Kevin Breuner: Why do you think the videosong, just in your opinion, has caught on so well on YouTube? It seems like it’s becoming this, like, genre of its own just on YouTube with lots people really interested in checking out other people’s videosongs and creating them themselves.

Jack Conte: Right. I think there’s a couple reasons for that. One, it’s an educational experience. There’s a lot of DIY musicians out there who want to learn about production, who want to learn recording techniques, and are interested in what other people are using. Stuff is changing so fast right now and it’s tough to keep up on what’s going on. I watch other people’s videosongs for cool recording ideas. You know, ‘oh wow that’s an awesome sound.’ If you’re listening to a record in your car, you know hear a sound you go, ‘man what a great sound—gee wish I knew how to make that.’ You know? And when you’re watching it on YouTube it’s, ‘wow what a great sound, I’m going to try that because I know exactly how to do it’, and then you can put your own little twist on it. So that’s the first reason—it’s a good educational experience. It’s fun to be able to pick out things that you enjoy and be able to replicate them yourself.

The second reason is because everybody loves music and people have loved music for tens of thousands of years. And now there’s this shortform content [that] is starting to catch on, you know—shortform videos. It’s a very popular medium because shortform videos are entertaining and it’s quick little snackable moments in your day that pick you up and make you feel good. [...] It’s something that’s really interesting to watch that’s almost mathematical to make. That’s what I enjoy about it. I’m a really functional person and as creative as the video end is, you know, it follows a strict set of guidelines, and it almost makes itself. Once you make the audio, the video can only be a certain thing—it can only be a certain way. I think that’s an easy thing to make, since there’s that set of clear rules and guidelines, it’s a relatively small initial investment, and you can create shortform content on a regular basis to engage a fanbase. That regular engagement of a fanbase is super important because it’s not just about one giant music video—it’s about a 10 or 15 little videos over the year that keep your fans interested in what you’re doing and interested in your music.

Kevin Breuner: I would assume that people have approached you offering you deals—traditional record deals. What’s kept you from going down that path?

Jack Conte: When “Single Ladies” came out, we were approached by all four majors. [...] The labels don’t get it. And I know it’s so like stereotypically indie hipster to say, ‘they just don’t get it.” It angers me. we’re making a living. We’re doing fine. We get to keep our album sales. What exactly is it that you think labels do for you? I have a bunch of friends in the music industry, in the music world, and some of them play with signed acts and some of them are in signed acts. The labels give them, I would say, half the publicity that Pomplamoose can give itself.

By releasing a new video we get millions of hits and a ton of records sales, and usually when we release a big video we get some licensing deals that come in—some of them come to fruition and some of them don’t. That kind of publicity that’s available at your fingertips these days—for free! You don’t even have to pay to upload something onto YouTube. YouTube just lets you put video on their server and expose it to anyone you want. It’s an amazing time we live in. The backdoor around those gatekeepers is such an unervalued thing for musicians. So the reason we didn’t sign to the labels—first and foremost—is because we don’t need them. Anything they can do for us they subcontract out to smaller organizations that we could pay for ourselves and then not have to recoup those expenses and hand over all of our finances to the label.

For instance, if we want a PR team, which the label would just say, ‘hey we have access to PR teams, we have access to distribution, we have access to publication, blah blah blah…’ Well guess what? So do everybody. [...] It’s just such a backwards, antiquated, poorly designed system that is meant to f*** musicians. It’s so bad and none of them even know it. None of them even get it. They don’t get the power of online video. They still call it ‘viral video’ which just like kills me.

[...] You can’t make a viral video. A viral video is something that happens that has to do with the current culture, and the current norms, and the current blogs, and whatever it is that’s happening in society at that current time that causes it to expand like a virus. It’s not something that you can decide. And the labels don’t get that. And they don’t get how video can be used on a regular basis for musicians. I mean labels are still spending 10, 15, 20 thousand dollars on a music video, and if they were to spend that money across 10 videos that were more sincere, and less smoke-and-mirrory, and less flashy, then I think they would actually do way better.