Slashdot Mirror
Weird Al Premiere Cancelled Due to Net Leak
SilentChris writes "In what's probably a first, AOL cancelled the 'World Premiere' of Weird Al's newest video 'White and Nerdy' due to it being leaked on the internet. Al writes on his MySpace page: 'Apparently, the video has already leaked online, and AOL doesn't feel comfortable doing a World Premiere promotion for a video that a number of people have seen already ... Anyway, it's really a bummer... it would have been great promotion for the album... but hey, life goes on.' As for the video? Arguably Al's best work (but I'm a little biased)."
And for those of us who can't use flash for whatever reason, here is the google video link.
thisnukes4u.net
A video... leaked onto the net... before it was supposed to come out? That sure is weird.
I've already seen it anyway, who cares about the premier!
[/not trolling]
Isn't that the best premiere a "Nerdy" video can get? Being "leaked" to YouTube, featured on Slashdot?
Posting a direct link to a video on /.'s frontpage.
:)
Al, I think that's damn close to a world premiere right there, and a better class of audience than AOL.
-Styopa
There's a great Wikipedia article on the video containing some of the little things you may have missed.
I love his work and I think this is unfortunate for a man who is all about his fans, and his gold cadillacs. He should be able to enjoy atleast the unvailing party with all those hot chicks all over him. and I know someone is going to say this is because people are downloading illegaly and rant about how slashdotters who download things are killing the artists. But either way he is getting advertising out of this. I dont believe this will hurt his sales at all since his fans are willing to pay for his work and will pay to be able to see him in concert.
I often have trouble remembering which way is out of bed in the morning.
> AOL doesn't feel comfortable doing a World Premiere promotion for a video that a number of people have seen already
Surely every world premiere of absolutely everything has already been seen by tens to hundreds of people?
Welcome to slashdot.
Weird Al is going to get *far* more promotion via YouTube "leak" and the accompanying promotion. The only one losing in this is AOL, who might have nabbed a few clickthroughs for Classmates.com. Sure, Big Al has to come out and sort of say "wow, that's too bad" but the reality is that he's gonna reap the benefits of not only a free-for-all distribution, but also the publicity surrounding "those darn pirates."
Buck up, Al. You're richer than the rest of us, going to get even richer, and we find you funny despite it all.
"Anyway, it's really a bummer... it would have been great promotion for the album"
I'm sure that getting Slashdotted will more than make up for it.
Sigs are for Terrorists.
Ummm...that is precisely WHY this is news. RTFA or even the summary, any you'll see that the story is not the leak itself, but that the premier was canceled because of the leak. In fact, this story wouldn't work unless most knew the video had been leaked, for then AOL would have no reason to cancel.
Underling: (excited) Hey boss, you know that Weird Al video we're gonna promo? It's been leaked all over the net. There's a lot of buzz! I think it's gonna be a big hit.
.. but .. it's so popular .. we could make a lot of ...
Boss: (annoyed) You mean hackers stole one of our products?
U: Well, not exactly, I mean, everybody's talking about it, this is a great opportunity for promotion. I had this idea for instance, we could let people make their OWN parodies of Weird Al's video and put them up on YouTube with a special tag, then we could give a prize to the best--
B: (more annoyed) What the fuck is U-Tube? A brand of glue? Cancel the premiere of Queer Al's video, that's the only way to show those pirates who's boss.
U: You mean "Weird Al"
B: Hey kid, this is AOL, you think we got this far by being idiots? Now get out of my office.
U: (dejected) yes sir.
This video is great, I couldn't hardly hear the song because I was laughing so hard.
Like premiere where? MTV doesn't play music videos anymore.
Oh you mean... Premiere on AOL's page?
Well... I think that is a blessing considering had it not bene canceled and not been on Slashdot and Youtube that many of us would have never seen it.
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
Who's yanking whose chain here?
Schwab
P.S: Yes, it's an excellent video.
Editor, A1-AAA AmeriCaptions
How about somebody post the lyrics for a deaf geek y'all?
