WhoseTube?<\/a><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\nI hate the way he bends over backwards to give EMI props, but you should read this for the statistic embedded deep within.<\/p>\n
Yes, embedding is the point.\u00c2\u00a0 When EMI disabled this feature, forced everyone to watch OK Go’s videos on YouTube, viewings of the famous (pre-embedding embargo) treadmill video dropped from 10,000 to 1,000 a day.<\/p>\n
Whew.<\/p>\n
The Internet and the cacophony of information has turned the promotion of art upside down.\u00c2\u00a0 It used to be about getting tastemaker filters like radio and television to approve of your product, whereupon it got exposed to the public and got a good shot at sticking and becoming financially viable.\u00c2\u00a0 Now, it’s the reverse.\u00c2\u00a0 No one outlet provides all the eyeballs, few provide many, and your main goal is to get attention. You want nothing to stand in the way.\u00c2\u00a0 In other words, if people don’t know about you, they can’t like you, they can’t buy your music or come to your show, it’s like you don’t even exist.<\/p>\n
They used to say no act ever broke on the Internet.\u00c2\u00a0 That no longer seems true.\u00c2\u00a0 We can dissect everyone from Jonathan Coulton to Justin Bieber to Ingrid Michaelson to even Lily Allen, making note of where labels\/handlers manipulated the system for acts that truly were not independent, but there’s no denying that an online groundswell contributes more and more to the breaking of acts today.\u00c2\u00a0 Even if you get a bit of traction in the traditional media, it’s the Net that spreads the word.\u00c2\u00a0 We ultimately listen to our friends most, whether real life or Net-only. We’re immune to advertising, to hype.\u00c2\u00a0 We pay attention to the links of those we know.\u00c2\u00a0 This is how we get turned on to stuff.<\/p>\n
So you don’t want to short circuit the process.<\/p>\n
Save me the hate mail.\u00c2\u00a0 Wherein you protest that the walls should be rebuilt and it’s just not fair.\u00c2\u00a0 Did Smith-Corona complain that the Apple II was unfair?<\/p>\n
Damian Kulash says a band needs money to make it.\u00c2\u00a0 Ingrid Michaelson would argue with that, but the question is, does that money have to come from a traditional record label, one of the Big Four?<\/p>\n
Think about it.\u00c2\u00a0 Do you really want to sign with EMI?\u00c2\u00a0 Which is struggling for its very existence?<\/p>\n
The fight in the sixties was for artistic freedom.\u00c2\u00a0 Ironically, that seems to take a back seat to marketing freedom today.\u00c2\u00a0 Possibly you’ll listen to the label tell you what to record, the companies regained this power in the eighties and nineties, unfortunately, but you don’t want your hands tied behind your back when it comes to selling your music.\u00c2\u00a0 Because now, more than ever, you’re selling your music yourself, even if you’ve got a major label deal.\u00c2\u00a0 There are fewer people working at the label than ever before.\u00c2\u00a0 And they tend to be in traditional areas.\u00c2\u00a0 Great if you can get on the radio.\u00c2\u00a0 As for the new media department, that’s usually one person…your friends from college can do a better job for free than this employee who may not even be a geek.\u00c2\u00a0 You’re responsible for the buzz, for getting traction.\u00c2\u00a0 At best, the label seems to be able to build upon your efforts, crossing you over to the mainstream after you’ve done the hard work.<\/p>\n
But the hard work is done by the band.\u00c2\u00a0 And its management.\u00c2\u00a0 And possibly the agent.<\/p>\n
Which is why, unless you’re a pretty face working with a name producer, major labels only want you if you’ve got a track record.\u00c2\u00a0 But after doing all that work, why should you sign over control to these doofuses?\u00c2\u00a0 Who specialize in saying no as opposed to yes?<\/p>\n
And believe me, yes is what you want.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s as simple as, "Will you listen to my music?"<\/p>\n
You’d be surprised how often the answer is no.<\/p>\n
Getting to yes is hard.\u00c2\u00a0 Damian Kulash found a way.\u00c2\u00a0 Through sheer creativity.\u00c2\u00a0 You don’t see this creativity at a major label.<\/p>\n
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WhoseTube? I hate the way he bends over backwards to give EMI props, but you should read this for the statistic embedded deep within. Yes, embedding is the point.\u00c2\u00a0 When EMI disabled this feature, forced everyone to watch OK Go’s videos on YouTube, viewings of the famous (pre-embedding embargo) treadmill video dropped from 10,000 to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-Hx","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2699"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2699\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2701,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2699\/revisions\/2701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}