You can buy all of his songs and albums on the website (where theyve been published with a Creative Commons license), or, if you've already stolen the downloads from somewhere else, you can, for a dollar, support the comedian by buying monkey, robot or banana icons to publish on his site. Coulton belongs to a small cadre of comedians (like his friend Ze Frank) who have used the Internet to circumvent traditional album sales models in order to better control their publishing rights and keep a larger percentage of the (small but enviable) amount of money that comes over the Web from fans.
The DIY ethic has earned Coulton a cult following whose members will likely turn out in droves to see him, along with Washington, D.C.-area comic songwriting and improv duo Paul & Storm, tonight at 9 p.m. at the Soiled Dove Underground, 7401 East First Avenue. Tickets are $15; for more information, go to www.tavernhg.com/soiled_dove.
Fri., Jan. 16, 2009