by: John Caddell
No, she wasn't caught partying with Paris Hilton or Lindsay Lohan. She wasn't arrested or sent to rehab.
As described in a front-page article in today's Wall Street Journal (link - $$), musician Marie Digby made simple videos of herself singing cover songs, posted them on YouTube, got millions of views, and parlayed that into gigs on the Carson Daly show, local LA radio, and general buzz as a true YouTube discovery.
Oops.
Like any such situation, the coverup is far worse than the initial offense. So she was signed to a major label. So what? She made the videos herself, posted them herself. People found the videos themselves, played them, recommended them, etc. The YouTube buzz was legitimate.
So what didn't she do right? She didn't list her affiliation with a major label on her MySpace page. Not so bad, given that she hadn't yet released an album.
Worse was the way she tried to erase the Hollywood Records connection. Here's are examples from the Journal article:
When Los Angeles adult-contemporary station KYSR-FM, which calls itself "Star 98.7," interviewed Ms. Digby in July, she and the disc jockey discussed her surprising success. "We kind of found her on YouTube," the DJ, known as Valentine, said. Playing the lucky nobody, Ms. Digby said: "I'm usually the listener calling in, you know, just hoping that I'm going to be the one to get that last ticket to the Star Lounge with [pop star] John Mayer!"
and
Ms. Digby gave a backstage interview that was posted online by NBC. "I just did this YouTube video two months ago and never, ever imagined that it would actually get me on TV or radio or anything like that," she said. "I just did it in my living room and it blew up first on YouTube and then I guess it got to Star 98.7 and then Carson Daly found me so that's why I'm here."
Now it's not just Marie Digby. I'm certain the marketing folks at Hollywood, and her manager, were deeply involved in preparing her for the appearances, including rehearsing what she would say.
And the radio hosts and Carson Daly could easily have pointed out that Hollywood Records saw the same things in Marie that the viewers saw, and that she's recorded an album to be released soon. But instead they played along with the "YouTube discovery" story and in so doing share part of the blame.
As best I can figure, Hollywood Records either fell in love with the story, even if it wasn't completely true, or they were concerned that people finding out about their connection would be a buzz kill. In either case, they got in their own way.
So, a plea: media companies (really, all marketers), learn from your mistakes. Stop trying to manipulate audiences! It doesn't work anymore! Use YouTube and all these new outlets to allow people to discover new artists, but for God's sake have enough confidence and integrity to stand up and reveal that you've also made that discovery.
Then show them where to buy the songs.
(And now to demonstrate that there's no such thing as bad publicity, here's Marie Digby's most popular video. It's pretty good.)
Original Post: http://shoptalkmarketing.blogspot.com/2007/09/whats-wrong-with-what-marie-digby-did.html
My real name is Bill Hallahan, I just didn't want to take the time to sign up.
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) article was wrong about Marié Digby. To anyone who followed her videos, it's obvious that Marié Digby has always been herself.
The article stated:
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"Ms. Digby's MySpace and YouTube pages don't mention Hollywood Records. Until last week, a box marked "Type of Label" on her MySpace Music page said, "None."
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However, she had joined MySpace in 2004, roughly 2 years before she was signed, and she merely didn't bother to update a setting, and she'd probably forgotten that setting even existed. I signed up for a MySpace music page, and it could even be missed when first signing up. And, since months after she recorded her CD, there was no indication it was ever going to be released, I wouldn't expect that it would even cross her mind to change her status to signed, even if she was still aware of that setting. Note, her CD didn't come out until approximately 2 years after she was signed, and approximately 4 years after she joined MySpace.
The article went on to state:
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"After inquiries from The Wall Street Journal, the entry was changed to "Major," though the label still is not named."
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Makes sense to me. There is no point in naming a record label when there is no indication they are going to release your CD. And, given that, who she was signed with has just as little relevance as that she was signed. (Note, the CD, titled "Unfold" finally came out on April 8, 2008. Buy it, it's wonderful).
The Wall Street Journal article also contained:
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'Most of Ms. Digby's new fans seem pleased to believe that they discovered an underground sensation.
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In fact, the vast majority of the posts were about her music, and not about "discovering" her. For most of us viewers, a huge number of people had already seen her videos when we found her, which were posted long before the WSJ article, so we could hardly claim to have 'discovered her.'
The term "feigning amateur status", used in the WSJ article is completely ridiculous. Marié Digby posted music videos, and expressed enthusiasm, and hope. She was largely unknown outside of Los Angeles.
Marié Digby has posted that a Wall Street reporter talked to Marié Digby for about an hour, but they never asked the questions that would have cleared this up. Instead, they took one response, which merely meant that her signed status wasn't relevant to her goals (and frankly, would have seemed ridiculous in the videos), as meaning she was hiding it.
There were radio station interviews, before the WSJ article, where she mentioned being signed. If she were hiding it, she would have hid it there too.
I gather Marié Digby's family is rather well off. She never mentioned that in her videos either. I wouldn’t say she was, "feigning middle class status," but I'm sure some people would! Sad!