Fans of OK Go are OK to go embed the band's new video.

You may remember January’s minor uproar over the new video by rock band OK Go, whose fans were not allowed to embed the video on their blogs. For a band that broke into the mainstream through low-budget YouTube videos and word of mouth, this was an unforgivable offense in the eyes of their loyal fans.

Lead singer Damian Kulash addressed the issue in an open letter to fans, explaining that OK Go was a victim of backroom revenue deals worked out between Google (parent company of YouTube) and the band's record label, EMI. Google had agreed to pay EMI for each view of the band's videos — as long as they were viewed on YouTube and not embedded on another site.

So what could OK Go do to fix the problem? Find a loophole, of course.

OK Go teamed up with State Farm, which apparently covered the cost that EMI feels it would have lost from shared videos on other blogs. The insurer's logo appears briefly at the beginning and end of a new video for the band's song, "This Too Shall Pass," shown above.

The sponsorship is subtle, but the fan excitement over something as simple as embedding  — along with such a complex and awesome video — will create word of mouth that's far more valuable than whatever revenue EMI was hoping to squeeze out of the deal.

Kammie Avant is a social media planner for Luckie & Company. You can contact her by e-mail or follow @KammieAvant on Twitter.

Comments

[Steve Poppe]

Fun video. Candy corn song.