OK. So I’m watching Lie to Me the other day. I didn’t think I’d like the show at first because I was worried that Tim Roth was too good for television but it took me about 15 minutes to realize that he’s what televisions needs, an actor. I liked Kelli Williams from that show she did with Neil McDonough called Medical Investigations (CSI meets ReGenesis) and even though Lie to Me doesn’t have the “token black person” they do have this kool and cute, standout chick, Monica Raymund.
But this post isn’t a review of Lie to Me, its more of a criticism of the music industry.
The teaser part of Lie to Me comes on. It’s the episode about the construction workers who get buried in a collapse. Right before the first commercial, the theme song starts to play. We’re about 7 episodes in now and I start to think, it’s a little quirky, but I think I like the theme song. The music is moody and the singer sounds a little bowie-esque, like he can’t really sing but if you give it a chance it will grow on you. And before the start of that first commercial, I decide to go for it. I open my iTunes. Click on the iTunes store and type in Lie to Me. And that gets me a big, fat, nothing.
Oh well. One can dream…
Next, I Yahoo. Yeah, I know most people Google, but I like to Yahoo (and no I don’t Twitter). The first YahooAnswer leads me astray, so I click another one. This one says its Brand New Day by Ryan Star. That eventually leads me to www.rstar.net and a page that says be sure to watch Lie to Me after American Idol. OK. I look to the right and there’s a button that says “Launch Ryan Star’s Audio Player”. I press it because I want to make sure I have the right song. I press. I get an audio player that’s not playing ANY songs, let alone the theme to Lie to Me.
I do manage to find a fan site that has a link to a YouTube video of the song but when I press the link it says “This video is no longer available due to copyright claim by Warner Music Group”. And that’s why you are burdened with this post, because I couldn’t buy an iTune of the theme song, or an album with the theme song or a video with the theme song of a damn song that I might not really like THAT much. It would have been an impulse buy like most of my iTunes are.
I don’t listen to the radio. I don’t have MTV. I’m one of the growing lists of people who find music by watching TV shows or commercials. That’s why websites like AdTunes have started popping up and why TV shows seem to be scrambling to get new music to play during their shows and commercials to advertise their shows. Did you ever wonder if Daughtry would have been as popular if FOX hadn’t played “It’s Not Over” every 5 minutes for almost a month advertising the return of Prison Break? I HATE Prison Break! and I don’t watch American Idol and had no idea who Chris Daughtry was, but after a month of brainwashing, not only did i watch Prison Break, I bought the Daughtry single, the album, the video and the entire AOL live sessions featuring Daughtry. You know why? Because it was available.
So when is the music industry going to buy a vowel and get a clue? The record company took the YouTube video down for copyright reasons, but where was their video? Where was the song? Where was the album? The old way of bribing DJs to get your song on the radio is over. Now it’s all about the iTunes, YouTube, FaceBook, Twitter, Google, whatevah.
Sorry Warner Brothers. You just lost a sale.