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January 20, 2010
OK Go Admit They're In Slavery
Posted by Alan Wexelblat
In response to
my piece on OK Go's latest video fail on YouTube, and petulant-sounding follow-up letter, commenter "mike" directed me to a long
open letter posted by the band on their forums.
In the letter, OK Go admit that they don't control their videos on YouTube, EMI does. Even though the band makes its own vids, EMI is fronting them money for the production and taking ownership of the result. As a result of EMI's deal with YouTube, EMI doesn't get paid if you embed a YouTube vid, so EMI turns that off. Because we all know how important those fractions of a penny are to this quarter's bottom line...
To the band's credit, they seem to understand quite well the position that everyone is in, including themselves, the labels, and the fans. There aren't any magic solutions here - as Copyfight has been arguing for years, we need new and better business models that keep creative people fed and productive. If big record labels happen to die along the way we won't be shedding any tears. Nor, it seems, will OK Go, who provide the embed code on their blog page for the Vimeo version of their video, and these words of wisdom:
EMI won't let us let you embed our YouTube videos. It's a decision that bums us out. We've argued with them a lot about it, but we also understand why they're doing it. They’re aware that their rules make it harder for people to watch and share our videos, but, while our duty is to our music and our fans, theirs is to their shareholders, and they believe they’re doing the right thing.
Comments (6)
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1. bklynsteamer on January 20, 2010 4:22 PM writes...
Does EMI know that if it weren't for tons of people forwarding the "Here It Goes Again" clip on Youtube... OK Go probably wouldn't have the following it does now?
Permalink to Comment2. Frank Ch. Eigler on January 20, 2010 4:33 PM writes...
The kind of "slavery" in effect here is rather of a different nature from the real sort practiced at other times/places. Is overuse of the term as a metaphor for "retrospectively inconvenient voluntary business arrangement" really helpful?
Permalink to Comment3. DrWex on January 21, 2010 10:57 AM writes...
bklyn: Yes, EMI know. But "tons of people forwarding" isn't something that shows up on a quarterly profit/loss statement. The building of a band's long-term reputation and the way that contributes to profits is much harder to measure.
Frank: You're right. Slavery is a real problem and I shouldn't use the word so flippantly. I'll leave it in place for this entry but try to be more careful in the future.
Permalink to Comment4. T. D. on January 21, 2010 2:24 PM writes...
What's shocking is that OK Go's attorney didn't get this negotiated into the deal. It is something that anyone could have seen coming - everyone knows how EMI operates and they should have insisted on a specific carve out to permit embeds.
Of course EMI has to own the AV masters, but if I were representing the band, embeds would have been made a deal breaker. With as popular as the band became pre-deal, they had the luxury to shop around.
Permalink to Comment5. Frank Ch. Eigler on January 22, 2010 10:23 AM writes...
Thanks, Alan, class act.
Permalink to Comment6. justin on January 24, 2010 10:37 PM writes...
TD: They signed their deal in 2000 or 2001, well before anything like this could have been incorporated into any deals. They're in the same boat as everyone else.
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