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Jonathan Coulton, a Day in the Life
The New York Times is running a look behind the scenes with singer/songwriter Jonathan Coulton, creator the somewhat popular "Thing a week" songs on his blog. Coulton describes a bit of how he got started and what daily life is like maintaining relations with his fans. "Along the way, he discovered a fact that many small-scale recording artists are coming to terms with these days: his fans do not want merely to buy his music. They want to be his friend. And that means they want to interact with him all day long online. They pore over his blog entries, commenting with sympathy and support every time he recounts the difficulty of writing a song. They send e-mail messages, dozens a day, ranging from simple mash notes of the "you rock!" variety to starkly emotional letters, including one by a man who described singing one of Coulton's love songs to his 6-month-old infant during her heart surgery. Coulton responds to every letter, though as the e-mail volume has grown to as many as 100 messages a day, his replies have grown more and more terse, to the point where he's now feeling guilty about being rude."
Who?
There was a two-part interview with Coulton which was actually fairly interesting. Part 1. Part 2.
No one in the history of time has ever received that many emails a day.
Coulton responds to every letter, though as the e-mail volume has grown to as many as 100 messages a day, his replies have grown more and more terse, to the point where he's now feeling guilty about being rude."
And now you've gone and slashdotted the poor fellow. Here come his 15 minutes and there goes all his prexisting fan base.
All on one page, no ads:
e nce-t.html?ei=5090&en=1d5b4728dc04dc8d&ex=13367088 00&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=print
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/13/magazine/13audi
I must say, I did email Mr. Coulton after purchasing a number of his songs one day. I just fealt like explaining my quirky selection and justifying my buy. The next day (I sent the email late at night) I received a nice and well thought out email in response.
:P but that's a far cry from the premiums that record labels extort from their artists). Also, you can listen to all of his songs before you buy them. The whole thing. Not to mention quite a few of his songs are free downloads.
:)
/advertisement ;)
We really should support artists like Jonathan. He's talented, his songs are interesting (bills, bills, bills or creepy doll for instance) and funny (such as code monkey), and best of all when you buy them, he gets every cent. (well, most of it. Paypal takes 2.5%
Check out http://www.jonathancoulton.com/ today!
Indeed, running a Web store has allowed Coulton and other artists to experiment with intriguing innovations in flexible pricing. Remarkably, Coulton offers most of his music free on his site; when fans buy his songs, it is because they want to give him money.
I had never heard of him but I am definitely going to take a listen. What's remarkable to me is that people find the idea that people will pay for value ... remarkable. The whole article is peppered with great examples of how Coulton embraces people using his work -- he even says it is a way to get him exposure. Most excellent.
I guess if you think every little thought passing through your head is worth publishing to the world it might get a little weird when the world responds in an equally sycophantic manner.
John has to know that with popularity will come the pressures of fanmail. Do not answer all of it. Pick three a day, MAX, that are worthy of response, and archive/backup the rest (mainly for legal reasons).
You have to delegate your time when you're a public figure. Don't waste it by talking to people who idolize you. At the very best it will make them STILL LOVE YOU. At the very worst, it could break the illusion of your stardom and cause them to lose interest (and you lose your fan) -- or even cause them to get a wrong vibe from you that could lead to some serious personal safety ramifications.
Sometimes stars need to be up in the sky. At night.
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
First there is the doubt about iTMS being a video distributor and now an artist is finding out that the Internet will actually let you interact with your fans. Wonder why the **AA never thought of that? Who knows, this 'intarweb thingy' might just catch on yet.
In other news, politicians are finding out that the Internet will allow their fans _AND_ foes to interact with them... whether they participate or not.
The Internet is changing the world, faster than we may realize. It's good to see that at least artists are figuring it out. I can only hope that the **AA start to catch on soon.
Support NYCountryLawyer RIAA vs People
Coulton also collaborated with Ze Frank on one of his last shows, singing a number of Ze's songs while Ze provides facial expressionary commentary.
