Bender Helper Impact

While MP3s changed the music industry by giving audiences access to smaller acts around the world, musicians now struggle with the medium that quickly turned thoughtful, emotional and often expensive recordings into a free product. As artists face today’s challenges of exciting interest across multiple platforms, many have also found success by propelling their PR and marketing machines using Web video to promote their work and make an honest living.

In a Jan. 2 op-ed for The New York Times, Bono writes that "a decade's worth of music file-sharing and swiping has made clear that the people it hurts are the creators – in this case, the young, fledgling songwriters who can't live off ticket and T-shirt sales like the least sympathetic among us."  He goes on to blame Internet service providers for their abuses against the music business, but neglects to mention that artists, even those without record label representation, can seize the medium with a computer, a camera, advertising savvy and publicity support.

As a musician, indie-label-enthusiast and PR professional, I often question which platform would work best to meet my immediate needs without giving it all away.  What has become clear to me, however, is that music videos, streaming performances and smart placements across the Web allow artists to promote their talents while remaining sincere, avoiding the dreaded "sell-out" label, and even make enough to pay the rent.  While artists test new video, MP3 and streaming sites that launch almost daily, the platform-agnostic approach that many are adopting requires a product that pops.

Meme-jacking was the major video trend of 2008.  Big artists embraced viral video and re-appropriated already-successful memes as part of their work.  Rihanna and T.I. took on "numa numa," Weezer enlisted the entire Web for their "Pork and Beans" video and Mariah Carey's "Touch My Body" was destined to be a viral hit with a nerdy plot, Mimi at her most diva-licious and "30-Rock's" Jack McBrayer hamming it up in his signature Kenneth the page fashion.

In 2009, we saw a remarkable use of Ustream by Gonzales where he broke the record for the world's longest music concert by playing the piano for 27 hours live from a theater in Paris.  Mashable called the performance "a win for the Web and its social broadcasting tools," though the big winner was Gonzales who shared his talents with the world via Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, etc.

John Mayer made an augmented reality music video, Diplo and Lil Jon invited fans into the studio via video stream and DIY band Owl City ranked 16th in top digital sales due to a successful music video that was later featured on MySpace and iTunes.  This successful use of video placed a little-known act from Minnesota at the top, among mainstream concept albums, deceased legends and movie soundtracks.

Sony and Universal Music Group's YouTube-powered music video platform, Vevo, launched in an attempt to save the music industry and Hulu is closing deals with still-standing labels for its own music video collection. 

In these first few weeks of 2010, Lady Gaga’s spectacularly unpredictable creativity got her a gig as the “new face” of Polaroid and my own client, Scion, launched a music video series, Scion A/V Video, to help indie labels, artists and directors harness the power of Web video.

With a camera, a vision and a solid PR campaign (large or small), musicians can use Web video to expand their creativity and profitability far beyond 129 kbps.

[Follow Maria: @oonceoonce]