In my last post “CD Baby DIY Musicians Podcast. I Love It” I mentioned that I would share any DIY music marketing ideas that I come across with you. I will then attempt to incorporate these ideas into my own music marketing.
What you’ll read below is one of those ideas.
Before I downloaded all of the CD Baby DIY Musician Podcast series I was listening to them one at a time as they were being released. The latest podcast, features an interview with Jack Conte from the duo Pomplamoose.
Pomplamoose has gained massive amounts of exposure worldwide for two main reasons:
1. Their creative “video songs” have been collectively viewed over 10 million times (yes 10,000,000)
2. They use cover songs to their advantage.
Lately I have been getting more and more interested in using video for my own stuff as well as for the Open Mic Network so stumbling across this podcast was very timely indeed.
Until now I had not heard of the term “video song” but CD Baby describe it as a new medium of music video “…in which the imagery is an inside look into how the song is actually created.” Here is an example of one of Pomplamoose’s video songs, an excellent cover of “September” by Earth, Wind and Fire
This leads me to the second part of why Pomplamoose is so successful, it’s their use of COVERS (I can hear you cringing through the computer monitor but hey, hear me out for a second…)
For me, the answer to the covers vs originals questions goes like this…
For me, it all comes down to the attitude you have towards the music you’re covering, there is a difference between an artistic homage to a great song and a blatant rip off just to make some cash. I believe that you can still have artistic integrity while doing covers.
It’s not the song itself but how you cover it that should be the most important thing to consider.
Jack Conte in the interview was saying that for Pomplamoose, making video songs of well known covers enabled them to gain a huge amount of exposure and in turn grow a large fan base who want to be turned on to their own music.
He also goes on to say that covers are a good business decision, in fact it’s your duty as a musician to do covers, how will you stand out in the crowd if you don’t give your audience something to relate to?
Personally, a great song is a great song no matter where it comes from. Whether you wrote it or not a great song should be played, it should be listened to and it should be appreciated for what it is… A work of art.
What do you think about the covers vs originals argument? I know that it’s one of those arguments that will never be resolved but hey, it’s great fun as a conversation topic. Let me know your stance on this I’d love to hear your views.
To end my rant here is another Pomplamoose video song, a classy rewrite of Michael Jackson‘s “Beat It.” Nice!
I’m now inspired to play around with some video and if you’re lucky, I’ll put some up for you to check out.
Peace,
Corey 
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I know its not cool to play covers, but i agree. You can have artistic integrity doing covers.
Its all about the attitude, intent and intesity with which you play.
I think good music is good music regardless, and should be given due credit.
Ask any blues musician. Many many blues tunes are a cover or reworking of an old tune, and great pride is taken to pay homage to the original artist. Many Swing and bebop standards are also reworkings of old show tunes and have been played/ covered by every jazz muso for decades. Try telling them that they have no musical integrity!
I also think that a great deal of ‘original’ music borrows/ steals/ copies elements of their concept and sound from music which already exists. Everything has XYZ ‘sound’ or XYZ ‘flavour’, so most music is borrowed from somewhere and nothing is really original (even if a band isn’t intending to do covers per se).
Anyhow, id rather listen to a cover band than a DJ anyday.
Really enjoyed the clips tho. Real honest effort.
Thanks for the awesome feedback Paul.
“I also think that a great deal of ‘original’ music borrows/ steals/ copies elements of their concept and sound from music which already exists. Everything has XYZ ‘sound’ or XYZ ‘flavour’, so most music is borrowed from somewhere and nothing is really original…”
I couldn’t agree with you more mate. I don’t know about you but trying to find 100% originality in music (especially in songwriting) can be a very difficult thing to do.
How cleverly one borrows, steals and copies elements of music seems to be the new frontier of originality in todays musical landscape. I personally like that concept.
Thanks also for being my first commenter on my blog. I hope we can have many more conversations such as this.
Corey