Cwm, fjord-bank glyphs vext quiz
No, the video didn't remind me of Lazy Sunday at all. Not one bit.
But Mr. Pibb and Red Vines are crazy delicious.
Microsoft is to software what Budweiser is to beer.
Hilarious, his best work since his spoof of "Smells Like Teen Spirit." ...but call me an old fart with no awareness of current music, especially hip-hop -- I have no idea what song this is based on.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled."--Feynman
I already knew this. The premier was cancelled on the 18th. It's currently the 22nd. I knew about this days ago, as did many others.
Fill in your four or five-letter word of wisdom here _ _ _ _ _.
Apparently, the video has already leaked online, and AOL doesn't feel comfortable doing a "World Premiere" promotion for a video that a number of people have seen already. (I can understand songs leaking, but a video? How'd THAT happen?)
Anyway, it's really a bummer... it would have been great promotion for the album... but hey, life goes on.
And having tens of thousands of people watching the video isn't great promotion for the album? In this YouTube age, why do we need 'premieres'? You see the video, you either think it rocks or sucks, and it does its job. Why does it matter if AOL premiered it or not? I bet more people would see it if it hit the YouTube front page than if AOL tried pushing it. This is the 21st century, don't get so stuck to the 'old' ways.
proof, that "pirates" are actually good for business.
... are presented as "cool stuff to do" (well collecting action figures also, but you cant win them all).
They should have made a "world premiere" so they could have pretended it's their "marketing work" that generated money for WA, so he might just leak all his video to youtube and completely forget about the major.
On an aside note, it is nice to see for once, even if it is on a humorous way that the "nerd" is the hero.
And that hawkins, etc
Cheers
That's a little shortsighted. Surely the amount of promotion AOL could lend to this video would include more viewers than those who would learn about the video through word-of-mouth? AOL could promote this to a broader scope of users, and to arguably a different demographic. AOL is also losing out on being associated with Weird Al, which is better than being associated with... just a crappy portal? Oh well.
Twinstiq, game news
how was this leaked?? It's been around for days on Weird Al's MySpace page, not to mention it was posted earlier this week on Jason Calacanis' (Mr. AOL/Netscape) blog:
http://www.calacanis.com/2006/09/18/wow/
I am a bit sad that just listing all these cliches about, well, us is funny.
Could somebody do this about gay or black people and get away with it?
The myspace page if nobody has mentioned it yet:
http://www.myspace.com/whiteandnerdy
What do you mean "would have"? I saw the leaked video and it was hilarious!
How many of you spotted Donny Osmond in it, or perhaps Seth Green?
No matter where you go... there you are.
Everyone chip in, let's buy that hoody he's wearing and mail it to k-fed.
stuff |
I'm a Wierd Al fan. Few who hold their geek cred near and dear to them can claim not to be. But I have no idea of this "premier" or anything else involving a new video (like you could see videos on a channel on cable? na.. never.. not now a days).
On the other hand, I catch it on Slashdot and i'm there. And loved it, I cried laughing and got bad looks from people in other cubes until they saw it.. at which point we all geek bonded.
Probably did better for him to have it leaked than played on AoL.
I'm a fiscal conservative, it's a pity we don't have a political party anymore
And I'm glad Weird Al isn't taking it too hard (or at least, he isn't showing it) -- it's a fantastic piece of work, and if it's popular it's because it's that good and chimes with a pretty wide audience.
It worked, weid al's site is /.ed it doesn' respond anymore :-)
:-)
I doubt very much an AOL launch would have had the same effect.
Cheers to AL(L)
(of course making a nerdy guy a friend of Gates is pure slander, but well we should let it pass for this time
I can't see why AOL would pull the premiere, except so that they (AOL Time-Warner, remember?) can later claim that Internet piracy is causing them problems.
http://outcampaign.org/
In the very beginning, is that the Gentoo logo behind Al
on the floor of the stage (outlined in red lights)?
I'm a big weird Al fan!
