Ok Go and Embeddable Video: “This Too Shall Pass”

OK Go released a new album this week, as well as a new video for their song “This Too Shall Pass.”  They’ve also written an open letter to the world describing their struggles with embeddable video. OK Go made their name by posting the homemade music video for their catchy tune “Here It Goes Again” on YouTube, and are saddened by the efforts their record company, EMI, has made to keep their videos from being sharable on YouTube.  From the post:

In the meantime, the only thing OK Go can do is to upload our videos to sites that allow for embedding, like MySpace and Vimeo. We do that already, but it stings a little. Not only does it cannibalize our own numbers (it tends to do our business more good to get 40 million hits on one site than 1 million hits on 40 sites), but, as you can imagine, we feel a lot of allegiance to the fine people at YouTube. They’ve been good to us, and what they want is what we want: lots of people to see our videos. When push comes to shove, however, we like our fans more.

Forget about embeddable video and internet commerce.  I was not expecting the intense rush of marching band nostalgia that “This Too Shall Pass” gave me.  I began to watch, thinking, “Oh cute, they borrowed some uniforms and field drums,” but, well… things unfolded from there.  I’d talk about them, but it would give away the fun!

Not all people who did marching band are geeks. And not all geeks did marching band, but if you ever loved marching band, and all the funny tricks you can do with a uniformed group of musicians, watch “This Too Shall Pass.”

Via Neatorama.