Guitar Lessons
Super Dave (whose real name is Dave) has started posting YouTube video guitar lessons for my songs. This is something that I’ve wanted to do myself for a while, but of course just haven’t had the time. Here is an example of just how powerful a tool procrastination can be, because Dave says he’s going to post a new lesson every week – I don’t have to do anything! You guys will all be able to replace me in no time. Here’s Skullcrusher Mountain:
Subcribe to Dave’s YouTube channel if you’d like to stay on top of things.
1000 True Fans
From Kevin Kelly’s blog The Technium via Waxy.org (and Mike who emailed me a link), a nice crystallization for me of how the long tail can work for creators. Most of the time long tail discussions are about how Amazon makes a billion dollars selling one copy per month of a million different indie CDs. But creative people can grab a chunk somewhere in the middle of their long tail graph of fans and make a living – just get 1,000 True Fans and they’ll support you.
Assume conservatively that your True Fans will each spend one day’s wages per year in support of what you do. That “one-day-wage” is an average, because of course your truest fans will spend a lot more than that. Let’s peg that per diem each True Fan spends at $100 per year. If you have 1,000 fans that sums up to $100,000 per year, which minus some modest expenses, is a living for most folks.
One thousand is a feasible number. You could count to 1,000. If you added one fan a day, it would take only three years. True Fanship is doable. Pleasing a True Fan is pleasurable, and invigorating. It rewards the artist to remain true, to focus on the unique aspects of their work, the qualities that True Fans appreciate.
Amen.
Kevin’s apparently what they call a “smart person” – I didn’t link to it because I was too slow, but a couple of posts ago was this excellent piece on what you can still sell when everything is free.
London Tickets On Sale
UPDATE: I and others have confirmed that it’s a 14+ show, and there will be no opening band. Which means I will be able to rock (oh so softly) for 12 or 15 hours.
The show at Dingwalls has been confirmed and tickets are now being sold right here. At this point I’m just waiting to find out if this other secret thing is going to pay for my flight or not – I sure hope it is, otherwise I’m buying a last minute transatlantic ticket.
I don’t know if it’s 14+ or 18+, there seems to be some confusion. Also not sure who “special guests” are or if there are any. I’ll see what I can find out and let you know. Either way, Bob’s your uncle! Apples and pears! Am I right?
Dance with Emily
You remember Emily of course, the person responsible for this excellent Code Monkey Dance (she continues to be proud to be awesome, as far as I know). I was asking her about maybe including her video on the DVD in some way, and she thought it would be fun to make a montage of lots of other people doing the dance. I agree completely. To that end, Emily and I encourage you to take video of you (or your baby, or your cat) doing the dance and submit it to the email address she’s set up for this: needamontage[at]gmail[dot]com. If you have questions about format and such, I’m sure she would be happy to answer them (I will stay out of it, so as not to complicate things). I should also make it clear that this may end up on the DVD and/or YouTube and/or who knows where, so please don’t submit anything you don’t want me to use that way – I will also ask you to sign a release at some point.
But for now: dance, monkey.
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