Jonathan Coulton

About Jonathan

Jonathan Coulton is the Contributing Troubadour for Popular Science magazine. His recent US tour had him singing songs about vengeful nerds, ennui-afflicted clowns, self-loathing giant squids, and devotees of a certain Swedish prefab furniture store. All of his songs are insanely clever without ever being too clever for their own good. They repeatedly lure you into laughing before suddenly breaking your heart. And the sick part is, you keep coming back. Coulton's is the voice of every spooky elementary school kid who could never quite keep his shirt tucked in or shoes tied; every lovelorn mason and mad scientist; every one of us who has ever sat despairingly on the floor, surrounded by parts of an Ikea endtable, weeping over an allen wrench.

In 2005-2006 he recorded and published a new song every week as a free podcast called Thing a Week. This rate of output wouldn't be so astonishing if the songs weren't so constantly well written and produced. A few of these songs have become full-fledged internet smashes: his folky cover of Sir Mix-a-Lot's "Baby Got Back," a visual ode to Creative Commons called "Flickr," and of course "Code Monkey," the anthem of software designers everywhere. The office zombie song "Re: Your Brains" made the Dr. Demento Funny 25 countdown for 2006. But it's the less obvious ones that sneak up on you and punch you right in the chest - the song about George Plimpton that makes you want to get out there and do something that really matters, or the song about an office crush that you're certain was written about you and that girl you keep meaning to ask out on a date.

A fully independent musician with the heart of a geek, Coulton has a pioneering (and so far, surprisingly successful) plan to make a living as a niche artist. He's passionate about Creative Commons, and releases all his music under a CC license that allows for file sharing and copying, as well as non-commercial derivative works. And his community of fans has rallied around him to generate airplay on hundreds of podcasts, create a library of music videos, and even set up gigs through Eventful.com.

All songs from the Thing a Week project are now available on CD, either individually or in a charmingly packaged box set - an entire year's worth of songs from a bold experiment in independent musicianship and internet superstardom.

Contact Information

Website:	Jonathan Coulton
Snail Mail:	Jonathan Coulton 172 5th Ave. #219 Brooklyn, NY 11217
E-Mail, Mgmt, etc:	Check JoCo's contact page

Q&A

1. When and why did you decide to license your work under Creative Commons?
   The first time I ever heard of Creative Commons was when I saw Lawrence Lessig speak about it at a conference called PopTech. After he finished my brain was just buzzing, it was the most exciting idea I'd ever heard. The most moving thing about it for me was the idea that you could collaborate with complete strangers IN THE FUTURE. He made the connection between the very nature of art, that it's all about borrowing and referencing and reusing (especially in the digital world), and this new kind of license that would enable that to happen. It was just a beautiful vision of what culture and creativity can and should be.
2. How is it working out? Does it seem like it's a viable approach to professional musicianship?
   Absolutely. It's really beneficial for someone like me to have their music out there circulating around under its own steam, whether it's on mix CDs, P2P sites, or all the wonderful fan-created videos, remixes and artwork. I think it's beneficial for any musician actually - the economics of filesharing are complicated enough that we may never know for sure, but I've seen more and more studies lately that suggest filesharing is a net gain for musicians. And to be clear, licensing something with Creative Commons doesn't mean I'm giving it away - I still sell the music online and as CDs, it's just that it's totally legal to trade it and re-use it as long as you're not doing so for commercial purposes.
3. Does your music get played through traditional outlets like FM radio? Do you find that you have a harder time getting attention from the outlets because your work is open licensed?
   I do get some airplay on FM radio, though not a lot - honestly I don't think the licensing has anything to do with whether or not that happens, FM radio must still pay royalties on CC-licensed music because they're commercial entities. It's just that for the most part, the engine behind mainstream radio doesn't pay much attention to small indie acts like me - a little here and there, but I may never have the kind of numbers you need to get Maroon-5-style exposure.
4. Are you interested in landing a contract with a major label? If you did, would you still license your work under CC?
   I don't see a label deal as a necessity at this point, though certainly if the right deal came along I wouldn't say no. Keeping this whole thing going takes a lot of non-music-related work, and I can't do it all myself anymore. I have a few other people working on some of that stuff for me, all of them performing functions that a label could do. But at my current level, it just makes better business sense to contract those people individually. Any major label deal would likely involve giving up large percentages of my income/ ownership, and I'd have to be assured that it was worth it. If it ever did happen I'd certainly want to continue using Creative Commons licensing, not just because I think it's the right thing to do, but also because it's good for the bottom line.
5. Are you active in the wider Creative Commons or other open culture community?
   I'm certainly very interested in it, though I'm not a particularly "active" activist in that respect. I'm always happy to speak on panels and that sort of thing, and I like to participate in various experiments as I come across them (ccMixter, thesixtyone, amiestreet, etc.). I think the best way I can contribute is by demonstrating how art and commerce can continue to thrive even with CC-licensing, no DRM, and in general worrying less about controlling what happens to content after it's released into the wild.

Contributed Works

All of Jonathan's songs are available on his website. Dragonsept Arts & Publishing has made a few of our favorites available here, as well.

Chiron Beta Prime
A light-hearted Christmas song that gives us a look at what the holidays will be like in the future.

Ikea
An ode to everyone's favorite compact furniture. Just some oak and some pine and a handful of Norsemen.

Mr. Fancy Pants
Everyone could use a fancier pair of pants.

The Presidents
If I had mnemonics like this when I was a kid, I wouldn't have had to study so hard for civics class.