New York artist and former software programmer Jonathan Coulton is profiled in the New York Times magazine section. He explains how he's created a full-time living through free distribution. He writes a song a week and posts it free to his blog.

The results illustrate how artists can make a living without a label. His web site attracts 3,000 people a day. His top songs have reached half a million downloads. He earns an average $4,000 a month by selling CDs and digital singles on iTunes and his own site.

Plus he's learned that a fan is really a fan(atic). They interact with him from dozens of emails a day to blog comments to music and marketing suggestions to creating music videos for him to being his street team and marketing him to new fans.

Read the article.