March 11th, 2008
YouTube hit OK Go testifies for neutrality
Free Press is publicizing the appearance of OK Go, apparently a YouTube musical phenom, at a net neutrality hearing at the House Judiciary Committee.
“If people wonder whether the music industry will benefit from Net Neutrality they can look no further than us,” said OK Go’s lead singer and guitarist Damian Kulash in testimony today before the House Judiciary Committee. “There is a real consensus with us that Net Neutrality is good for music. I’m here to ask Congress today to preserve Net Neutrality and the future of the Internet.”
At the hearing Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) came out for net neutrality:
“Congress should act to preserve Net Neutrality. I am concerned that if Congress stands by and does nothing, we will soon find ourselves living in a world where those who pay can play, but those who don’t are simply out of luck. Let’s not get confused. If Congress acts, it will not be because we have decided to regulate. It will be because the Internet service providers have imposed their own new regulation on the Internet, and are interfering with its healthy growth.”
Kulash said it was the neutrality of the net that allowed his band to prosper, reports Information World:
After the band’s first CD, OK Go was “struggling for every fan we could find, and, frankly, struggling to pay our bills as well,” Kulash said.
The band’s first homemade video, filmed in Kulash’s backyard, was viewed “several hundred thousand times” within a month, he said. “We realized that more people had actually clicked through to this video than had purchased our first record after 18 months of touring,” he said. “We now … sell real records.”
Without neutral networks, this type of home-brewed promotional campaign would not be available, Kulash added.
