recording industry exploits, redux

Yet another example of throwing the baby out with the bathwater, social capital style...

In today's WSJ (online), there's a great story about the secret behind YouTube (and MySpace) Singer-Songwriter Marié Digby.

In an Aug. 16 blog posting on her MySpace page, Ms. Digby wrote: "I NEVER in a million years thought that doing my little video of Umbrella in my living room would lead to this . tv shows, itunes, etc !!!"

Ms. Digby's MySpace and YouTube pages don't mention Hollywood Records. Until last week, a box marked "Type of Label" on her MySpace Music page said, "None." After inquiries from The Wall Street Journal, the entry was changed to "Major," though the label still is not named.

The artist and her label say there's nothing untoward about the campaign. In interviews, Ms. Digby and executives at the company describe her three-month string of successes as part of a lengthy process of laying the groundwork for the upcoming release of her debut album.

Ms. Digby says she doesn't mention her record label on her Web sites because "I didn't feel like it was something that was going to make people like me."

So, while she's been playing up the aw-shucks-how-did-this-happen-to-little-old-me? schtick by posing as an amateur on both MySpace and YouTube, she's actually been signed to the major Hollywood Records label since 2005.

It turns out the passed-as-happenstance events that have found her on TV, on radio, and on iTunes were actually part of a carefully executed exploit of the audience's thirst for amateurs and disdain for labels.

Just as lonelygirl15 has heightened our suspicion of anything that seems to good to be true in terms of amateur-produced video, now Marié Digby has raised our guard around amateur singer-songwriters.

Sure, the exploit works once, but where's the long term payoff when the customer base only grows more suspicious of any future endeavors?

UPDATE: Good to see Ben over at Church of the Consumer Blog take this issue on (what with his huge readership). With a week's distance from the WSJ article, he's made the same hopscotch leaps from Digby to lonelygirl to future implications, and has a nice follow up on the repercussions on Digby's MySpace presence.