You can download on YouTube too, if you know how.
Support Right To Repair Legislation.
AOL refusing to release the video because of a leak will only get a video that may not have had a whole ton of news coverage instantaneous exposure on every news network in the nation. Mainly because of the "pirating" aspect of the story and how hot anything concerning pirating, stealing intellectual property, rootkits, DRMs and the RIAA tends to be.
Weird Al is a bright guy and I wouldn't put it past him to use the media's "chicken little syndrome" against them and get his video worldwide promotion for free. His video will still do quite well and he'll still sell albums. The guy can do no wrong and everything he releases meets some level of success. Weird Al is a talented guy who deserves to profit from his talent but even when it seems he can't, he's smart enough to know how to make it a profitable experience anyway.
I whole heartedly agree that is defantely his best work although "All About The Pentiums" is a very close second. I want one of those White N Nerdy Hoodies. I could pimp it in my hood and pick up all the B!tches ridin in my pimped out Prius!
WTF?
I hate hip-hop, R&B and most rap music ... and this incredibly annoying local hip-hop radio station put "Ridin'" in such hot rotation, even *I* had heard it dozens of times, unwillingly.
... if you hate so much then wtf you tuned into the local Hip-Hop radio station and be listen to the whack beats all friggin day?
... I jus make it real. Know what I'm sayin?
... dare it tis.... Freaked the fuck OUT!
... Only a candy ass put up wid dat all day.
Dude!
I don't like cRap music either and nobody (NOBODY) in my space has the ballz to risk the blunt force trauma that would result from any violation of my work friendly code of conduct.
Ya see I keep a three foot crowbar behind the filing cabinet and if anybody tunes into the wrong radio station I'll quietly, politely and professionally ask them to turn it off and when they don't comply.... out comes the crowbar and WHAM WHAM WHAM!!! Then I drag that fucking bitch box out to the graveyard I got setup behind the dumpster.
So yea... anytime one of mah homies wanna git their freak on
Yup
"Now git back to work while you still gotta job."
As for you Homes
Seriously AOL, you have the world premier, this is the reason Weird Al doesn't mind piracy because the people making it a huge issue is the people who control the music. Weird Al wants people to buy his cds and get money to him. AOL wants the "world Exclusive" so they look special.
When is the RIAA and businesses working with them going to grow up. It's not like there wasn't bootlegs of exclusive material before the internet, it's not like there's going to stop bootlegs even if it's never placed on the internet. All they are doing is acting like the spoiled child who was about to get a toy, his friend got one first so when he gets the toy he smashes it because he doesn't want it any more. The problem for that kid is the only person he hurts by doing that is himself, his friend will continue to have the toy, other people might notice from the kids temper tantrum, but in the end his friend will keep playing with his.
The solution to something like this is to do a world exclusive when you get it, not 30 days after the fact or trying to drag it out as long as you can for promotion, you promote it BEFORE the video is finished and once it's done you show it off.
It's just a shame that piracy is blamed for something like this when it's really AOL's fault. Piracy didn't stop AOL from showing it. It's still a "world exclusive" just because some people saw it first. Didn't the execs and people behind the scenes of AOL see it before airing it? (Otherwise it might be a porno that someone accidently mislabeled).
youtube + google video + slashdot + all sorts of news and blog coverage is so much better to reach a larger audience than AOL. I don't think I've ever gone to AOL to watch a video. In fact I don't think I've visited AOL for anything in years. 450,000+ views on Youtube alone and counting..
Them that gots always seem to want more and more and more, which is probably how they got a lot in the first place and can't call it quits. My sister is the same way. She ownes a huge house filled with tons of stuff, but whenever she comes over you virtually have to nail stuff down to keep her making off with it. I would hardly lament not being carried by AOL.
