Jonathan Coulton On how he made 500K as a DIY musician
hypebot.com
hypebot.com
And this is the actual link to the post named in the submission: http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2011/05/how-jonathan-coulton-...
My three rules for becoming a rock star:
1) At least a little talent. 2) A willingness to do whatever it takes. 3) Being in the right place at the right time.
I think number 3 is often underestimated by HN types. If your business model depends on the attention of other people, then there's an inherent capriciousness to the public eye you can't fully mitigate.
This is indeed the future of music. Fragmentation. From major labels, to indie labels, to individual musicians or even communities. While the rise of Justin Bieber from the bowels of YouTube might be an anti-point, I still suspect it will only get even more intimate as time goes on. Music discovery only needs to get a little more subtle with existing social services.
But apart from his weird material, and although it's a matter of personal taste to some extent, he is really really good. He has a great voice; the melody and guitar are effective folk/pop; the bizarre lyrics at times are a vehicle for guerrilla poignancy. e.g. I Crush Everything http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RFEzpUsUBk (starts at 0:30)
As for the money side of it...the difference between a programmer salary and where he's at now is that his current level of income is probably a spike -- the arc for most musicians is usually steep -- and he's working his butt off for that spike.
So maybe it's a marketing thing, but only if you count being yourself in public as marketing.
Yeah, the Things A Week series still blows my mind: writing and recording a song per week for a year? That's both dedication and productivity, especially since most of them don't even suck.
In short, he treated it like a job, got real good, and at times was at the right place at the right time. Well done.
Note the presence of banjo pickin' in this variant on a rap song.
I listened to that podcast and didn't hear any negative comments about Coulton -- at all! Even the comparison to Snuggie wasn't negative. I like Coulton (I have some of his music and have seen him in concert), but this post did come across as pretty whiney.
"I should know better than to write this sort of post, because it will inevitably come across as a peevish and whiney response to being called a Snuggie."