Viral Weezer Video Not Allowed To Be Viral

from the not-so-brilliant dept

Tue, Jun 17th 2008 12:12pm — Mike Masnick

The band Weezer has been getting a lot of buzz for its latest video for the song Pork and Beans, which takes a bunch of viral video "YouTube stars" and has them reprising their roles in its own video. Others have done similar things, so perhaps it's not that unique. However, a Techdirt reader named Mike noticed something quite odd about the Weezer video on YouTube. For a supposedly "viral" video -- Weezer or Universal Music has disabled the ability to embed the video in other sites (see update below). Embedding these kinds of videos, of course, is exactly how they go viral. Specifically disabling that feature on a video that's entirely based on viral videos seems backwards.

It's difficult to believe that Weezer did this themselves -- as the band has long been seen as embracing the internet and new technologies and distribution means. Hell, just doing this type of video shows how connected to the internet scene they are. So it makes you wonder if it was the band's label, Universal Music, that has stopped the embedding. If they're going to do this, why not follow Viacom's footsteps and ask the video to be taken down completely.

Update: Aha! Within hours of us posting this, the embed feature was re-enabled. No explanation as to what happened. Someone from Weezer or Universal care to comment?

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Filed Under: embedding, viral video, weezer
Companies: universal music, youtube

27 Comments

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Franssu, 17 Jun 2008 @ 12:35pm

After suing their best clients, it seems perfectly normal that one of the next steps implies crippling the marketing efforts of the bands. All this is simply part of a larger strategy ofg suicide. I wouldn't devise a very different strategy with the same objective.

Now who came up with this objective, and is it consistent with the deisres of the shareholders and other stakeholders, is another question entirely.
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Jun 2008 @ 12:36pm

That's what happens when you work with dinosaur organizations like Universal Music. They are irrelevant, outdated and old.

Hopefully moving forward youth culture and anyone who actually LIKES music ignores them and they die out.
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Sean Garrett, 17 Jun 2008 @ 12:43pm

it gets worse
I noticed this a couple weeks ago and found that the video hosted on the Weezer channel was embeddable and, not so surprisingly, had exponentially more views than the non-emeddable video on the Universal channel.

So, since then, instead of "correcting" the ironic lack of embeds on the Universal page, they went tho opposite way.

Even more awesomely, apparently Weezer's European distributer didn't get the memo and they allow the embedding of the video...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9Y4BppbBFo&e. Of course, so have many individual users who have filled the vacuum and uploaded the video.

Of course this all means that when Pitchfork or Stereogum post the video (or fix a dead link) for thousands upon thousands of music fans a click through doesn't find it's way back to Weezer's nor Universal's page.
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Steve Strowbridge, 17 Jun 2008 @ 1:31pm

Email still works
I got the link to view the video in an email which is also a virual method
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Jun 2008 @ 1:33pm

The good news is this is being done by a band nobody gives a fuck about, so it has little impact.
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Chris Mikaitis, 17 Jun 2008 @ 1:48pm

Blue Album FTW
Not a huge fan of new Weezer, they peaked with the blue album (One of the best albums ever). I'll check out the video though, in hopes of good things. Either way, I sincerely hope that traditional labels, like Universal Music, through their own neglect and bad management, force bands to release songs in new and exciting ways. "Say it Ain't So" FTW
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Rick, 17 Jun 2008 @ 1:51pm

I know you're trolling but.....
With 7.3 million views of this video alone, I imagine there are a few people that do give a fuck.
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Jun 2008 @ 2:13pm

Hell, just doing this type of video shows how connected to the internet scene they are.

Right, because the BAND is the one that made the video. There are music video writers just like in any other form of entertainment. If anything, I think Weezer was approached by someone else pitching the idea of a "viral video video".
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Jake, 17 Jun 2008 @ 2:41pm

Re:
I think Weezer was approached by someone else pitching the idea of a "viral video video".

They still let the guy make it, didn't they?
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Matt, 17 Jun 2008 @ 2:59pm

I think their main reason behind doing this was to promote the weezer channel. When people embed the vid they don't get exposure to the other things featured on their channel. I know they used the Pork and Beans video as a springboard into the exposure of their channel, so it makes sense that they would try and direct people to their youtube page. Embedded is great, but the reasons seem to be at least partially sound.
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Jun 2008 @ 3:11pm

Back in the day...
Didn't they include the entire music video with Winders 95?