Jonathan demonstrates that rare quality of just being a hell of a guy. I've made a habit of manning his merchandise table at all of his shows at Milkboy in Ardmore, PA, and he always takes the time to chill with me and whoever I've brought along for a little while after the show. I'm really glad to see him getting the fame he deserves. Music needs more nice fellas.
I wish I could cut back my work email to volume.
Answering that many emails a day is a labor of love and decency. You often can't get people you work with to answer more than a few emails a day and they're paid to do that. Think about that...
JoCo got lucky with A thing a week and it really helped the fanbase, each week people would go back to get a new song, while they aren't all great they are all worth listening to at least once. So as his skills grew and he tried different styles the followers also changed and grew in musical tastes he tried.
I wish the guy much luck but I wish he'd do a Thing a week again if only to see how he continues to evolve with easily defined timelines.
I like muppets.
Coulton is a very talented performer, very supportive of his fans, and a nice person over-all. He is an excellent example of how you don't need to submit yourself to the slavery of the big record companies by showing that the independent musician route is, indeed, a viable alternative. His support for Creative Commons licensing has only helped to further demonstrate the power of less restrictions.
If each Slashdot member were to purchase just one of his songs from his website (they're 99 cents), it would send a clear message to all musicians out there that you don't need the RIAA.
Jonathan deserves all of the good press he gets and I can't think of a better independent musician to lead the way.
Ryosen
One man's "Troll, +1" is another man's "Insightful, +1".
Coulton's success isn't just a "right place at the right time" sort of thing, either... his music is actually very good. The lyrics are witty and original, the progressions are more than just I-IV-V-I, and his tracks are extremely well-produced. My favorites include "Bacteria" (which uses a KFC training tape as the source material), "That Spells DNA," "Ikea," "Shop Vac," "Creepy Doll," "Under the Pines," many of which are geeky and most of which are funny. But he very often churns out more serious stuff: "When You Go," "Drinking With You," a cover of Cohen's "Famous Blue Raincoat," and "I'm Your Moon," a song sung by Charon to Pluto reassuring the newly-christened dwarf planet that it's still the most important thing in Charon's life. (Okay, that one is geeky, too, but just you try listening to it without getting a little lump in your throat.)
The article doesn't mention (I guess it's a little off-topic) that Coulton also serves as Popular Science's "Contributing Troubadour" and is good friends with John Hodgman.
Sam! If you will let me be,
I will try them.
You will see.
Code Monkey think maybe manager want to write god damned login page himself
Responding to all your fans when the write is a rare talent. I know a few authors, published and Internet, who do exactly that -- and admire them all. After all, every performer needs an audience as much as every audience needs a performer!
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
So let me get this straight...
The guy is having trouble keeping up with the influx of mail and responds to everyone, so you slashdot his mailbox?
Harsh.
Sanity is a sandbox. I prefer the swings.
He's already having trouble keeping up, and he gets slashdotted.
"Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much." - Oscar Wilde
I have to say that the best of Coulton's songs has to be First of May. I first heard Ikea and was interested. Once I heard First of May, I was sold. That is by far the best song in his catalog:
"...bring your favorite lady, or at least your favorite lay."
For the uninitiated: Mp3 and more information here.
...slowly building new fans online, playing live occasionally, making a solid living but never a crazy-rich one.
1. I'm old enough to remember when that's exactly what punk rock was and most not-pop music genres still are.
2. I happen to interact with a number of musicians and a few actors who had what most people would describe as "celebrity" scale careers. There are a few that can _only_ talk about themselves with everything they do pretty much is about them. They can be no fun if you don't pay attention to them exclusively. Putting two in the same room is just like high-school drama. What's worse is they have children. No, 24-7 nanny care doesn't mitigate the damage. That said, there are many who are decent creative people that happen to act/perform for a living. This guy sounds like he fits the latter.
