1000 True Fans

Many years ago, back when I had dreams of a career in music (around high school), I had visions of an imaginary world where almost everybody was in a band. I knew back then that such a lifestyle wasn't easily supportable but part of my vision was that everybody had their day job ('at the factory' as I put it) but could still maintain a creative career alongside of that by virtue of everybody 'buying their friends' albums'. Somebody very smart has thought this out built upon the idea of The Long Tail and decided that an artists just needs 1000 True Fans to not have to have a day job.

I can't say I like the term 'true fan' used this way: anybody who would 'buy the t-shirt, and the mug, and the hat' seems a bit closer to 'fanatic', and if somebody ever drives 200 miles to hear me sing I'll drive them to the sanitarium.

As an aside, I actually know a guy who recently quit his day job to do that; hopefully he has enough support to stay out of office work. Give some of his tunes a listen!