:
Email mailing lists are most useful in marketing recorded music when assembled by the artist's fan base. The fan base is critical in music marketing, acting as a catalyst for sharing and promoting an artist's work. By leveraging the power of social media and its ability to foster a sense of community, an artist's fans can help turn a secondary group of casual listeners into a primary group that shares a strong bond, similar to a close-knit community. Fans often follow artists on social media platforms, where they can interact with each other and create a vibrant community. This digital form of engagement can significantly impact the artist's reach by allowing fans to spread the word about new music releases, concerts, and other artist-related news. Such an active, engaged fan base is a powerful marketing tool because it works on the principles of word-of-mouth promotion, which can be more effective than traditional marketing strategies.