I imagine that's a huge amount of bandwidth both Myspace and Youtube pay for to shoot his media out across the wire at no charge to him. Lots of little guys would love that kind of exposure for just one day just to get away from ground zero unknown.
einstein
http://rootpassword.com/
I just remembered that a "doom and gloom" mood also hit Democrats in the 1970s and lasted through most of the 1980s. Then the fear was World War III with the USSR started by that "cowboy" Ronald Reagan. (Remember that allegedly scientific 'nuclear winter' hysteria.) Now the cowboy is Bush and, unable to manufacture anything fearful from the now-imprisoned Saddam, they point to the skies and predict "doom and gloom" like some aboroginal tribe seeing an eclipse of the sun for the first time.
Someone should treat the Democratic party for a bipolar, manic-depressive disorder and find a way to give them a sense of humor again. This isn't the party of FDR and "Happy Days Are Here Again." It's the party of McCarthy-like scare-and-smear tactics. "Bushitler," Zionist manipulations, 9/11 conspiracies.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that this could be the first ever music video that features the Schrodinger equation.
Weird Al has genuine class.
Nothing sucks like a Vax, nothing blows like a PowerMac G4
How many Weird Al Yankovic albums do you own?
[ ] none
[ ] I downloaded a few songs
[ ] 1-3
[ ] 4-6
[ ] more than 6
[ ] all of them, and I could explain all the jokes in "White and Nerdy" and "All About the Pentiums"
I can't be the only one here who would have to check the last option...
0 1 - just my two bits
It only goes on from there...
JUMP JUMP JUMP JUMP JUMP JUMP JUMP JUMP IRRIGATE
So ThatDamnMurphyGuy,
Let me see if I understand you,
Because AOL is being it's regular asshat self, YOU in your infinite wisdom are going to punish Weird Al??
You're even stupider than W!
I intend to buy the album as soon as I see it. Thanks Al, Great stuff.
BTW, I never would have seen it on AOL. I might have bought it someday anyway. Probably.
Hear me out. (Because I know nobody *ever* goes for conspiracy theories on slashdot. That was irony.)
I like Weird Al. In fact his stuff is usually better than the pop crap he parodies. I bet that he is genuinely bummed about the way this has panned out. He plays the part well of the "little guy" as you said.
However--what if AOL was banking on this? What if this was a ploy intended to garner support for their aging business models? It's easier to keep the status quo than to develop new business models, that's easily understood. There is financial motive (the best kind of motive really) for AOL & every other media company to retain the value in their library and to extend the marketing program for a given property out as far as they possibly can to get the most sales.
So. I am not saying anything was intentionally leaked by management. Far from it, that is probably beyond their skills. What I am saying is that the contingency plan, let's call it "The Pity Ploy", was made well in advance of this premier date. They figured that if it got leaked, which they knew was likely, they might be able to manipulate common opinion by taking advantage of Weird Al's "little guy" status.
It makes a good story and AOL (and Weird Al!) gets free publicity.
Fans should know this.
"Hmm. I am to metaphor cheese as metaphor cheese is to transitive verb crackers!"
Not to disappoint you, but despite what certain federal, state and local governments believe, the US is not the Internet, or vice versa. The whole "Peanut Butter Jelly Banana" thing is more of an Internet phenomenon than an American one. From personal experience, there are plenty of people from places outside the US that know exactly what we're talking about!
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
It looks like we need a "Weird Al"-category judging by how often articles about him appear on Slashdot.
...And having tens of thousands of people watching the video isn't great promotion for the album?...
Having tens of thousands of people watch a video: Great promotion.
Having millions of people watch a video: Even greater promotion.
The fact is there are still a lot of people using AOL and a leak like this does hurt Al to some extent - but having it posted on Slashdot will probably make up most of the lost viewership.
I have to agree with him though, who the heck leaked the video anyway? It seems to me like someone at AOL may be to blame here.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Yes, this video was leaked... By Al himself. I get all the notifications from his website and just this week I was sent the link promo'ing his new video "White & Nerdy" (Loved it!). If I had access to my personal email from work I'd post it here.
--AD
Funny..
All the networks have no problem doing a "world premiere of this 5 year old movie on ".
