Cult of Personality

It his latest music notes column, Thom Jennings (Niagra Gazette), looks at Todd and Joe Bonamassa of examples of 'cult' artists showing how you can still make a living out of the music industry "Of the two, Bonamassa is playing larger venues and commanding a higher ticket price in spite of a complete lack of any commercial singles. What Bonamassa has done is put out a massive amount of recorded material, and offer up tons of high quality live albums and DVDs and merchandise. Bonamassa has a monthly newsletter, filled with tons of content, and he interacts with his fan base consistently. Like many successful groups from the 1960s and 1970s, Bonamassa makes it fun to follow his career because there is usually something new coming out on a regular basis. Rundgren built his cult following in the 1970s much the same way, by putting out a mass of unique material in a short period of time. Even though he no longer puts out new albums very often, he has been able to offer up a number of different live packages over the last 10 years, including album shows, greatest hits shows, symphony orchestra shows, an electronic dance show and an “unpredictable” show. In simplest terms, Rundgren keeps fans guessing, and makes following his career interesting."