To avoid the weaknesses of ‘celebratory’ and ‘fancademia’ studies discussed previously, I propose the need for a holistic approach to fan practices that combines political economy and cultural studies to study the neglected area of ‘the economy as interrelated within political, social and cultural life’ (Biltereyst and Meers, 2011, p. 415). However, Biltereyst and Meers (2011), in their comprehensive discussion of the political economy of audiences, identify that this approach has been rarely used to study audience activity. This is emphasized by Vincent Mosco (2009, p. 12), who states that the ‘commodification’ of audiences has received ‘some attention’ from political economists, following the ideas of audience labour posited by Dallas Smythe (1977). As I indicated in the introduction to this book, the separation between cultural studies and the critical political economy movement has been well documented (Garnham, 1995). This separation might be explained by the difficulties political economists have in seeing audiences as active, perceiving that the agency of audience members is limited by the structures of the capitalist society they live in. In turn, cultural studies’ work on audience activity is limited when an economic approach is taken, as academics feel that it is economic activity in a capitalist society that creates control.In this chapter, then, I argue that a synthesis of cultural and political economic approaches is necessary to study the enterprise of fans.