I'm not hugely impressed but she seems to be selling well; who needs majors?

Nice one. She is alright but I won't be surprised to hear she has already got deals
in place.

"Now working with some of the world’s hottest up and coming songwriters and producers (whose collective credits include Jojo, Boyz 2 Men, Bobby Valentino and Leona Lewis)..."

This smacks of Sandi Scam but perhaps with more genuine listens and sales. But her web site looks pretty savvy and there seems
to be management in place. The majors would certainly have been contacted.

Yes there is indeed a whiff of professionalism.

No12 in iTunes today; interesting.

"Who needs majors today?" ...........well JK she does need money, presumably a manager that knows what he or she is doing, with connections.........so she, or any other young talent out there may not need a major but they do need some things that are out of the reach of most kids. Will a great Youtube video get an unknown those things........quite possibly, if they are really good enough....but do we have time to look through thousands of videos, or are we directed to them by our insider peers? Possibly on forums like this that we trust.

So I guess this is part of the new filtering...........but the big test is.....how do we get this discovery to make money....because without profit, like it or not we can't be in business.

If a major is no longer involved someone is going to have to bankroll the whole thing until it does.
Which may not be particularly inexpensive.

No26 on OCC - a start but not much better than our Sons of Admirals managed.

Ok I have had a look at this and basically while I applaud her efforts and her success
I think there is definitely a need for finance or investment. The majors so far are the only ones who can
do this on a grand scale but perhaps not for long.

My analysis of the Youtube effect is this.

Her Youtube videos are basically infomercials.
Singing covers are low risk, easily searchable, important for the viral effect.
She is good but NOT spectacular.
This IS possibly the NEW model we have all been looking at.
The new model being the bypassing of radio/press and the rest of the hype machine (for a new artist).
Once there is traction, she needs to capture audience email/facebook friends/twitter etc.
With a clear market, the time is to bring on an investor.


If the investor is a major, they should sign her for a singles deal.
As a singles artist she will be low risk. Rerelease a cover with an original double A side.
She will recoup unless the label starts thinking of albums.
The major that focuses on singles will get their money back if.
They make a cheap video, in house radio and press and target fanbase on Facebook etc.

Repeat the process and clean up.

Thanks for pointing this out JK. Listening to all what you have done and said (not all I agree with btw)
I have come to the conclusion that we are seeing something interesting developing.

TV shows like Glee deliver top 10 singles and albums without trying.
Videos like this girl's video and Sons of Admiral CAN deliver a top 40 hit without trying.
Labels will need to invest or get someone to invest in order to capitalise on this.

The formula is simple

artist
Youtube video X Eyeballs = Top 40,


artist
terrestrial TV X Eyeballs = Top 10,

Upsell for us all is this.

A Youtube video will prove we have a hit. Reinvest income from the Youtube campaign
either directly or through a major or a network of traditional labels to generate top tens
globally and sell millions

Finally have a song like I'm Too Sexy and a damned good plugger like Guy was.

You are all missing a very obvious reason why this is doing so well. She is "covering" a Keri Hilson version of a Soulja Boy track, which itself was covered by X Factor finalist Cher Lloyd. Keri Hilson's sung cover was never released but became popular on the web. Hence it selling well.

And Alexa is another example of doing an identikit cover of a track not released in the UK yet but which is doing well in the US and is again popular on the web. It's not rocket science and rather negates all the points that everyone has made.

For God's sake, people, a bit of knowledge doesn't hurt.

Well JK Crystal Balls if you stopped looking in the ball and actually read
this girl's site you will understand why we are joining the dots. Besides
you're stating the obvious. Her identikit covers are getting views and as a result
winning fans.

Sure it is NOT rocket science but there is a trend that has been repeated
time and time again and it is just one method of how people are finding success
in the new music economy. Can you not see that ? Blimey some people, and it is
Christmas season so less of the negativity lol

We are talking covers...once the mechanical licenses are paid for, we're not talking about much money.

It's hardly a revolution.

The bottom line is that there is no new model. Nor will there ever be.

This whole thing is about opportunism, and there's nothing wrong with that (it's a good thing).

But more than ever before, any music artist is reliant on money behind them for marketing and promotion. No matter now any cyber "upstart" company may want to dress up what they can do, as soon as they try to push an artist with funds (which is necessary - no artist has made it word of mouth these days or via the "power" of MySpace), they are effectively the label.

I definitely think that we'll see song lyrics being directly sponsored by brands; it already happens with videos and it's inevitable.

Nice to inject a healthy dose of realism into things.

I hear you but no one is being unrealistic and of course one has to spend money
at a certain point. The mechanicals here are miniuscule and probably deducted by
iTunes so she will be making some money. A few thousand that can be put into a
bigger campaign if needs be.
It is about progression and like it or not we are talking about her and she is
definitely on the radar of the majors or maybe a big artist like Usher (who found
Bieber from Youtube).