I think they are trying to make a point and being pissy.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
Though this was pretty good. Not bad for an amateur vid.
1q2w3e4r5t6y7u8i9o0pqawsedrftgthyjukilo;p'azsxdcf
Too many people here are talking about what a good thing it is that Al got screwed over. It's a case of selective vision. Yay... we here at /. got to see it, so leaking was a good way to promote Al. Sorry, it doesn't work that way.
/. might be, we're still small potatoes compared to the world at large. Premiers like the one that got hosed are a good way for Al to get his work in front of people who AREN'T already his fans. So yes, it probably DID hurt his sales. Quit trying to pretend that screwing someone else over, particularly a guy who truly doesn't deserve it, is a good thing because you can work some twisted mental gymnastics to justify it.
If you're a card carrying geek, and if you're here you probably are, you need no introduction to Weird Al. Odds are you've known about him for ages, and are already likely to check out his stuff as soon as you hear about something new of his.
As mighty as
Not only is the video/song pretty good, even with this "leak" he's still getting great coverage, or as some have pointed out, even better coverage. Case in point, if the premier had gone off without a hitch most of us wouldn't have even heard about it.
"On a scale from 1 to 10, people are stupid"
http://javimoya.com/blog/youtube_en.php
The web URL may be misleading by being written as "youtube_en.php", but you can change the source bias to any of perhaps 30 different proprietary media accessories, including YouTube and GoogleVideo. The media format to download is nothing more than what the author pre-programmed to detect what is available on that website. Most Google Videos I download are available in WMV, MPEG4, and FLV. It seems some I've downloaded only let me use the default FLV. From what I've downloaded on YouTube, I have yet to find a format other than FLV for some reason.
Of'course, once the file is complete it can be converted to a more needful format than FLV by using Transcode with a good front-end or perhaps MediaCoder.
Anyone have anything better?
without prejudice
The leak would have drawn more people, as it was great advertising.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
The thing premered Tuesday at 12:01 eastern on AOL music: I watched it! Al himself said that is when it would premere on Mondays Bob And Tom show: I am listening to the MP3 of the show right now...
Al's myspace page Three recently released songs and two video available here
Wikipedia
I have no idea why AOL would back out of hosting Al's video, since he is one of the most successful artists I know. He has been releasing albums for over two decades. He has 3 Grammy's, 3 Gold Albums, and 6 Platinum albums in the US.
He also has a fan base so loyal that tens of thousands will gather just to honor him with a collective chicken dance.
He still gets the recognition now of having news stories out there about the cancelled premier. People will go to Youtube and watch it. More fans will see it because lets face it. . . an AOL Video Premier? I for one would not go to AOL to get a video, even if it was something I really really wanted to see. But I'll go to Youtube and watch it. The video is not of any REAL quality, so I still have to buy the CD and later the DVD to get the video and the music I want. And I respect him, so I intended to buy it in the first place. Unfortunately, I had forgotten about it since the last slashdot article, but this reminded. So I think it's more publicity for him, and now another CD sale for him, because I have written it on my hand in sharpie so I don't forget.
If I'd known there was going to be some huge, important "World Premier" on AOL...well, let's be honest. I would have watched the video on YouTube anyway. I just don't care. Sorry, dude. I'm all for you making money doing what you do best, but WHERE I watched a video for the first time isn't going to change your bottom line. Be glad I SAW it at all!
I mean, really...what kind of idiot sneers in the face of free publicity? It cost you LITERALLY nothing to have your video uploaded to YouTube. Zip. Zero, nada.
Get over it.
BTW - I like it. A lot. Keep it up.
Well, this "leak" may not have been the best thing for Al ... but ... after watching the video and showing it to my wife, we're going to buy the CD -- we both thought that it was really well done, and he's won our support.
1) Post new Weird Al video on YouTube 2) ???? 3) Profit!! Except they actually have a #2 here!! The cancellation of the premiere will likely generate more headlines and more attention (and subsequent searches for the video on YouTube itself) than the actual premiere of the video on AOL itself would have. Or perhaps I'm giving the marketing folks at the label waaaay to much credit here?
