May 15, 2007

A New Business Model for Dancers

There's a wonderful, must-read story in Sunday's New York Times Magazine about musician Jonathan Coulton.

Coulton left his full-time job as a computer programmer and devoted himself to becoming a professional musician. The way he launched his new music career is what's so compelling. He decided that he would write a new song every week for a year and post it to his blog for free. He's built an impressive audience since starting this endeavor and the Internet now serves as a direct communications link uniting him with his global fan base.

And if you visit Coulton's website, you'll see that he is now selling his music individually and in collections through many different channels. He's become so popular that his fans email him links to the mashups they've created based on his songs. A fan made this music video, which features his "Code Monkey" track:

The reason why I think that this is an important story is because it offers a case study of how an artist can build a successful business by embracing the Internet. Dancers and dance companies devote much of their non-dancing time to seeking funding, securing bookings, and worrying if they'll get good reviews or will receive any coverage at all. But as Coulton demonstrates, the world of a dancer does not need to revolve solely around the kindness of funders, presenters and critics. Dancers can build their own audiences and communicate with their fans directly. Dancers can also create dance videos that can be sold over the Internet.

Creating a Real Conversation with Your Audience

What sticks out in my mind from the NY Times article is the way that Coulton communicates online with his audience in order to share, learn, gather feedback and generate revenue:

- He spends hours a day emailing to his fans. "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.

- When he struggles with a new song, he asks for help via his blog. And readers have sent back recordings of his song to offer him guidance on possible ways to play it. When he's looked for new ways to generate revenue, fans have posted suggestions on his message board.

- And the most compelling illustration of the power of building your own audience online is the following:

Normally, a new Brooklyn-based artist like him would trek around the Northeast in grim circles, visiting and revisiting cities like Boston and New York and Chicago in order to slowly build an audience — playing for 3 people the first time, then 10, then (if he got lucky) 50. But Coulton realized he could 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 concert. 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.

The Numbers

The NY Times article does not say how much revenue Coulton makes, but it does say this:

In total, 41 percent of Coulton’s income is from digital-music sales, three-quarters of which are sold directly off his own Web site. Another 29 percent of his income is from CD sales; 18 percent is from ticket sales for his live shows. The final 11 percent comes from T-shirts, often bought online.

So I can't wait for the day when we see a "Coulton" in the dance world. One dancer or dance company is going to pioneer this new turf and show the rest of the dance world that they don't have to be at the mercy of the traditional pillars of the dance establishment.

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