HELP! The Music Industry is Going Backwards.
Posted on 27. Jan, 2010 by Anders Hjorth in News and Views
Do you remember the viral video from the band OkGo? The video where the guys danced in the treadmill (music video). The video became a major Internet sensation and was seen by millions of fans. The viral videos rocketed the OkGo from being “no-ones” without a record deal to performing live at the MTV Music Awards. So what did they do with all of this attention? They signed with Warner Music and one would think that the band’s future would be golden.
However, the band is now having problems with their fans, because the record label is killing off the band’s most valuable fans. Those who promote, share and embed OkGo music videos to their own sites, blogs and profiles. The issue is that Youtube does not make money from embedded videos, and therefore does not share any revenue with Warner Music. In reaction Warner has decided to force all views to youtube’s site (where they do get a small cut of youtube’s advertising income), instead of allowing embeddable videos. OkGo tries to explain the problem to it’s fans in an open letter posted at their website (see open letter here) , but I still fail to understand why Warner does not want the free promotion.
Do people listen to videos instead of buying the track? Don’t watching music videos (in a semi-good quality) translate into people buying an awesome quality mp3, which they can bring along with them on their phones and ipods and put into playlists?
And why does Warner act like ads are the only way to make money from the videos? What would happen if OkGo let their fans spread and share their videos’ like they used to with an embeddable player, but which at the same time acted as an OkGo MiniShop with their MP3 music and merchandise?
