Many zotons ago, OK Go debuted the video “Here it Goes Again” on You Tube. The video was them doing synchronized dancing on treadmills. It was awesome and the Internet agreed. Fan response involved many, many You Tube embeds to personal sites and the like. This built up momentum, which built up hype, which garnered OK Go rave reviews and much free advertising.

Four years later, the suits have stepped in. It seems EMI and You Tube don’t get paid for how many times a video is embedded. They only acknowledge visits to the main site(You Tube). The specifics on why they can’t monetize a fan’s embed remain hazed in the clouds of legal wrangling and mind-blinding deals made behind desks full of faceless executives.

What EMI and company fail to understand is how Internet works. It’s through this type of sharing that acts or idiots gain popularity. It’s through this popularity that money can be made. While they remain steadfast in the old systems of management, OK Go understands the new road. They even did an Op Ed Piece in The New York Times about the troubles of marketing in this Internet age. (Excerpt below)

As the age of viral video dawned, “Here It Goes Again” was viewed millions, then tens of millions of times. It brought big crowds to our concerts on five continents, and by the time we returned to the studio, 700 shows, one Grammy and nearly three years later, EMI’s ledger had a black number in our column. To the band, “Here It Goes Again” was a successful creative project. To the record company, it was a successful, completely free advertisement.

Now we’ve released a new album and a couple of new videos. But the fans and bloggers who helped spread “Here It Goes Again” across the Internet can no longer do what they did before, because our record company has blocked them from embedding our video on their sites. Believe it or not, in the four years since our treadmill dance got such attention, YouTube and EMI have actually made it harder to share our videos.

Their new video “This Too Shall Pass” has been unable to build the same traction as “Here it Goes Again” because of their label’s restrictions. Obviously we would have posted it eons ago for it was awesome. Not as mind blowing, frenetic as dancing on treadmills but more of a liquid state of awesome. Later today, OK Go will release a new State Farm insurance sponsored and, we’re guessing, fully embeddable version of “This Too Shall Pass” which will be featured on the band’s website 6:00 PM CST and in this post as soon as we’re able to access it.

Update begin: The sound has rendered. The video is here. We’ve rethought our position on the first video(involving the marching band) and the new video(involving the Rube Goldberg device). The Rube Goldberg device defeats all previous and future music videos of “This Too Shall Pass”

Update end.

For now you can watch the You Tube embeddable ‘Making of’ videos below.
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