Three months ago very few people had heard of singer Maria Digby. YouTube changed all that. Those who believe that social media is changing how business is conducted, hailed her meteoric rise --2 million views to her YouTube cover of Rihanna's Umbrella- as proof that social media sites like YouTube are transforming the music industry and that talented people don't need a record label to be successful.
Thing is,when Maria Digby posted this song to YouTube she was under contract with a Disney owned record label--a fact she decided to omit from her profile. In a story it calls Download This: YouTube Phenom has a Big Secret, the WSJ reports,
What her legions of fans don't realize, however, is that Ms. Digby's career demonstrates something else: that traditional media conglomerates are going to new lengths to take advantage of the Internet's ability to generate word-of-mouth buzz.
As it turns out it was the record label's idea to post the songs to YouTube. It was the record label that gave her the computer, etc. etc. etc. Is it wrong for the record companies to try to reach audiences via YouTube?
Of course not. Would YouTubers like Ms. Digby any less if she had checked the box that she was under contract with Hollywood Records? That would be the interesting test.
It would tell us a lot about cultural shifts in attitude and whether today's loyal YouTubers will support corporately supported talent. My hunch is that Ms. Digby would still be a YouTube phenom. Because it is the medium that catapulted her career not the fact that she had a contract with Disney.
In the early days of the internet I worked with several technical types that were absolutely appalled that those of us in marketing saw the marketing opportunities that the internet could possibly offer. They argued that the internet was not for commercial purpose that it's "elegance" was that its growth was organic.
Corporate America would be idiots if they didn't use YouTube to reach their audiences. That's where the audience is---at least in some target groups.
Another generation believed for years that Lana Turner was discovered at the lunch counter at Schwab's - a a drug store in Hollywood. That was only a publicist's story created by "the studio." Disney's mistake in the Maria Digby episdode was in trying to pull off a Lana Turner in an era where people want to believe in overnight success but still have the means to do some fact checking.It's not nice to fool YouTubers.
Church of the Customer Blog is not so sure that Ms. Digby will be able to withstand the backlash.
Young singer-songwriter Marie Digby is, after all, a real person but launching a promising career (or product, or company) with such careless consideration for authenticity demonstrates remarkably poor judgment about the nature of word of mouth. Update: Buzz built on trust dissipates because disappointed or even angry buzz can be toxic. There's plenty of the latter spreading hours after the Journal's story appeared. A few of the comments now on Digby's YouTube profile page:
* "It was a lousy thing to do to her true fans."
* "Thanks for selling us out to the corporate machine and lying about who you actually are."
* "The very *reason* so many of us liked her was *because* we thought she wasn't a fabrication of corporate marketers."
* "Building your career on a lie, instead of trusting your own talents and abilities enough to let them do the talking, it won't pay, not in the long run."
Meanwhile, Ms.Digby is fighing back saying the WSJ misconstrued what she said.
"I think today will be the first ever blog that I write ... as i'm furious. fuming. angry beyond words.
Thank god for blogs because I can say whatever the F.. i want to .
So basically, I got a call recently that some shmuck from the Wall Street Journal wanted to do an article about me. He interviewed some people at my label and then asked to talk to me on the phone. I talked to this guy for an hour, told him every detail of my journey so far in music...
"Here's Lesson 1 for me in Media - The writer will use whatever quote he wants of yours to make it fit his 'angle'. This loser was desperate for a good story... he knew what he wanted to write before he ever even talked to me.
The guy's angle is this : that I am a complete phony and fake and a pawn of my record label in some brilliant marketing scheme.
IS this guy completely insane. You think it's that easy? That you get signed and suddenly everything's taken care of for you!!!??
DO you think that my record label came to my house, my bathroom! and told me what songs to sing and told me that in a matter of weeks i'd be some 'youtube ' phenom??!?!
Wake up - I am GRATEFUL to be signed but you know what, Labels don't come to your house, hold your hand, and direct youtube videos for you .
All that is true but Disney knows better. What Disney did was unethical. What Disney did was think that making up a Lana Turner story would somehow work in 2007. It did--for a nano second. That is the real power of word of mouth marketing.
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