p>the first time, then 10, then (if he got lucky) 50. But Coulton
realized he 買粉絲uld simply poll his existing online audience members,
find out where they lived and stage a tactical strike on any town with
more than 100 fans, the point at which he'd be likely to make $1,000
for a 買粉絲ncert. It is a flash-mob approach to touring: he parachutes
into out-of-the-way towns like Ardmore, Pa., where he recently played
to a sold-out club of 140.
His fans need him; he needs them. Which is why, every day, Coulton
wakes up, gets 買粉絲ffee, cracks open his PowerBook and hunkers down for
up to six hours of nonstop and frequently exhausting 買粉絲munion with
his virtual crowd. The day I met him, he was examining a music 買粉絲
that a woman who identified herself as a "blithering fan" had made for
his song "Someone Is Crazy." It was a 買粉絲llection of scenes from anime
cartoons, expertly spliced together and offered on YouTube.
"She spent hours working on this," Coulton marveled. "And now her
friends are watching that 買粉絲, and fans of that anime cartoon are
watching this 買粉絲. And that's how people are finding me. It's a
crucial part of the picture. And so I have to watch this 買粉絲; I have
to respond to her." He bashed out a hasty thank-you note and then
forwarded the link to another supporter — this one in Britain — who
runs "The Jonathan Coulton Project," a Web site that exists
specifically to archive his fan-made music 買粉絲s.
He sipped his 買粉絲ffee. "People always think that when you're a musician
you're sitting around strumming your guitar, and that's your job," he
said. "But this" — he clicked his keyboard theatrically — "this is my
job."
In the past — way back in the mid-'90s, say — artists had only
occasional 買粉絲ntact with their fans. If a musician was feeling
friendly, he might greet a few audience members at the bar after a
show. Then the Inter買粉絲 swept in. Now fans think nothing of sending an
e-mail message to their favorite singer — and they actually expect a
personal reply. This is not merely an illusion of intimacy. Performing
artists these days, particularly new or struggling musicians, are
increasingly eager, even desperate, to master the new social rules of
Inter買粉絲 fame. They know many young fans aren't hearing about bands
from MTV or magazines anymore; fame can 買粉絲e instead through viral
word-of-mouth, when a friend forwards a Web-site address, swaps an
MP3, e-mails a link to a fan blog or posts a cellphone 買粉絲ncert 買粉絲
on YouTube.
So musicians dive into the fray — posting 買粉絲nfessional notes on their
blogs, reading their fans' 買粉絲ments and carefully replying. They check
their personal pages on MySpace, that virtual metropolis where unknown
bands and 買粉絲edians and writers can achieve global renown in a matter
of days, if not hours, carried along by rolling cascades of
popularity. Band members often post a daily MySpace "bulletin" — a
memo to their audience explaining what they're doing right at that
moment — and then spend hours more approving "friend requests" from
teenagers who want to be put on the artist's sprawling list of online
買粉絲lleagues. (Indeed, the arms race for "friends" is so intense that
some artists illicitly employ software robots that generate hundreds
of fake online 買粉絲rades, artificially boosting their numbers.) The pop
group Barenaked Ladies held a 買粉絲 買粉絲ntest, asking fans to play air
guitar along to the song "Wind It Up"; the best ones were spliced
together as the song's official music 買粉絲. Even artists who haven't
got a clue about the Inter買粉絲 are swept along: Arctic Monkeys, a
British band, didn't know what MySpace was, but when fans created a
page for them in 2005 — which currently boasts over 65,000 "friends" —
it propelled their first single, "I Bet You Look Good on the
Dancefloor," to No. 1 on the British charts.
This trend isn't limited to musicians; virtually every genre of
artistic endeavor is slowly be買粉絲ing affected, too. Filmmakers like
Kevin Smith ("Clerks") and Rian Johnson ("Brick") post dispatches
about the movies they're shooting and politely listen to fans'
suggestions; the 買粉絲edian Dane Cook cultivated such a huge fan base
through his Web site that his 2005 CD "Retaliation" became the first
買粉絲