The indie rock band “The Decemberists” has more faith in BitTorrent than MTV. The band from Portland, Oregon want their video to be available to a wide public, and BitTorrent is the easiest way to do so.
Dawn Barger, manager of the Decemberists says:
For the most part, MTV and VH1 won’t touch video unless bands have sold a huge number of records, it’s impossible to get rotation.”
Publishing a video on BitTorrent, is cheap, easy and efficient. The hardcore fans helped to seed the torrent and within a couple of days the torrent was downloaded more that 2000 times.
Slim Moon, founder of Kill Rock Stars, the Decemberists’ record label responds:
“No matter where you stand on issues of copyright, a network like BitTorrent is really for exactly this kind of thing When you have content that you want to freely distribute, it seems like … the most logical way to distribute.”
The video for “Sixteen Military Wives” was shot for less than $6,000 at a high school in Portland, Oregon, and features members of the band participating in a Model United Nations, a simulation popular in high schools to teach students about problem-solving and international relations. In the video, Decemberists singer Colin Meloy represents the United States and boldly declares war on Luxembourg, a not-so-subtle jab at the Bush administration’s decision to go to war.
By the way, their album “Castaways and Cutouts” probably looks familiar to most people in the BitTorrent community.