The problem with parodying rap is that rap is already a parody of real music. It's like parodying Dr. Suess, just get a rhyming dictionary. Sorry, whatever song this originally was and the Weird Al parody both suck.
Everything you know is wrong, Just forget the words and sing along.
#1 All about the pentiums ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEi0eQB-NtY )
#2 Fat ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFMvBH1edtU )
#3 Eat It ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNUX1qwo02g )
#4 Amish Paradise ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsfVw9xxoNY )
People say my sig is the best thing about me.
Wake up man. The interenet is the cheapest and easier distribution method the world has ever seen. The need for companies such as AOL is rapidly disappearing. Do you think that in 10 years or so anyone or any group will need some big label to distribute for them?? With places like YouTube, and the wonders of P2P someone could advertise and distribute more music and video than they could ever hope to come up with. IMHO AOL shot themselves in the foot with this stunt because they are just showing that they are like a 5 year old child pouting that they didn't get their way so they are going to do anything they can to make a problem. The thing that really stumps me is what AOL thinks they will achieve with this. Do they honestly think that it will stop people from prereleasing content?? Hell no, if anything it'll now become a benchmark for any number of things. There's my 2 bits to nibble on ~Permawired
I would think that the leak and recent press about the leak would bring much more attention to the video than the AOL premiere would have, particularly from people who aren't already Weird Al fans. In fact, I like Weird Al and I had no idea this premiere was happening, but I did see the video on YouTube the other day and now I'm looking forward to his new album (which I also didn't know about). Is the issue that AOL planned to pay Weird Al based on some calculated viewership number? If it's just publicity then someone needs to sit down and do the math before saying this ruined anything. Frankly, if I could get the Weird Al CD by mailing him a check for $10 I'd do so in a heartbeat. AOL and whoever else can jump off a short pier.
Well, it certainly does. Enter d_jedi's exhibit number 10243*.
*number made up.
I am the maverick of Slashdot
Exactly right. This is the new reality. Regardless of who thinks its good and who thinks its bad, the reality is that technology has changed the amount of control people can have over what, when, how, and by whom information gets distributed. Passing more laws and suing people can maybe hold back the tide for a little while, but it is impractical to prevent this sort of thing, since it can take as little as a single person with access to the material and a willingness to distribute it to put it on line and then its too late to unpublish.
Regardless of whether its right or wrong, fair or unfair, it seems like this is the way that things are going to work, and everybody is going to have to get used to it. Businesses are going to have to adjust their business models, and publicists and advertisers are going to have to change their tactics. Those that can figure out a way to work with and benefit from the new reality will do well. Those that complain about how it is unfair will die out. Right or wrong, that is the way the world works.
After having seen the video, I think I have a use for that HMV gift card I have lying around somehwere, assuming the CD is not/will not be DRM crippled.
There's no such thing as Scotchtoberfest!
I heard from Weird Al that if you DO want to buy his music, you should do it from a real store with physical CDs rather then from an online digital licenser.
(This is not meant to invalidate your point!)
Double true.
Read Heinlein's 1953 Revolt in 2100, now more than ever.
This is the correct video.
Only on slashdot...
heres the real video
word.
The internet is free - free to crap on your sundae.
RTFM; please, I beg you.
... for a white nerd.
shin phantomflanflinger
Making jokes about your skin being so white that it reflects into space are perhaps not much fun to hear but at least you were not denied a job, housing, medical care or anything else because of it.
BUT you are simply wrong as well. You claim the video makes fun of stereotypes of white nerdy guys. Well yes it does. But what about black people? Apparently from the video they are ALL gangsters and dealers. Also no black nerds. So white people are nerdy, blacks are thugs. Wich is the bigger insult?
"...As for the video [CC]? Arguably Al's best work (but I'm a little biased)."
So, you hate the rest of his work, or what?
That is the best twist!