The internet is a wonderful place in the year 2012. Someone like Jonathan Coulton is able to make a lot of money being a musician without being signed to a big record label. On Coulton’s response he says, “Most of my sales are digital, which means there are almost no distribution costs. I have never spent any money on marketing and rely completely on blogs, podcasts and social networks to spread the word. I tour solo with an acoustic guitar (used to anyway), and I only play in cities where I have already ascertained there is going to be an audience. I record by myself at home (again, used to!) using equipment that is not very expensive…”. The internet is a perfect place for a “nobody” to be found and heard. More famous artists like Beyonce would lose money in this case because part of their profit would go to their record company, publicist, marketing company, etc.
I think I have to side with Coulton on this one. On the NPR podcast they make the point that basically Coulton only became famous from his song “Code Monkey”, a geeky, pop-like song, that was on slashdot, a nerd site, but his business model is much more complicated than simply making a song on slashdot. It kind of sounded to me like they’re kind of pushing the internet and nerd culture together, which I don’t think is the case anymore in 2012. The internet has every type of person on it which means that any kind of musician can replicate Coulton’s business model.
I think that his business modal can be replicated as well. As long as there is a market for what you’re making and you can actually reach that market successfully with a good product, then there is potential to be successful like Coulton.
Why do you think people in the music industry react so negatively about Coulton’s business model?
I think people react so negatively because they’re scared of it. They try to put it down and try to make it insignificant because the internet business model is a major threat to the traditional music business model. If all musicians switched to coulton’s model then record companies, publicists, etc would all become obsolete.