Music, Promotion, and the Power of Video
I’d never seen them live, let alone heard their music, but on countless occasions, saw the free promo CDs sitting amongst the piles at nearly every local music spot in Chicago. I picked up a copy or two at some point or another and perhaps listened to a few seconds of each song, but quickly dismissed them as nothing of interest. At the time, I didn’t really give them a chance because it wasn’t what I was into (perhaps it was closed-minded of me, but as a working DJ in several nightclubs around the city, I didn’t have the time or patience to listen to music that didn’t fit my musical agenda on the dancefloor). However, a little more than nine years later, I can honestly say that I’m a huge fan of theirs, and it’s a result from a different kind of promotional tool, their viral videos.
With almost 100 million video views on their YouTube channel, over half of those coming from 2006’s “Here It Goes Again”, this method of promotion has proven to be more effective (and likely less costly) as opposed to their 2001 promo CD-giveaway effort. Just last week they received over 1 million views in under 24 hours for their latest effort, “White Knuckles,” solidly placing them at the forefront of musicians using viral video to gain exposure and earn mainstream success.
Viral video is not only being used as a promotional tool, but also as a tool in musical creation and performance. The perfect example of this is the case of the Gregory Brothers, aka Schmoyoho aka Autotune The News. As a band, they’d been writing and performing long before the conception of Autotune the News. But it wasn’t until Autotune The News, that a larger audience was exposed to the unique quartet stylings of Michael, Andrew, Evan, and Sarah Gregory. Their following on YouTube has grown to over half a million subscribers, who then became the primary fan-base for their music, so when the “Bed Intruder Song” dropped, this community of loyal fans and followers across the Internet came together to help propel it into pop charts on iTunes and onto the Billboard Hot 100. The original video currently has over 27 million views on YouTube in less than 2 months time.
While the Gregory Brothers’ music utilizes original songs with remixed audio and video to create new songs and videos, the instrumentals often seem campy and quickly thrown together, almost sounding like a self-mockery in that they want us to believe that their music is all in the spirit of fun and goofiness (while they’re actually making serious statements on the true comedy of politics). However, there are some lesser-known, equally-exceptional musicians who’ve been using video for a while to create entire albums and perform live in front of thousands of people. Two such artists are Israeli-born Kutiman, and San Francisco’s DJ Mike Relm.
Kutiman is easily one of the most talented producers/remixers making music and videos today. Click play on the video below and you will begin to understand why.
His 2009 music video project, ThruYOU, was created by remixing online videos from dozens of instrumentalists into original audio and video compositions. As a musician myself, seeing it for the first time was an emotional experience, that someone could be so innovative, not only musically, but visually as well. The project was viewed over 1 million times in the first week, and has lead to this recent audio/video remix collaboration with Maroon 5.
Another viral video success story is that of DJ Mike Relm, who’s live shows use a mash-up of classic original productions, remixes, films and videos to create a one-of-a-kind audio and visual experience. Check out this performance from YouTube’s 2008 Live event.
Mike Relm’s innovative and captivating live shows have lead to a series of awesome tour opportunities and collaborations and music festival performances, as is documented in this hour-long video of Mike Relm’s Clown Alley, filmed in 2007-2008, featuring his groundbreaking video turntablist performance from his tour with Blue Man Group, as well as Coachella and Winter X-Games via radiofriedfilms.
By observing how these four artists, each in their own unique way have harnessed the power of online video to create innovative new art-forms and communication channels for increased exposure, we can only guess who the next great innovator will be or what their music will sound like. So, my friends, musicians and video creators of the Spidvid community, will you be next? Post up your music video project and get started on the next big success story today!
