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.
If you were to make a list of the top viral video superstars, Chicago rock band OK Go would be near the top. Their incredibly choreographed video for Here It Goes Again has reaped an astounding 49 million views on YouTube, vaulting the band from obscurity to Grammy-winning stardom.
But that was 2006. Now the band is racing the infuriating reality of 2010.
In an open letter to their fans this week, OK Go had to explain why no one is allowed to embed the band's new YouTube video, This Too Shall Pass, on a blog or social network. Essentially, the very model of sharing that made the band a success is now barred to them due to record label revenue deals with YouTube.
It's an incredible and incredibly frustrating read, a face-palming case study in how corporate desperation is one of the most self-destructive forces in the modern marketplace.
We've been flooded with complaints recently because our YouTube videos
can't be embedded on websites, and in certain countries can't be seen
at all. And we want you to know: we hear you, and we're sorry. We wish
there was something we could do. Believe us, we want you to pass our
videos around more than you do, but, crazy as it may seem, it's now far
harder for bands to make videos accessible online than it was four
years ago.
...
The labels are hurting and they need every penny they can find, so
they've demanded a piece of the action. They got all huffy a couple
years ago and threatened all sorts of legal terror and eventually all
four majors struck deals with YouTube which pay them tiny, tiny sums of
money every time one of their videos gets played.
Seems like a fair
enough solution, right? YouTube gets to keep the content, and the
labels get some income.
The catch: the software that pays out those tiny sums doesn't pay if
a video is embedded. This means our label doesn't get their hard-won
share of the pie if our video is played on your blog, so (surprise,
surprise) they won't let us be on your blog.
....
So we've got this ridiculous situation where the machinery of the old
system is frantically trying to contort and reshape and rewire itself
to run without actually selling music. It's like a car trying to figure
out how to run without gas, or a fish trying to learn to breath air.
...
With or without this embedding problem, we'll never get 50 zillion
views on a YouTube video again. That moment – the dawn of internet
video – is gone. The internet isn't as anarchic as it was then. Now
there are Madison Avenue firms that specialize in "viral marketing" and
the success of our videos is now taught in business school.
...
So, for now, here's the bottom line: EMI won't let us let you embed our
YouTube videos. It's a decision that bums us out. We've argued with
them a lot about it, but we also understand why they're doing it.
They're aware that their rules make it harder for people to watch and
share our videos, but, while our duty is to our music and our fans,
theirs is to their shareholders, and they believe they're doing the
right thing.
Of course, since this is a YouTube issue, the band points out that you're welcome to share their video via sites like Vimeo, which I've gone ahead and done below:
Music lovers everywhere, especially here in Alabama, suffered a tremendous loss last week with the death of Barry Beckett. Mr. Beckett was keyboardist for the legendary four-member Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, immortalized in the lyrics of Lynyrd Skykyrd's Sweet Home Alabama as "The Swampers."
I never got to meet Mr. Beckett, but I did get to sit down with two of his partners, David Hood and Roger Hawkins, as part of our series of Web interviews for The Year of Alabama Arts.
If you've got a few minutes, check out this YouTube playlist of excerpts from an incredible chat with some incredibly humble music legends:
With apologies to my readers who have a hard time watching video from work/phone/etc., I think it would be criminal to talk about the new iPhone app by Nine Inch Nails without including this summary clip:
This is a really practical yet exciting way to spread information about your band while also empowering your listeners to share pictures, reviews, remixes and more.
