what we could learn from the music industry right now

The dude from Ok Go (who did that awesome crazy rube goldberg video) has a really interesting piece in the Wall Street Journal -- a lot of what he says coincides with what we here at H2M industries talk about a lot, though the field we're in is different from the music industry in that it never had a version of the big recording studios -- unless you count film. That's a whole different topic though.

Some choice quotes:

"Music is getting harder to define again. It's becoming more of an experience and less of an object. Without records as clearly delineated receptacles of value, last century's rules—both industrial and creative—are out the window."

"The unsigned and unmanaged Los Angeles band Killola toured last summer and offered deluxe USB packages that included full albums, live recordings and access to two future private online concerts for $40 per piece.... What Killola is learning is that making a living in music isn't just about selling studio recordings anymore. It's about selling the whole package: themselves."

And then at the bottom of the article they talk about some other bands:

"A clever music-video concept can be a band's best marketing tool, and savvy acts apply their creativity to their videos as well as their albums. For its song "We Used to Wait," the indie-rock band Arcade Fire collaborated with Google Web developers to create an online video that incorporated customized maps of the viewer's hometown into a dreamscape that spilled across multiple browser windows."

Including JONATHAN'S FAVORITE: the band from those annoying hyundai commercials!

"Pomplamoose, a San Francisco guy-girl duo, has a repertoire of its own endearingly warm pop songs and videos, but it was their homespun versions of hits by Beyoncé, Lady Gaga and Michael Jackson that raked in millions of views on YouTube. Then the group broke into the mainstream with another set of covers: performing holiday tunes such as "Deck the Halls" in TV ads for Hyundai"