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Can Country Music Artists Make A Living With 1,000 True Fans?
- Aside from making True Fans sound like stalkers, Kevin Kelly has a fascinating concept he calls 1,000 True Fans.
A creator, such as an artist, musician, photographer, craftsperson, performer, animator, designer, videomaker, or author - in other words, anyone producing works of art - needs to acquire only 1,000 True Fans to make a living.
1,000 is an arbitrary number that each artist needs to find for himself, but True Fans consist of a small circle of people who will purchase anything you do–CDs, t-shirts, hats, tickets, etc. That small circle is surrounded by concentric circles of Lesser Fans. Some artists are better at creating those True Fans than other, can you think of any who are doing a great job?
- Country Weekly visited Blake Shelton on his 1,200-acre property in Oklahoma to talk about life. He dished out his thoughts on his career, cultivation of his land, decoration of his house, and his relationship with Miranda before concluding with the one thing that’s ruining his life.
- The free downloads on iTunes this week are Hayes Carll’s “She Left Me For Jesus” and Lady Antebellum’s “Love Don’t Live Here.”
- Those who know things have reason to suspect that Jessica Simpson has made her first move towards a country lifestyle with the purchase of a $3.47 million shanty in the Nashville area.
- Check out the sweet photography of Jeremy Cowart. Dig around the different sections and there’s pictures of Carrie Underwood, Miranda Lambert, Kris Kristofferson, Luke Bryan, Kellie Pickler, Taylor Swift, Katrina Elam, Danielle Peck, Dierks Bentley, Hank Williams Jr., Charlie Louvin, and others I’m probably forgetting.
- Add an album of 1930’s cover songs with Asleep at the Wheel to the growing pile of projects Willie Nelson plans to tackle.
- Peter Kohan ponders the question “What is selling out?” when it comes to corporate brands.
So every artist needs to take a step back and truly ask themselves this: if they are willing to give up their masters to one company - the record label, or if they are willing to go and provide programming to radio conglomerates who don’t have any vested interest in music per se, then why are other types of brand partnerships taboo?
- The 100 Greatest Women countdown at Country Universe is currently at #92 with Gretchen Peters, who you might know as the writer of Martina McBride’s “Independence Day.” Jim Malec reviewed her album Burnt Toast & Offerings last year for The 9513.
- Speaking of Martina McBride, at the request of a fan she performed a spontaneous, note-perfect cover of Merle Haggard’s “Today I Started Loving You Again” a few nights ago. (via CMT Blog)
- P.S. Go leave a comment for a chance to win one of Aaron Watson’s new albums, Angels & Outlaws. We’ve got ten to give away.
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In Memory of Don Helms (1927 - 2008) Helms dated back to a time when an excellent four or five piece band and a good singer were all that were needed to make great country music. No drums, no light shows, no production tricks in the recording studio–just good music.
Don’t look now, but Darius Rucker, lead singer of 90s rock group Hootie & The Blowfish, has a country hit on his hands. What you probably haven’t heard is that Rucker is the first black artist to chart a single in the country top 20 since Charley Pride last did it in 1988.
News that former Sugarland member and co-founder Kristen Hall is suing her ex-mates, to the tune of $1.5 million, goes a long way towards providing a bit of context regarding the Atlanta singer/songwriter’s sudden departure from the group.
Josh Gracin - “Unbelievable (Ann Marie)” Despite initial marketing that touted the album as deep and personal, “Unbelievable (Ann Marie)” is anything but deep or personal.
Josh Turner - "Everything Is Fine" Turner is the rare example of an artist who records material that’s both quality and trademark.
Darryl Worley - "Tequila On Ice" A groovy mid-tempo that sways, a refreshing reprieve from the exhausting pace of a format that clamors for loud music and swelling choruses.
Blake Shelton - "She Wouldn't Be Gone" It’s all about nailing the melody rather than providing a legitimate interpretation that accentuates the lyrical content, although Shelton does do a pretty good job of injecting what limited emotion he can.
Forgotten Artist: David Rogers David Rogers (1936-1993) is proof of the adage that it’s great to be on a major label, but only if the label is truly behind you.
Forgotten Artist: Charley Pride For the ’70s, Billboard has Charley listed as its third ranking singles artist behind only Conway Twitty and Merle Haggard. 
In this exclusive interview with The 9513, the Show Dog Records trio talks about growing up around Waylon and Jessi Colter, and about how those experiences have helped shaped their music as they set off on their own country music journey.
