But I’m not embedding this video because of how much I enjoy it (although I do, very much).  I’m embedding it because Damian Kulash (the lead singer of Ok Go) is asking us to.  All of us.  See, Damian is understandably frustrated with EMI for prohibiting the band from posting embeddable videos online.  As he explains in a refreshingly down-to-earth post on their message board:

“The labels are hurting and they need every penny they can find, so they’ve demanded a piece of the action. They got all huffy a couple years ago and threatened all sorts of legal terror and eventually all four majors struck deals with YouTube which pay them tiny, tiny sums of money every time one of their videos gets played. Seems like a fair enough solution, right? YouTube gets to keep the content, and the labels get some income.

“The catch: the software that pays out those tiny sums doesn’t pay if a video is embedded. This means our label doesn’t get their hard-won share of the pie if our video is played on your blog, so (surprise, surprise) they won’t let us be on your blog. And, voilá: four years after we posted our first homemade videos to YouTube and they spread across the globe faster than swine flu, making our bassist’s glasses recognizable to 70-year-olds in Wichita and 5-year-olds in Seoul and eventually turning a tidy little profit for EMI, we’re – unbelievably – stuck in the position of arguing with our own label about the merits of having our videos be easily shared. It’s like the world has gone backwards.”

(read Damian’s entire email here)

The old structures are toppling in the music world, and those in the film world are soon to follow.  Sit back, grab some popcorn, and enjoy.  Things are going to get far more interesting before they settle down again.