OK Go have been OK Let Go by Capitol Records after Capitol Records (insanely) wouldn’t let youtube stream their video thereby singlehandedly killing the goose, etc.
OK Go are overjoyed but should they be.
It’s been my experience that the more people tell you something, the less likely it is to be precisely accurate.
With that in mind, our helen bach wrote a post earlier today about how much cheaper it is to break a band on my space then by using the majors and a reader named Maurice Frobisher responded in the comments section.
It is a very interesting take on the question of the usefulness of the majors and since the majority of the world don’t check the comments I am going to repost here:
Maurice Frobisher said…
One of the so called internet sensations (Sandi Thom) has sank back into relative obscurity after being dropped by Sony after two albums. Without a huge promotional budget or angle to keep the public interested her sales dived and while she has the advantage of being a “Known artist” she has re-joined the many artists who now rely on social networking and touring small venues with low entry price to sustain her career, Not so different to where she was before being supposedly “Discovered”
Maurice Frobisher said…
The major label, in this case Sony/RCA took advantage of the promotional campaign that Thom and her mamagement undertook in conjuction with a PR company they hired after the failure of her first single, The internet success was in fact a well planned campaign and not the suprise discovery that was touted at the time.
The major label then ran their own big promotional campaign based on these storys, spending large amounts on press/tv advertising thus ensuring a hit for Thom, when further music was released it did not sell in any where near the numbers of her hit single and Thom faded from the charts very quickly and in fact nothing she has released since that first RCA single has even entered the top 20, her last released single did not even reach the top 100. The major label in her case(although this may not apply to all artists) with their huge promotional clout was what sold Sandi Thom and without them she would not have have had the success she did back in 2006