Educating EMI (and others): Pass It On

NPR's All Songs blog has a great post up about OK Go's new video which they fought with their record label over around the issue of whether or not to allow the You Tube version of the video to be embedded. As All Songs reports, OK Go's lead singer Damien Kulash took to the NY Times to make his case, writing:

"In these tight times, it's no surprise that EMI is trying to wring revenue out of everything we make, including our videos. But it needs to recognize the basic mechanics of the Internet. Curbing the viral spread of videos isn't benefiting the company's bottom line, or the music it's there to support. The sooner record companies realize this, the better -- though I fear it may already be too late."

Amen--and when I saw this on All Song's Twitter feed I was just going to retweet it and be done, since really, All Songs really covered the story. But then I thought a bit more about it. Given all the discussion around Google take-downs of music blogs, and the increasing move toward a splinter-net, I thought, anyone who tries to promote music via blogs, social media and the web in general really ought to support OK Go's basic position, which is to let the Internets do their job.

So here is the fabulous new Rube Goldberg inspired OK Go video and I am asking any blogger or person with a Facebook page or Twitter or Buzz account who wants to promote music to also embed this video so we might teach EMI and any other label that there is value in what we do here on these crazy linkable viral pages.

In addition to all of that, this is a fabuluous video for getting kids interested in physics, engineering, etc. (says the father who showed it to his boys, once, twice, three times--no really you need to go to bed now). And for the real curious, as All Songs notes, you can get links to the "Musicians and Nerds" series of videos about the making of this video over at Monkey See.

Now, embed it and viralize it people!