Today's lesson: there's definitely a group of celebrities that actively pursue the drama and trivial hoopla that's so popular.
http://www.maxineudall.com/2010/02/should-economists-be-sued-for-malpractice.html
Coulton responds to every letter, though as the e-mail volume has grown to as many as 100 messages a day, his replies have grown more and more terse, to the point where he's now feeling guilty about being rude.
;-)
If he's still in the guilt phase, he doesn't get enough
Lame.
Jerk.
I've never heard of him before, but now I'll have to check it out.
This is the "model" I've wanted to take, using the Internet for distribution and exposure, and certainly I'd give some songs under the Creative Commons - not all songs are hit material, even from the very best musicians.
If nothing else, this is one thing the music consumer is benefiting from in the digital age: he/she can now pick and choose the specific songs he/she wants to pay for, and not get stuck with the traditional "album filler" that was prevalent in the past. (While I'm not sure the bands themselves viewed these "lesser" tunes as album filler, the general public almost certainly always has. Part of that is due, I'm sure, to the artist mindset of everything they create being "their baby" to some extent.)
I just wonder how long before the RIAA finds some silly reason for a trumped up charge to hit Coulton and his contemporary peers with, seeing how they're not getting a piece of the action here.
Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
I hate to be one of those jerks who asks why stuff like this makes Slashdot, but...
Why did this make Slashdot?
Yeah, because non-RIAA (or "indie", or "indy", or "independent") artists and labels are a totally new thing John Coulton invented. Prior to Coulton, the only way to become a musician was to be born the son of a musician or save a musician's life.
you should always judge a song by its title.
This is the reality we live in now, as artists. I do a little bit of singer/songwriter type stuff, and though I've never received a red cent for it (and never asked, as I'm pretty much just a hobbyist), but when I do get mail or whatever, I respond. It's good PR, it keeps people in the loop, and you know what? People like people, not just brands masquerading as people.
On a more tangential note, the internet is spelling the end of the traditional fanclub. Now you have widely available software that's capable of creating good, if not great music. And the people interested in your music probably have access to that. Music is an interactive thing now -- like it used to be before labels existed, I might add -- and people who enjoy music sometimes enjoy doing things with that music.
I multi-track my music, as it's pretty much the only way I can cost-effectively produce it. One thing I found is that if I say, "Here are the tracks, the vocals, the instruments, the effect, whatever," and add that I like people remixing or redoing the song, people actually do it. One guy (I assume a guy, but who knows) actually took a soft guitar and voice song I did and made it into a dance track. A pretty good one at that.
I like the fact that he did that. It validates my art. He likes the fact that he could do that. It validates his interest in me. And it's the sort of feedback loop that only becomes more exponential as time goes one, the sort of thing labels are unable or unwilling to do. And also the sort of massive opportunity they miss because of it.
What is is all that is. Isn't that obvious?
I remember a time when an up-and-coming author named Terry Pratchett would frequently respond to posts on alt.fan.pratchett, and even posted his email address there. (I believe I had a question about the speed of light on Discworld.) But that was before "the September that never ended", as well as before repeated major international bestsellers. Nowadays, even with the post-spam/post-web reduction in Usenet's popularity, I doubt if Pterry even tries to keep up with that newsgroup, and I suspect that his personal email address is only shared with close friends. Not to take anything away from this songwriter-I've-never-heard-of, but this is, I think, an old and oft-repeated story, and one that could probably be told about thousands (if not tens of thousands) of people that have come to celebrity in the last couple of decades.
Because frankly anything relating to Jonathan Coulton counts as "news for nerds". He is the quintessential geek bard, with song topics ranging from Mandelbrot sets (he actually turns formulae into song lyrics) to genetics to having a T-1000 as a roommate. His love ballad "Laptop Like You" honest-to-Gawd makes me cry, and I'm a stone cold mo'fo'! I just happen to really love my laptop. :-)
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