OK Go video goes viral thanks to embedding

Last week we were bemoaning the fact that record company EMI had disabled embedding of its music videos outside of YouTube, a measure that directly affected bands that rely in viral fan distribution and embedding for their dissemination, namely band OK Go.

The band’s new video is called This Too Shall Pass, and was released on Monday 1st March. Given the outcry caused by the band’s New York Times op-ed piece complaining about the problem, EMI has relented and has allowed embedding back, but just for this video. This Too Shall Pass is viral video gold, this should go nuclear, it is the type of setup that makes it perfect YouTube watching, and has all of the ingredients of a big hit; at the time of writing it has been viewed 895,900 (not bad for a 3-day run).

So, let this be a lesson for everyone out there thinking of closing content down. Sharing is good. Sharing produces more hits. Sharing = WIN.

By the way, I will not even entertain the notion that the whole embedding ban was a clever marketing ploy. I am a cynic, but I am not paranoid. Nobody knows that the Internet hates censorship stories, and nobody has noticed that maximalist copyright enforcement gets tweeted and blogged by people just like me, so there is no chance that anyone would believe that it is actually quite easy to spread one’s brand that way. I mean, there is not even the slimmest possibility that there are people out there trying to build viral campaigns by using copyfight issues. No, I refuse to even consider the thought. It is ridiculous to imagine that anyone could possibly think that getting large number of traffic from big profile sites catering to the very same audience you are trying to reach would be in any way productive.

Is there a word for the nagging feeling in the back of your head that implies you have just been used?

Update: 1,926,894 views in just over 3 days and counting. Viral indeed.

Update 2: 2,543,835 in 4 days and counting.