Like other independent musicians I know—good friends some of them—I could be spending my time selling. That is, trying to convince as many people as possible to spend 99¢ on one of my songs. To do this, I’d have to put hours of time and lots of upfront money to record, then tour (from which I’d earn next to nothing), give away lots of product to develop interest, keep up a Facebook page, a band website, keep it all going while hoping to generate a buzz, oh, and write songs with the care and attention and passion that I started with,.
But then, it hit me. Why try to get 1,000,000 people to each give me 99¢ when I’m just as likely to get, say, 900 people to to each give me $12,500? And so:
900fans.com.
Here’s the deal: I want 900 people to become fans of my songs. This will cost $12,500 a pop.
A fan will receive my CDs, at regular intervals, for the rest of my life. My personal goal is one CD a year. They will have a user id and password to access a fan-only section of the website.
When I reach 900 fans, I will put all my songs in the public domain.