Jonathan Coulton, a Day in the Life 68
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."
Losing His Segment (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Wow, twice in one day (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Re:Who? (Score:1, Insightful)
Good for him - he deserves it. (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Re:Coulton Rocks :D (Score:3, Insightful)
I had never done that before and was wondering why; I appreciate the music and all, but figured that buying it was my way of indicating to him my appreciation. At least, that's how it's perceived to the "big" artists; your chances of getting a "hey, thanks!" email from Bowie or the Rolling Stones is nil. But smaller bands, smaller solos, they come across as the "regular Joes" who happen to make great music and they by that nature seem more approachable. I've seen stadium rock with an army of bouncers in front of the stage, and then there's the guy with the guitar playing on the mat next to you at the pub and is more capable, and presumably more receiving, of any compliments you're willing to throw his way.