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)."

done!

[argStyopa]

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. :)

Lyrics

[CODiNE]

How about somebody post the lyrics for a deaf geek y'all?

Re:And I care why?

[Anonymous Coward]

Because it's not all about you. Wierd Al is still one of the little guys. He worked hard for the fame he got and deserves his success. It just shows that fans may think it's cool to leak but it is damaging. It cost him the premiere and possibly hurt sales. It's not the first time fans have damaged the very thing they love. Wierd Al was one of the first geeks in a sense. He had his own equipment and worked out of his parents basement. He's never gotten rich but he's done well. I've seen him live and he puts on a good show. In this case jumping the gun on the release isn't a victory for the community but more of an attack on it since it hurts one of their own. A fan gets a thrill from being the one to release the video but at what cost? They didn't create it so what right do they have to release it just to get a little reflected glory? Eventually groups like AOL may not even bother with premieres if they constantly get trumped by fans, then what? The performers loose yet another way of getting their work out there. Yes fans are getting it out there but it may be a handful of people seeing it compared to millions thbrough a major outlet. The fan didn't own it Wierd Al did and he's very generous with his material and not a member of the evil empire. They should be condemed for releasing it not given a thumbs up. Such things will in the end hurt everyone. I want to see Wierd Al keep doing his thing. He should be free to distribute it as he sees fit. Everyone would have a chance to see it this was about a fan doing something irresponsible as an ego trip.

Re:In what's probably a first

[Gulthek]

Just because an illegal act makes them more money in the long run doesn't make any less illegal. You don't get to decide how they share their music.

Case study....

[Churla]

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 love the video. And the song.

[isolationism]

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.

Re:In what's probably a first

[Sardak]

You know, that would almost be a valid comparison, if copyright infringement placed anyone's lives in danger or actually removed something from their possession.

Re:Hmm...

[Golias]

He's releasing a "dual disk" CD that has a DVD of videos on the back side of it. Somebody probably swiped one from a pre-release stock room and ripped it.

Weird Al on MySpace [myspace.com]

Re:And I care why?

[Wordsmith]

I generally agree with your sentiments about Al, but just one thing ... how do you suppose a fan leaked it? How would a fan get it, if it hadn't already been leaked?

Re:And I care why?

[fitten]

Yep. I agree with you 100%. Wierd Al is one of our (the geek world) friends. He has released a number of songs in unencumbered mp3 format for free download for starters. He's fairly good with the lingo and I wouldn't doubt that he's a true geek like many of us. Hurting your own is definitely *not* cool.

Re:Cliche

[winomonkey]

You are absolutely right, we should be offended that someone made a parody of something that is so true. I mean, the gall of some people, making fun of themselves and others. Gay and black people are fortunate that they have escaped the wrath of popular media and comedy. I mean, just imagine it...blatantly gay people being the butt of jokes on a televised series? Oh, Will and Grace. Black people being criticized and stereotyped on public television...oh, sorry, Chris Rock and 90% of the black comedians out there beat you to it.

If we can't look at some of the stereotypes and laugh, then something is wrong. The great thing about disagreeing with stereotypes is that we can then educate people about the fallacies of their own biased and incorrect views. If you think that we are getting a bad rap (pun only partially intended here) from this video, then get out there and say why it is so wrong.

I laugh because I am white and nerdy, but know that I am much more than white and nerdy. I mean, I am tall, and well, I guess that I am just tall, white and nerdy. But still, I am more!

Re:And I care why?

[ThatDamnMurphyGuy]

It cost him the premiere and possibly hurt sales

I call bullshit on that statement. There is no such thing as bad press. If it weren't for the video, I wouldn't be aware of the album, and no AOL premiere of any kind would have raised my attention to it. YouTube and GoogleVideo are the new age ot video awareness, and Universal has realized this already by giving them all of their music videos.

I saw it on YouTube, got excited about it, and looked forward to buying it. Now that AOL is being an asshat about it, I won't buy it. While the person who leaked it did do something wrong, the real problem here is still AOL and other large companies not realizing that the old dist and advertising models are dead and dying. Their knee jerk reactions to things like this only proves it, and does more damage than any leak will ever do.

Re:And I care why?

[From A Far Away Land]

"It cost him the premiere and possibly hurt sales."

That's BS. AOL/RIAA is trying to "teach pirates a lesson" by hurting Al. The leaker didn't do a favour, but if their system of secrecy can be felled by one woman, then they need a new business model to survive.

Good stuff, even when its bad...

[BobSutan]

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.

Re: Nobody cry.

[SilentJ_PDX]

Weird Al is going to get *far* more promotion via YouTube "leak" and the accompanying promotion.

True... but he won't get any money from the deal that he had with AOL. Also, what's the chance that AOL people are more likely to buy something from Weird Al vs. the /. and YouTube crowd? (Especially when the /. crowd finds opinions like yours "Interesting" instead of shallow and selfish)

Buck up, Al. You're richer than the rest of us, going to get even richer, and we find you funny despite it all.

When does someone become rich enough that it's ok to steal from them? Does your "stealing from rich people" policy only apply to music/tv/movie stars and software developers (ie. people whom you can steal easily from) or should we all be able to steal from Warren Buffett, too?

Re:Cliche

[SCHecklerX]

Well...

It seems socially acceptable for some black folks to refer to each other as nigger. Try doing that as a white boy to your black office worker and see what happens.

Weird al is 'one of us', so he's allowed.

Re:Time for a slashdot poll!

[MurphyZero]

More than 6, though I also have the DVD of the videos. And I would not have found out about the AOL release, but the slashdot news dragged me in faster than a black hole. Of course I went to watch the youtube. And I will be buying the CD when it comes out. I can't say that about any other music released these days. Now, what does that say about the typical music sales methods?