You don’t need a million fans to make a living as an artist, just one thousand “true” ones.

What could you do with just 1,000 “True Fans”?

According to Kevin Kelly, you could make a living doing just about whatever you want. Kevin’s theory – which has been in wide circulation on the web since last week – is that an artist can make a living with just 1,000 of what he calls “True Fans”:

A True Fan is defined as someone who will purchase anything and everything you produce. They will drive 200 miles to see you sing. They will buy the super deluxe re-issued hi-res box set of your stuff even though they have the low-res version. They have a Google Alert set for your name. They bookmark the eBay page where your out-of-print editions show up. They come to your openings. They have you sign their copies. They buy the t-shirt, and the mug, and the hat. They can’t wait till you issue your next work. They are true fans.

Kevin points out that if you assume that each True Fan is willing to spend just one day’s wages per year in support of what you do (let’s say that’s $100) and if you have 1,000 fans that works out to $100,000 per year, which is more than enough for an individual artist to live on.

Of course it’s not as easy as it sounds, but it does seem like a very practical business model to me. It’s also further support of the theory that puppeteers are better off focusing on the web.