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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)."
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?
You can at least download it on google video.
thisnukes4u.net
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?
True true...I realized that right as I hit the submit button. :-/
This guy's the limit!
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.
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.
If you download the Google videa file (*.gvi) and rename to an .avi, most players will play it.
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
that link is not only flash but to the wrong video. It is just the music with the penut butter and jelly banana dancing to it.
here is the correct link
Google video does let you download the video. You might be able to play one of the formats.
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
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.
that link is not only flash but to the wrong video. It is just the music with the penut butter and jelly banana dancing to it.
You mean that the banana isn't Weird Al? I thought I read somewhere that he recently had cosmetic surgery to look more like a banana.
Avoid Missing Ball for High Score
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.
In the very beginning, is that the Gentoo logo behind Al
on the floor of the stage (outlined in red lights)?
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 love a world where you can say "the peanut butter jelly banana" and everyone knows what you're talking about.
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?
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).
Get a User Agent changer for your browser, set it to something weird (that google won't recognize), and visit the Google Video page again. You'll notice that the download link now sends you an AVI instead.
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
I went back to that site to copy and paste those lyrics and came across the next verse, which I couldn't resist but also paste in. Sorry, Fridays and all that... but seriously, how come this guy's site hasn't been slashdotted?
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
I use a javascript bookmarklet
d link')!=null){window.location.href=document.getEle mentById('macdownloadlink')};
javascript:if(document.getElementById('macdownloa
That'll do the trick.
It pops up a "save this link as" window
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
I don't (live in South America). What are you talking about?
T ime
Is it something related to this? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peanut_Butter_Jelly_
There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.
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.
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"
Get a User Agent changer for your browser...
Isn't that a somewhat nerdy thing to do?
The intro is a little lame, the video starts about 53 seconds.
1q2w3e4r5t6y7u8i9o0pqawsedrftgthyjukilo;p'azsxdcf
I don't know. I sat there watching this banana dance on the screen, knowing that someone posted it falsely and I couldn't help but laugh. I don't know if I was laughing at the fact that someone created the video, the fact that someone was watching it (wait, I was watching it), or the fact that he posted the wrong link and it somehow made it funnier.
Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.
yes.
So you see what had happened was....
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.
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.
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.
It's all nice and good that google.com is hosting that video... but their version is the "Peanut Butter Jelly Time" banana dancing during the whole video, as of 4:45 Central time 22 Sep 2006 :)
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!)
oh god, now I really feel stupid
thisnukes4u.net
I bet he's white too! Off to the Segway!!
You are all a bunch of idots.
Double true.
Read Heinlein's 1953 Revolt in 2100, now more than ever.
Segway? That's so old!
Get a MP3 instead!One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
I just use FLVSplitter and open them in any DirectShow capable player/editor. WMP or MPC work.
Usually I run them through an AviSynth DirectShowSource() script and then open them in VirtualDub, where I can apply filters, edit, and/or reencode.
The GVI files that you download are just AVIs with a different extension.
The GVP files are just text files that you can open to get a link to the AVI/GVI.
The files are actually OpenDivX encoded.
I don't see why. Think about it this way. You brought a smile to the faces of many...or at least one.
Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.
The internet is free - free to crap on your sundae.
RTFM; please, I beg you.
... for a white nerd.
shin phantomflanflinger
That is the best twist!