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)."

Nobody cry.

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

"Leaked"??

[ewhac]

What the hell do they mean, "leaked?" I saw the video about four days ago. It was posted on Weird Al's MySpace page.

Who's yanking whose chain here?

Schwab

P.S: Yes, it's an excellent video.

Re:In what's probably a first

[merreborn]

I got my first few Lamb of God albums via copy infringement, a couple years ago.

Since then, I've bought a shirt, both their DVDs, pre-ordered their last CD, bought the rest, and saw 'em live twice.

Yep. They sure got screwed. I'm sure they really wish I'd never even heard of 'em.

Aol takes their ball and goes home.

[kinglink]

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).

Useful links that you forgot

[Tetrad_of_doom]

"Weird Al" Yankovic's personal website [weirdal.com]
Al's myspace page [myspace.com] Three recently released songs and two video available here
Wikipedia [wikipedia.org]

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 [enquirer.com].