December 2010 Archives

We absolutely became fans because of their videos. If you've not seen them dance on treadmills, their Rube Goldberg machine, or wrangle choreographed dogs you are missing creativity in pursuit of amazing fun.

Fast forward 10 months to the Saturday after Thanksgiving and we went to LA to see OK GO perform their homecoming show at the tail end of their Fall tour. We loved it! So I started digging deeper to understand how they're making their business model as an independent band without a record label work. As I learned more about how they are using their millions of You Tube views to secure corporate sponsorship to make more videos and stage festival events I understood that they are showing the way for artists of all types to monetize their creativity with new technology.

I even planned to write about all I was understanding about their new business model. Good thing I waited a few weeks because the lead singer, Damian Kulash, has done it for me in today's Wall Street Journal. They titled his article The New Rock Star Paradigm. 

I'd extend the conceit to say we're looking at another facet of the new artist paradigm.