Vampire Weekend Sued Because Photographer Might Have Falsified Model Release

from the how-is-that-their-fault? dept

Brendan was the first to alert us to the story of how the "girl" who is in the image used on the cover of the last Vampire Weekend album is now suing the band. She claims the photographer who licensed the image to the band for $5,000 didn't take the photograph and forged a model release. If true, those are serious charges... but should be entirely focused on the photographer. She is suing the photographer, but also claims that the band is responsible for not checking into it, which seems pretty far fetched. Even more ridiculous? She claims that her image is one of the main reasons the album sold so well, so she wants $2 million. Does she really think that if the band had put a different image of a girl staring off into space on the cover, there would have been noticeably different sales?

Filed Under: image, model release, photographer, vampire weekend

Content As Advertising; Advertising As Content On The iPhone

from the vampire-weekend dept

Matt writes in with a great example of how the concept that content is advertising and advertising is content is moving to the iPhone in the most recent iPhone app for NPR:

In this app, the mobile analytics and advertising company Medialets is serving up an ad for the new album, Contra, by the band Vampire Weekend. At first, the ad just peeks out at the bottom of the NPR app, but if you click to expand it, it quickly takes up the entire device. So why would you want to do this? Because it's a video for Vampire Weekend's new song "Cousins" -- and thanks to some of the iPhone's unique features, you can actually interact with the ad, shaking your iPhone to change how the video looks.

Seems like a perfect example of how both content is advertising and advertising is content. In this case, the "ad" is actually valuable content that people want to see. And yet, that content is also advertising the band and its new album, and doing so in a fun and compelling way. Of course, separately, I have to ask if the band is both paying for the ad and getting paid royalties for the ad? After all, this is clearly an advertisement for the band and its new album, but we're always told by the recording industry that any usage -- even those like radio that act as advertising -- need to be paid for with royalties.

Filed Under: advertising as content, content as advertising, iphone, vampire weekend
Companies: medialets