QUEENSRYCHE HAVE A FIRM GRASP OF THE ART OF ALBUM PROMOTION

Wanna see Queensryche’s new video, for the song “Get Started?” Well, unless you own their new album, you’re shit outta luck.

You see, in an apparent effort to prove to the world that they don’t understand the purpose of a music video, Queensryche are requiring fans to verify that they’ve purchased the group’s latest release, Dedicated to Chaos, before they can stream the clip online.

What the fuck are Queensryche thinking? The way I see it, there are one of two possibilities:

• THE OPTIMISTIC POSSIBILITY: The members of Queensryche are great artists who consider themselves to be a band of the people. They want to thank their true fans for sticking by them, and are thus only allowing those fans to see the video. The either believe that the video can’t help sell records anyway, or they somehow completely failed to realize that the video is meant as a promotional tool to move units.
• THE PESSIMISTIC POSSIBILITY: The members of Queensryche are convinced that this ploy will help them sell more albums, so badly will people want to see the video. The members of Queensryche are incredibly naive, incredibly dumb, or both.

I understand that the old model is dead. It’s no longer “Make album –> release catchy single + accompanying flashy expensive video for MTV –> watch albums fly off the shelves.” But the music video is not dead, and it can still be a very valuable promotional tool. I know because we debut them here at MetalSucks! I know how many people watch them! And it can be quite a lot!

And, furthermore, it’s foolish to assume that someone won’t make a rip of the video and post it online, oh, probably by the time this blog post is published. It’s 2011, and there is almost nothing that can’t be found on the internet. It sucks, but it’s true. So you’re not going to make money directly from this scheme, and if your goal is simply to reward paying fans, well, you’re gonna fail at that, too. Might as well just release the video out into the world, the way historically pretty much every other band ever has always done, and hope that some percentage of the people who see it will like it, and either buy your album, or come see a show, or purchase some merch, or in some way contribute to your bank account.

-AR

[via Metal Insider]