Did Ok Go Free Itself From EMI? [Confirmed!]
from the nice-move dept
There's been lots of talk about the band Ok Go lately, with its latest album coming out and two viral videos (of the same song) in the last few weeks. Of course, the whole thing has been a bit of a mess between the band and its label. When the first viral video came out, Capitol Records/EMI decided to ban embeds of the video, which seems like the best way to totally kill off a viral video. The band responded with a mild, but still somewhat exasperated note about how the label didn't fully grasp the situation, but while also partly blaming YouTube for the way it (supposedly) handles payments on music in embedded videos. Later, Ok Go's lead singer, Damian Kulash, penned a NY Times Op-Ed again suggesting the label was out of touch, and highlighting how much damage was done by not allowing the viral videos to go out. EMI/Capitol, for its part, tried to replace this with a faked viral campaign where you could get a free track if you blindly retweeted a message. Finally, somehow the band (and EMI?) were able to line up a sponsor in State Farm to allow for its latest video -- a rather stunning Rube Goldberg machine timed to the music -- to be offered up as an embed:The band has formed its own independent label, Paracadute Recordings, and will take over all distribution and promotion for their latest album, Of the Blue Color of the Sky, which came out in January. "We'd like to thank the people at EMI Music who have worked so hard on our behalf," said the band's Damian Kulash. EMI Music said: "We've really enjoyed our relationship with OK Go. They've always pushed creative boundaries and have broken new ground, particularly with their videos. We wish them the greatest success for the future."Fascinating. The report also claims that:
Unfortunately, the huge traffic their videos generated never quite translated into album sales. The band's best seller was 2005's Oh No, their second, which included the treadmill hit, "Here It Goes Again," and sold around 200k, while their latest is languishing at 20k.This was the same point that was made back last year by someone from Billboard in dismissing online viral sensations as being unimportant for "real" sales. But, as the band itself noted, the success of the video brought out huge crowds and made the band quite profitable to the label. This is the problem you run into when you only think about the music industry as if "album sales" are everything. Selling music directly is not a very good business model, and focusing on how many album sales there are totally misses the mark these days.
The question now, is what will the band do when freed from the record label. It will be interesting to see, since the band seems to relish its reputation as being creative well beyond the music. Hopefully that means taking on some of the basic principles of successful cool music business models and taking them to a new level. At least I hope that's what we'll see...
Update: As noted in the comments, this has now been confirmed, and Damian has put up a video explaining:
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I will buy their album
Also just a piece of info: I have not bought a full album in 15 years, but I will buy theirs just to show support for them.
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Sweet!
Thanks for the reminder of how much I like their music, the videos are pretty fun too...
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Re: Sweet!
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This too shall pass
Here's the thing, though. These guys aren't a great band. They are great performance artists. It's the multi-media show that differentiates them from other music makers.
Take for example [and Damian, I hope you are reading this] the song in the two recent videos. Plus there's a third YouTube video of Damian performing same song a capella with a choir. All three mixes are different from the album mix (two of them recorded live with their videos). All three are great listens; I've been humming the tune in my head. The album, on the other hand, is mixed so poorly I find it unlistenable. Once and done-can't recommend to anyone to buy the album.
So, where was the EMI value added here? And where was the potential return to EMI? This just isn't much of a fit.
Duh. They are never going to make it big in pure audio. Their niche is going to be finding ways to monetize performance art. That may turn out to be a stage show; that may turn out to be creative videos.And, somewhere along the way they are going to get themselves a better sound engineer.
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Comment from 50 Cent relevant to this
50 Cent gave an interesting reply, saying that as people are not really buying "albums" any more but downloading them, he is instead looking at other sources of income with touring bringing a strong income stream as well as merchandising and some other new areas which he looks to exploit as opportunities arise.
The answer could not have been a better example of how artists are finding new ways to monetize their work in response to changing customer habits.
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Re: Comment from 50 Cent relevant to this
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090914/0348436181.shtml
In fact, that was the post that Lily Allen "plagiarized" from us in trying to explain why copying was "bad."
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I'm guessing
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Re: I'm guessing
Which demonstrates the power of a viral anything. My so-called broadband is poor enough I could barely watch the video. But I liked the music...
Get it out in front of enough people and it will find the ones that like it.
Gotta go check Amazon for Ok Go albums now.....
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Can someone please tell the The Chords, The Surfaris, Katrina and the Waves, Gary Numan, The Divinyls, and thousands of other one hit wonders that the reason they were one hit wonders is because the internet sucks as a means to distribute and promote music.
What, the internet was not around back then? Those musicians were one hit wonders because they simply were not very talented? You mean, untalented musicians were promoted by labels, sold millions of records, then dropped into obscurity before the internet?
Yes, fricken yes!
Every time a musician gets some success from the internet they find some reason to call it a fluke. Well, flukes have been the mainstay of the modern music business for several decades. Get used to it.
The internet gave Ok Go the world's ear. The world simply grew tired of what it was hearing. That's happened before the internet, during the internet, and well after the internet goes away. No one is guaranteed a lifelong career merely because of one hit, regardless of how it is promoted.
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Re:
Even A Flock of Seagulls had several more hits (e.g. "Telecommunication", "Space Age Love Song", "Wishing") than just "I Ran", not that ignoramuses like you would know. Some think A-Ha's "The Sun Always Shines On TV" is a better tune than "Take On Me" and the band is finally packing it in after 25 years of continued European success. Have you heard the whole "Tubthumping" album by Chumbawumba? It's a solid ALBUM though 99.44% only knew the single. Same for Los Lobos, who have been around forever but only hit with "La Bamba."
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Re: Re:
Where did I ever say that Gary Numan or the Divinyls did not "have substantial careers outside of their one hit." I didn't say any such thing, because the careers of Numan and the Divinyls were not the point of my post!!!!
The point of my post was that no one is ever guaranteed a perpetual career. Even if you use the label system, whether you use the internet, or whether you use a combination both (as Ok Go did).
So even if Ok Go's career is over (and I'm not saying it is, in fact it's impossible for me to make such a prediction) you cannot blame the internet for that fact.
Actually upon thinking about it, didn't Gary Numan give up music entirely to fly airplanes? Or was that Bruce Dickinson? Maybe it was both. But you know what, it does not matter one bit to what I was saying.
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Re:
Yeah, because selling 200,000 copies from an internet marketing campaign pales to the vast amount they would have sold if they had simply did nothing and let the label do all the work.
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"in fact they appear to be 90% worse than the last time."
hmmm I believe in coincidence I dont trust it ... perhaps the horrible new album was a way to get away from EMI.
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Re:
A shiny CD?
A digital song?
A band T-Shirt?
A ticket to a concert?
Someone who likes the video and will make it a point to see the next?
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20,000 is pretty good
but 20,000 is pretty good. not if you're EMI maybe.
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the point isn't the records sold
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It's official
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Re: It's official
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Let's be real people!
The outcome between the two of them is actually a fair deal. EMI did, in fact, make money on the band, and the band gained a solid market brand from EMI's promotional investments in the act. But now, that brand is the band's to fuck up, and if the band is successful EMI still makes money with residual sales of the albums they own- a no lose situation for EMI.
In the end everybody looks good here, but the risk is all on Ok Go. Let's wait and see if they truly can pull it of themselves. But personally, I would take a very hard look at bands that have succeeded with a 'new model label' and spend some serious cash hiring and motivating 'those' people.
Bill Wilkins, CEO
Melted Metal Web Radio
http://www.meltedmetal.com/
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