
Jonathan Coulton On how he made 500K as a DIY musician - nechmads
http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2011/05/jonathan-coulton-on-his-business-model-how-now-is-best-time-ever-to-be-a-musician.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+typepad%2FDqMf+%28hypebot%29
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rationalbeaver
I don't mean to be a jerk, but this post was lifted wholesale from Jonathan's
actual blog: [http://www.jonathancoulton.com/2011/05/23/on-snuggies-and-
bu...](http://www.jonathancoulton.com/2011/05/23/on-snuggies-and-business-
models/)

And this is the actual link to the post named in the submission:
[http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2011/05/how-jonathan-
coulton-...](http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2011/05/how-jonathan-coulton-
made-500000-last-year-as-a-diy-musician.html)

------
teach
I love this quote: "It has always been about winning the lottery."

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.

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bryanh
I feel like Planet Money (as much as I love them) kind of missed the point
with their podcast, and it was nice to see Jonathan run with it.

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.

~~~
amelim
To be fair, it was the NPR Music guest hosts who missed the point, not the
Planet Money team (which actually argued that it Jonathan's success was not a
fluke).

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6ren
He presents himself somewhat as just some geek who happened to write about it
- you know, one of us - I think as a marketing thing. So now it's biting him
back. I think that's OK; the main thing is it worked.

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)

~~~
jessevondoom
Just for the record: I know Jonathan a bit and he markets himself as himself.
The story of programmer to musician is 100% true and both are things he's
pretty much always done.

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.

~~~
masklinn
> and he's working his butt off for that spike.

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.

~~~
jessevondoom
It's true. And the current push to record a record while in a busy touring
cycle is crazy but apparently working. It's sometimes easy to forget that
touring musicians are basically working 15+ hour days of long drives, load-
ins, etc -- all away from home and family. I really admire his work ethic, and
it's great to see someone enjoy their work so much.

------
programminggeek
Weird Al made millions off of making funny songs. The internet has an abled
Jonathon Coulton to do via the internet what MTV did for Weird Al - find his
audience. He also worked really hard and did what most great musicians do - he
toured hit butt off.

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.

------
patrickgzill
In an amazing coincidence, not 20 minutes ago I came across his version of
"Baby Got Back" on a completely different forum (one devoted to investing
actually) - <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyJeC99QO8A> .

Note the presence of banjo pickin' in this variant on a rap song.

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bostonpete
> I honestly don’t fault Frannie and Jacob for having negative opinions about
> me

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.

~~~
jamii
From the last paragraph (of the original post):

"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."

~~~
bostonpete
Yes, I was agreeing with him that it came across that way -- and disputing his
claim that anyone expressed any negative opinions about him.

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smashing
Is 500k a Net or Gross value?

~~~
ScottBurson
He said "revenue number" at one point, so I think it's the gross.

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nothis
Yea... Valve.

