Musicians & Internet Money

Update: Andrew's post, like all of his hood stuff, brought in some interesting responses, including this argument about 1000 true fans being the way out of the "long tail trap" for musicians/creatives. As one of his readers summarizes:

...check out Kevin Kelly's essay "1000 True Fans." In it, he posits that this should be the goal of any creative (musicians, writers, artists) in the digital age.  He defines a "True Fan" as somebody who is willing to spend $100 a year on your output (CDs, merchandise, print-on-demand publishing, live appearances, etc). Any creative who can reach that point (and really, it's not that difficult -- most of the creatives I know have managed to reach the 300-400 True Fan stage without really trying at all) has an annual income of $100,000 -- a comfortable living by any standard.

I know that, for me, having access to Kilbey's daily thoughts has made me much more obsessive about The Church than I was before (no mean feat!), causing me to buy more of their stuff...