There's a very good chance that you are one of the seven million people who have already watched OK Go get busy on the treadmills courtesy of YouTube.
It stands to reason, because the geeky Chicago/Washington DC pop act's video for Here It Goes Again, which features the four OK GO-ers dancing on treadmills, is the viral hit of the season.
It's something of a repeat dose too. A year ago, a similar buzz occurred with OK Go's A Million Ways flick, a promo which also featured the band engaged in off-kilter, cheesy choreography and which was downloaded or viewed online over nine million times. When it comes to creating video hits, OK Go know the right buttons to push.
It's safe to say that the vast majority of the millions who've watched OK Go traipsing around on treadmills had never heard of the band before. Many will, of course, just giggle and move onto the next YouTube sensation, but there are many others who will want to hear more from the band and check out albums, live shows or other tracks on iTunes.
That's the viral marketing theory, anyway. A YouTube hit does not directly influence OK Go's CD or ticket sales, but it can spread the word about the band and lead to more interest in them, provided their music is as up to scratch as their videos. It's an example of how everyone involved can benefit from the Web 2.0 experience.
However, recent pronouncements by record industry execs would indicate that not everyone is on the same page when it comes to user-generated websites such as YouTube and MySpace. Last week, Universal Music's Doug Morris came out all guns blazing against these sites.
"We believe these new businesses are copyright infringers and owe us tens of millions of dollars", snarled the chief bottle-washer at the world's biggest music company during a briefing to investors. At much the same time as big, bad Doug was laying down the law about these dastardly sites, the fourth biggest music company in the world, Warner Music, were preparing to jump into bed with YouTube. Last Sunday, a commercial partnership was inked between the two which means music videos from Warner acts, such as Madonna, Green Day, James Blunt and Red Hot Chili Peppers, will be legally available on YouTube. Instead of users doing the uploading, the music company will do the necessary techie bits and pieces.
Warner Music hopes to make cash from the deal by splitting advertising revenue around the videos with YouTube. If this sounds a little familiar to you, it's not unlike how the record industry intends to benefit from having SpiralFrog give away its music for free. One of the first record companies to get with the Frog and its ridiculous notions? You're too quick this morning - Universal Music.
It seems that the record industry's right hand hasn't got the foggiest notion what the left hand is doing. As Morris stomps and shouts about getting his 40 acres and a mule from savvy sites who've exploited both the industry's legendary technological inertia and the general public's burning desire to hear pop music, his peers are beating each other off with a big stick in the queue to get some YouTube and MySpace love.
While Morris compared what was happening to MTV ("they built a multi-billion-dollar company on our music for virtually nothing"), the real precedent to consider is Napster.
Back in the late 1990s, the record industry went on the legal rampage against Shawn Fanning's file-sharing network, claiming that the service was causing "serious and irreparable harm" to the industry. However, one music company, BMG, saw the writing on the wall and negotiated a subscription service deal with Napster. Six years on, despite the "serious and irreparable harm" which Napster is supposed to have caused, the record industry is still around and is still making the same mistakes all over again. Trying to close down YouTube is only going to create a hundred copycats.
The best thing for Doug and friends to do is to get on the treadmills like OK Go and start dancing.
