Being on a treadmill

OK Go have a couple of awesome videos (the treadmills one and A Million Ways) on YouTube, which have exploded, amassing over 27M hits and countless parodies, a stop-animation lego version, and a bunch of school talent show versions.

Their album came out last year and got panned on tastemaker site Pitchfork (2.2 out of 10 pts).

I'd like to say it's a triumph of good content and viral marketing over the critics. But it's not that clear cut, as discussed in this article on artistdirect.com and this one on Kings of A&R. Sales have increased but it hasn't been a breakout.

The moral? Great buzz isn't de facto great sales, even in Web 2.0.

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