Wasn't it some Buddy Holly song? How well did that do?
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Jun 2008 @ 4:01pm

Re: Back in the day...
Yes, The Buddy Holly music video was included on the Windows 95 install CD. Crazy...
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Jun 2008 @ 4:24pm

Re: Re: Back in the day...
Actually, not crazy. Very smart in fact.
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Jun 2008 @ 4:46pm

Re: Re: Re: Back in the day...
I meant crazy more in the wow gnarly awesome cowabunga, sense. That was 13 years ago, just a bit ahead of the curve...
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Jun 2008 @ 4:51pm

What ?
They rip off some utube stuff, put it in their vid and then act like it belongs to them ?
wtf ?
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Frederick (profile), 17 Jun 2008 @ 5:35pm

It's Not Weezer's Fault
Universal disables embedding for all their videos on Youtube. It's a real PITA when I am putting together a Youtube playlist for my blog, and I have to provide separate links for any videos from Universal Music.
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Hyrulio, 17 Jun 2008 @ 5:57pm

Re:
You absolute jerkoff, learn to read before you post, actually, take some basic comprehension tets while you're at it! The issue is that Universal Music has tried to stop people putting the video on their own sites, nothing to do with the content of the vid.
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Gasparilla, 17 Jun 2008 @ 7:36pm

Am I missing something?
I went to the youtube link in the story and the functionality to "Embed" appears to be there. Am I missing something?
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Bryan Price, 17 Jun 2008 @ 7:57pm

I'm looking at it right now
[object width="425" height="344"][param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/muP9eH2p2PI&hl=en"][/param][embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/muP9eH2p2PI&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="344"][/embed][/object]

I futzed the angle brackets, but it seems to be embeddable to me

@Gasparilla: I'm with you, don't see what the issue is. I think YouTube might make it hard to embed, but you can easily see the source and find out what part (in this case muP9eH2p2PI) that you need avert the /v/.
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Jun 2008 @ 8:25pm

heh heh
Hyrulio -> "take some basic comprehension tets"

.... tets ?
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Mike (profile), 17 Jun 2008 @ 10:08pm

Re: Am I missing something?
I went to the youtube link in the story and the functionality to "Embed" appears to be there. Am I missing something?

They changed it to allow embeds sometime after this story was published.

Damn. I should have taken a screenshot of the original, but didn't. I didn't think they'd change it.
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Mike (profile), 17 Jun 2008 @ 10:09pm

Re: I'm looking at it right now
Bryan, they changed it about 6 hours after we published this story...

Before it said "Video embedding disabled by request" or something similar.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Jun 2008 @ 6:07pm

Re: heh heh
congratulatins you passed the "tet"
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jason_deluxe, 18 Jun 2008 @ 9:10pm

I'm sure the youth of today are deeply saddened at not being able to embed a crappy dad-rock video from a band that was tired and irrelevant a decade ago.
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Frederick (profile), 19 Jun 2008 @ 7:04pm

re: jason_deluxe
Why does everyone seem to assume that technology is driven by the current generation of Youth? Yes, they are the quickest to adapt to it, but they generally aren't the ones doing the innovation on it, and they certainly aren't the ones bringing it to the marketplace.

To put it anther way, there's far more "old people" in the US buying crap than there are "young people". And Weezer still matters to us "old" farts (I'm 34).
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puzzled, 2 Oct 2009 @ 4:46pm

i don't understand universal music group....
i run an "official" youtube page for an universal artist. i uploaded a music video by the artist and a day later went back to find that they had filed a copyright infringement against the account and of course, disabled embedding. now, my understanding of the PURPOSE of a music video was that it was intended to be a promotional tool to gain exposure for the artist. WTH?!? why would you prevent bloggers and music websites from promoting your artist?!?!? backwards ass old farts...geez...
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http://www.tnpascher.com
now, my understanding of the PURPOSE of a music video was that it was intended to be a promotional tool to gain exposure for the artist. WTH?!? why would you prevent bloggers and music websites from http://www.tnpascher.com chaussures pas cher http://www.air-max-plus.com Air Max http://www.chaussurestnfr.com Chaussures Sport http://www.jerseysol.com NFL Jerseys promoting your artist?!?!? backwards ass old farts...geez...
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