TheDIYMethod.com : News

There's been a lot of talk about DIY releasing over the last few years but no-one has championed it more than this man, known to us here as Mr Futuristic. As futuristic in nature as he is in name, he has highlighted many areas where a low budget campaign can benefit from not only exposure but also profit.

Now he is turning his ideas into reality and in just 2 short weeks has made quite a dent with his video, 'The Power Of Love' by 'Project Sunday Featuring Sesha' becoming the 19th most viewed Australian music video on YouTube.

The artist, song, production and video are all exquisite and our intrepid pioneer says on the YouTube page, '...let me know what you think and I will tell you how it was made...'. We're certainly interested to know not only about the making of both song and video but also the details of the 'futuristic' marketing campaign behind it.

Watch this space.

There's been a lot of talk about internet hits turning a profit, just how difficult is this for the DIY'er?

Let's look at what we know so far. 2005 'OK Go' released a ten dollar budget video of 'A Million Ways'. The video was a 'long take' format and featured the band performing a choreographed dance routine to the song. The video become a viral internet hit and with over 9 million views became the most viewed internet music video ever.

Then mid 2006 they release another video, this time to a song entitled 'Here It Goes Again' which featured the band doing a choreographed dance but this time on treadmills (nice idea!). It's reported that within 6 days of it being on YouTube it had been viewed over 1 million times. A month later that figure was over 27 million, a true internet hit.

But how does this translate into sales? Obviously these video's are being watched for free, the only people making money are YouTube (now owned by Google) on the advertising. 'Here It Goes Again' reached the chart position of #11, not bad. But how do those sales relate to the viewing figures of the video? Not too well I'm afraid. 27 million purchases would get you a whole lot higher than #11! Another thing to keep in mind about 'OK Go' is this ; they are signed to Capitol Records. Does it sound like the record label were able to monetise on the videos success? No, not to me either.

OK, the latest in internet hits, Kelly and Shoes. Directed by Liam Kyle Sullivan who also does a fantastic job of playing Kelly, this video has been viewed a reported 40 million times. I'm not sure where these figures have emerged from, it could be combined hits from various video sites but what we do know is that it's currently at 11.5 million views on YouTube.

Pretty impressive. Now the really impressive thing. According to reports this single has sold 300,000 on ITunes, now this really IS impressive. As far as I'm aware there is no corporate push behind this song/video, it's, as I understand it essentially a DIY project although it must be said that's it's had help. It's reported that Comedian Margaret Cho picked up on it and I'm now hearing that Sullivan is starring in a popular VH1 series 'I Hate My 30's', but it could be argued that this has happened as a result of the video's success. Another factor that may be important is that Shoes was mashed with the Britney Spears song 'Gimme More' to produce 'Gimme More Shoes' and Sullivan also created a mashed video to accompany it.

So what's the verdict?

Well it appears it CAN be done. A viral internet phenomenon can be monetised and this could be very significant for all of us in the industry, more importantly for us, the DIY'er. What we need to do now is discuss it further, get the facts, produce a plan. Please visit the forum to get involved in the debate.

As you probably well know from the press/news etc. the music industry is changing rapidly. The major labels are losing their grip and thanks to new chart rules and cheaper production costs, the industry has become more available than ever.

Hooray! So everything's great?
Erm, well not quite..
Eh?
Read on...

On the 1st January 2007 the U.K. Music Chart rules changed allowing digital only release sales to be counted toward the chart. In theory, 2007 should have seen the charts revolutionised and a whole host of DIY and Indie acts dominating, but in reality, it didn't really happen. One of the reasons is that the majors still have a tight grip on the media plus huge budgets and so are able to reach the general public on a far wider scale than any Indie or DIY venture.

But, as I mentioned before, the majors are losing their grip. So far they've been unable to tackle the problems that a digital world has created and this has meant a drop in sales and respect. The old industry model is now defunct and a new one needs to be created. In a search for a new model and ultimately taking control of the situation itself, bands such as Radiohead have branched out and tried something new but even with bold steps such as these, it is still unclear of how to sell music and become a success in this day and age.

This is why we felt the need for TheDIYMethod.com, together lets take the bull by the horns, work together as a team, discuss new methods, try new systems, learn from combined experience, successes and mistakes. Lets create this new model, for the entire world to use. Let’s start the global digital music industry age right here. The gates to the industry are wide open, lets take advantage of this opportunity. The time is now.