Smart Marketing: OK Go

The other day Bob Lefsetz had a posting called, "The OK Go Fracas." I said to myself, "what is the Ok Go fracas?" I knew OK Go had a new album out because I listened to it last week on Rhapsody. And I'll be honest, on first listen, I didn't love it. But OK Go has always been more than just songs, they've been a very visual band. I'm assuming most everyone who reads this blog knows who these guys are and remembers the video where they were on treadmills.

The fracas that Bob speaks about is the fact that OK Go's record label Capitol / EMI prevents YouTube from allowing videos from bands on their label group to be embeddable. The band's Damian Kulash wrote a letter on their website to the fans explaining the situation.

This week we released a new album, and it’s our best yet. We also released a new video – the second for this record – for a song called This Too Shall Pass, and you can watch it here. We hope you'll like it and comment on it and pass the link along to your friends and do that wonderful thing that that you do when you’re fond of something, share it. We want you to stick it on your web page, post it on your wall, and embed it everywhere you can think of.

Unfortunately, as of now you can’t embed diddlycrap. And depending on where you are in the world, you might not even be able to watch it.

We’ve been flooded with complaints recently because our YouTube videos can't be embedded on websites, and in certain countries can't be seen at all. And we want you to know: we hear you, and we’re sorry. We wish there was something we could do. Believe us, we want you to pass our videos around more than you do, but, crazy as it may seem, it’s now far harder for bands to make videos accessible online than it was four years ago.

It's a very well written letter and something all aspiring musicians should see. Not a week goes by where I don't get at least one letter from a musician asking for my help to get them signed to a record label. I always ask them why they want to get signed and why they don't do it themselves. And they always explain to me that they need the marketing machine that a record label provides. Well, if you are one of those aspiring musicians that still believes that, read Damian's letter. I don't know that it will discourage you, but at least it will give you some added insight into the inner workings of the record business.

For everyone else, I highly recommend you watch the band's new video for "This Too Shall Pass." It is a fantastic video. In fact, since I saw it on Tuesday, I've told a dozen people to watch it. And it also made me fire back up the Rhapsody to listen to the new album again. And I like it a lot more. Somehow that great visual made the music better. Something that very few bands or musicians have ever been able to do, but these guys do it consistently.