Is Modest Mouse Missing The Boat?

My favorite track on the new Modest Mouse record is called Missed The Boat.

It's a great song which you'll enjoy if you just hit that play button. And it turns out it's the next single on the record (first one being Dashboard). The other blogging Jackson (conveniently named Jackson West) points out in NewTeeVee that Modest Mouse is letting it's fans make the video to this song.

Here's a link to the contest page in case you are interested.

Jackson West isn't so sure he likes this trend. He says:

I’ve been looking at some of these user-generated content contests with a more critical eye of late. The attention economy is all well and good, but Epic and Apple are into the economy economy — you know, the one with cash money exchanged for goods and services.

Who owns the rights to your finished piece? Epic presumably owns the original source footage, and you own any additional content created and then composited in. So does that mean that you’re entitled to a cut every time someone downloads the video from the iTunes Music Store? What about sales of Modest Mouse retrospective DVDs that might include the video?

Turker, a reader who wrote to me about that post, said to me:

It seems there is never going to be an end to user generated content contests but what is disturbing to me is that I feel like companies who are actually making money are taking advantage of the buzz around user generated content and try to monetize attention economy by giving back very little to the user.

I don't feel that way at all. I'd love to make that video (it's not going to happen because I've got a few other things to do right now). And I'd love it if my video was selected. I wouldn't want any compensation. I'd be sharing my love for Modest Mouse and the song Missed The Boat with the world and that would be just fine with me. I suspect that the vast majority of the people who participate in this contest feel the same way.

Jackson West ends his post with the following observation:

So, exciting foray into mashup culture and media democratization, or way to get both advertising and publicity for free?

I’m leaning towards the latter.

Well yes, these user generated contests are a great way to get content and publicity for free. But in a world where a lot of Modest Mouse fans are getting their music for free as well, I am not sure that's such a bad thing.

The Internet takes a lot of revenue out of the system but it also takes a lot of costs out of the system too. I think Modest Mouse should be applauded for this one. And for their new record which is fantastic.

Comments

[Dave!]

I think it's fantastic... if it weren't the end of the semester and a terribly busy time for me, I would *definitely* go for it... I don't think they are Missing the Boat at all.

And for an old skool Smiths fan, the addition of Johnny Marr is both weird and incredibly cool.

[Dave!]

I think it's fantastic... if it weren't the end of the semester and a terribly busy time for me, I would *definitely* go for it... I don't think they are Missing the Boat at all.

And for an old skool Smiths fan, the addition of Johnny Marr is both weird and incredibly cool.

[Fred]

Why not stipulate that the the user generated content is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike when submitted? Then the label / business gets the advertising and publicity for free, but the user knows that their rights of attribution will be preserved, and that their work will always be available for free. The license is readable by humans, lawyers, and machines, that way everyone is on the same page from the beginning.

This is already happening in many other user-generated contests.

[Wayninho]

Great song. This one or Florida are probably my favs right now.

This album has really grown on me. I guess I'd say that for most MM albums.

[jackson]

I'm confused. It seems to me that the majors should be doing alright, I mean that it must cost a lot less to make records these days, specially if you save a week by not having a drummer.

[Ethan Bauley]

Umair has a great research note on the "peer value of money" (as he calls it).

Clearly peeps are not in the "media biz" for money. This makes perfect sense to me, as I see the "media biz" as an extension of "art," which is purely about communication and expression.

Bubblegen sez: YouTube v. Revver. Case in point. If a lot of people cared about making money from their own content, Revver would have crushed YouTube.

Clearly CCommons is the solution. They need to start doing more outreach to the majors.

[Grand Egress]

Jackson West and Turker are wildly out of their minds. The artists (yes, and their business managers) agree to let the public into the process... and they get criticzed for abusing a privelege?

You can't have it both ways: you can't be in favor of "user generated content" but stipulate that's so only if the "users" are somehow "employees" (paid).

Jeez louise take one more little step and these critics arguments rapidly reduce to absurdity -- to a point where artists and inventors are begrudged for exerting any control over their inventions and art, and resented for making any money at all from same.

So what if the artists (and yes, their business managers) get "free" publicity and marketing and buzz? So f---ing what?

[jim]

we're doing a green screen contest for Modest Mouse's "Fire It Up" over at stereogum: http://www.stereogum.com/modestmouse

The name? "Another Freakin' Green Screen Contest! (Starring Modest Mouse)". The fans know it's like any other contest backed by a corporation...a trade of free publicity (where "free" = the cost of prizes) for the chance to win something you want, and to have some fun with something you love. We (er, Amazon's S3, god bless 'em) have already served up an unbelievable amount of raw footage for this, so it's not like people are getting tired of this, or are put off by the fact that Modest Mouse's label is not doing this out of some sense of investing in the public weal. Fun is fun.

[ks]

I'm thinking about entering this new contest to create Modest Mouse's next video. Anyone else heard about it? Or thinking of entering? Sounds pretty sweet and would be crazy fun. Here is the link:
http://bestfilmoncampus.com/contests/modestmouse/