

OK Go Leaves EMI, Starts Their Own Record Label - inmygarage
http://laughingsquid.com/ok-go-leaves-emi-starts-their-own-record-label/

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megaduck
It sounds like the reason is that the label was getting between the band and
their fans.

There's probably a financial component too, but that's not being emphasized.
OK Go seems to think that the most critical thing for their continued survival
is the tight relationship between them and their fanbase. Anything that
jeopardizes that needs to go away. There's some good lessons there for us web
startups.

Good luck to them. Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead seem to be doing quite well
on their own, and hopefully a smaller player like OK Go can make it work as
well.

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chrisbolt
Nine Inch Nails, Radiohead, OK Go, they all already have established fanbases
because they signed with a major label. We still have a long way to go until
an artist can establish a significant fanbase without the help of a label.

~~~
ricree
I agree with you in the case of NiN and Radiohead. But while OK Go did have
one single that charted via traditional means, their last two big successes
came in large part due to the popularity of online videos.

The videos for "A Million Ways" and "Here it Goes Again" were fairly low
budget affairs that were likely within the range of an independent band.

While I'm sure that the label did provide some help, it seems to me that their
breakout success was largely achieved in ways that can be duplicated by a
talented unsigned group.

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njl
Their letter from January explaining why their record label won't let them
embed videos is a fascinating explanation of exactly how overwhelming the sea
change swamping the music industry is.

<http://okgo.forumsunlimited.com/index.php?showtopic=4169>

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Alex3917
I just heard an interview with Damien on NPR. He's actually a really smart
guy, although it doesn't really come across in the submitter's video.

[http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1245329...](http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124532979)

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uuilly
I went to the same HS as Damien and knew him through sculpture class. Very
smart, very funny and quite a gifted artist. He was also nice to me as a
freshman when he was a senior. Most people were surprised when he broke out in
the music industry b/c we thought he was going to be a painter or a sculptor.
Then we saw the videos and said, "oh, yeah, that makes sense."

~~~
jamesbressi
And you can add to that a source of inspiration. Ironically, I saw this post
on HN after just submitting an "Ask HN" which came to me while watching a live
performance of OK GO! on YouTube.
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1183847>

The lot of them are such a great business case study by the way. The way they
created their "brand", their marketing prowess and their ability to
continually, continually, continually be so masterful in the art of word-of-
mouth and virality.

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tel
The announcement from the band's website:

<http://www.okgo.net/2010/03/10/onwards-and-upwards/>