One of an emerging wave of artists empowered by decreasing production costs and a rapidly changing distribution landscape, Kelleigh Bannen has taken a do-it-yourself approach to her debut album, Radio Skies.Tagged In This Article
Asleep at the Wheel // Blake Shelton // Burnt Toast & Offerings // Gretchen Peters // Hayes Carll // Jessica Simpson // Lady Antebellum // Martina McBride // Miranda Lambert // Willie Nelson
Current Discussion
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17 Comments
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March 26, 2008 at 11:26 am Permalink
Hayes “She left me for Jesus” is one of the funniest most irreverant song I have heard in a long time. I laughed out loud when I heard him perform it for the first time.
March 26, 2008 at 12:06 pm Permalink
The true fans concept is definitely an interesting one. Apparently, I’m not a true fan of anyone - I’d fall into the “lesser fan” category. One thing that would need to be taken into consideration with the true fans theory is change in financial circumstances. What happens if several members of the true fans circle can no longer afford to support the artist in the same manner? Will there be greater reliance on the lesser fans?
March 26, 2008 at 1:24 pm Permalink
Those pictures by Jeremy Cowart were awesome. The Katrina ones were especially beautiful. I guess those were supposed to be for her Turn Me Up album that never came out.
March 26, 2008 at 3:46 pm Permalink
i’m looking forward to that willie nelson/asleep at the wheel cd. that has classic written all over it. sign me up. i’m in.
March 26, 2008 at 7:11 pm Permalink
She Left Me For Jesus scares me.
Why you ask?
The very same thing happened to me…..I’m not even joking.
March 26, 2008 at 8:52 pm Permalink
Thanks for the love guys!
March 26, 2008 at 10:13 pm Permalink
I think 1000 was picked because it is a nice round number. I would think to make more than a subsistance living an artist would need about 2500 fans
For years Pat Green had a coterie of true fans, mostly located in Texas as does Cornell Hurd, Bobby Flores and Justin Trevino
March 27, 2008 at 9:57 am Permalink
I’ll see your 2,500 and raise you 500.
March 27, 2008 at 10:24 am Permalink
Even though Dierks Bentley is too big to be a case study for the 1,000 True Fans model I think he does an excellent job creating True Fans. For example, having fans choose the songs on his greatest hits album and then naming the first 3,000 as producers in his liner notes helps insure that the majority of them will buy the album just so they can show their name off to anybody who will listen. That in turn causes the much ballyhooed word of mouth marketing.
March 27, 2008 at 2:26 pm Permalink
That’s a very good point. One very smart thing Taylor Swift did was to legitimize the fan-built sites devoted to her by linking to them from her official site and MySpace page. I would think stuff like that really gives hardcore fans a lot of impetus to stick with an artist and help to promote them.
March 27, 2008 at 2:50 pm Permalink
I know the more famous an artist is, the more demanding their schedule. But isnt the lesson that Taylor provides here something that even the few current platinum-selling country artists could learn from? A couple of links here and couple of emails or blogs there. There is so much time spent on the bus, all it would take would be a laptop, a wireless card and a roadie who’s a computer geek to get that done….
March 27, 2008 at 3:03 pm Permalink
Is the 1000 fans concept knew? I think writers and book publishers have know this for a long time. It is certainly true for textbook writers - if a writer works at a large enough university and can guarantee purchase of books just for a single class over a certain size, that author can get anything published. Same would be true for singers but I think the number has to be much larger than 1000, MUCH larger.
March 27, 2008 at 4:12 pm Permalink
I haven’t met a whole lot of country artists who were very comfortable with computers. Meanwhile, Taylor edited this video on her computer herself at a cost of approximately $0.00 and it got played on CMT:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=RHA4nAD9VaI
Pretty canny.
March 28, 2008 at 7:42 am Permalink
I love what you blog about! For a start-up artist like myself, reading what you have to say and what other country music fans think is the best way to keep me motivated to MAKE MUSIC! Thanks for keeping the discussions interesting!
Love,
Nicole Frechette
March 28, 2008 at 3:05 pm Permalink
That video looks like it was edited at home by an amateur. That doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be done but it doesn’t make it good, either.
I’m cheering for every single semi-pro and less artist out there doing everything they can to get the music out but quaint is a tough target. Hitting the quaint target takes a lot of talent.
I think it’s important to make sure the things surrounding the music are not so weak they distract from it. A strong song and a strong singer can carry a lot of ugly baggage but a weak song or a weak singer just gets loaded down with ugly bags. Less is more in that case.
March 28, 2008 at 5:44 pm Permalink
Nicole, you have an excellent website. You sound great, keep at it!
March 28, 2008 at 5:56 pm Permalink
“That video looks like it was edited at home by an amateur.”
Precisely — it looks like she did it herself, and her fans can see that. It’s the sort of personal touch that binds fans to an artist.
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