New York Times' Sunday Magazine has a great article titled "Sex, Drugs and Updating Your Blog" (click here for short NY Times video on the story) that's about Internet-using, DIY artists that is definitely worth a read. Much of the article is about Brooklyn singer-songwriter Jonathan Coulton, who in late 2005 quit his day job to pursue a career as a musician supported by his (mostly) online audience (though he does hold down a couple freelance-type gigs as well).

If I were to add something to the article, I would expand upon a statement by Coulton that perfectly describes the kind of fan -- and therefore the type of musician that those fans enable: "My fans pretty geeky." This sort of online support works better for super-literate, ironic singer-songwriters than, say, Norwegian death metal or something in the vein of MySpace star Tila Tequila (whose music career is the biggest flop of 2007). Author Clive Thompson really should have added this very important aspect to his article.