EMI Gets State Farm To Sponsor Embedding Ok Go Video — But Should You Need A Sponsor To Embed?

from the ok-stop dept

We were just writing — yet again — about EMI’s short-sighted decision to block all embedding of Ok Go’s videos (even ones that the band produced entirely on their own). This is despite the fact that it was the widespread embedding of the famed treadmill video that helped Ok Go become as well known as it has — earning EMI a lot of money. Now comes the news of a “resolution” to the issue, as EMI will allow an Ok Go video to be embedded thanks to an as-yet-unexplained “sponsorship” by State Farm. While this shows, in some way, how different business models can step in and help pay for content, it worries me that EMI now seems to think a video needs to be directly sponsored to allow for embedding. Does EMI truly not understand that embedding is what helped Ok Go become so well known? There’s no reason why they couldn’t have allowed the regular embedding to remain and still have done a sponsor deal on top of it.

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Companies: emi, state farm

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Comments on “EMI Gets State Farm To Sponsor Embedding Ok Go Video — But Should You Need A Sponsor To Embed?”

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18 Comments
Hephaestus (profile) says:

Re: Re:

“Wow, that’s not stupid at all.”

You are perfectly correct … After spending $10,000 USD on Lawyers fees, $5,000 on payroll, and $2,500 on airfare and hotels, $10,000 on prostitutes and cocaine, that by far exceeds the $5,400 dollars they made so far on the youTube downloads and the $500 dollars they are going to make on the sponsorship. (sarc)

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re:4 Re:

Point is that at some point the candy was not free. There was a cost to make the candy, candy does not come from thin air. Yes, candy can be used as a promotional item but the folks that are making the candy are not giving it away. Other folks may purchase it and give it away but that does not mean that folks who make candy should start giving it away.

Nick Taylor (user link) says:

Memetic Inhibitors

It’s extremely stupid – it’s completely missing the fact that they (the band and the company) are in the business of making money off the back of memes.

Placing an inhibitor on the propagation of the meme is massively counter-productive.

Record companies used to shell out hundreds of thousands in payola (illegally) to radio stations – now there are armies of fans willing to take up this function for free… and EMI is trying to stop them.

Really, this company does not deserve to be in business. The culture would be better served if it broke up into a series of indies run by less out of touch people.

PaulT (profile) says:

Let me guess… since State Farm is a North America-only company, the embedded video will only serve around 400 million potential customers instead of the full 6 billion. It’s hard to have a truly viral video when 5 continents worth of people are completely prevented from viewing it, thus killing much of its potential to act as advertising for the band.

Alternatively, if it is available internationally, there’s a lot of money State Farm are paying to advertise their products to people who can’t possibly use them…

Maybe at some point these idiots will learn how the internet works. It’s a start, I suppose, but no less ridiculous than not allowing embedding at all.

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