Monday, June 13, 2011

The Greatest Thing In The World, EVER! (4)


I like stories about people who just kind of started doing this thing they liked and suddenly they were making a living at it and enjoying life and also being rich, because it seems to me that the more people who get to do that, the more likely I am to end up someday living in Hawaii once that happens to me.

So the story of Jonathan Coulton on Planet Money a few weeks back caught my ear, and not just because he makes Lemonheads-esque songs that are funny and catchy, but also because Jonathan Coulton in 2010 made $500,000 selling his songs on the Internet.

Songs like Re: Your Brains:



I haven't read about him or anything; I only know what I know from Planet Money, and from browsing through his website (where there are songs to listen to and buy, songs with titles like "Furry Old Lobster," which combines Irish-folk-music sounding... well, just listen to that one, too:



Coulter got famous, he said, because of his song "Code Monkey,"



Which caught on with other Code Monkeys, and became a big hit. Coulter is still unsigned, but living off his music and writing a blog and everything. I love his music and I'm going to listen to it all day, and probably all week. And maybe forever.

2 comments:

PT Dilloway said...

So he's like the Amanda Hocking of music?

Michael Offutt, Phantom Reader said...

You know, I don't think other people succeeding improve my chances of success any better than what they are now. It's the same kind of logic that someone with three daughters tries to put forth..."If I just try one more time I'll get a son". My response..."Nope...the chances are the same that you'll have a daughter instead of a son." Genetic manipulation is the only way to go.