Straight from the minute-to-minute life of social media, Canadian band Arcade Fire appears to either be in a fight with a contractor, or (more likely) making a run at some viral marketing for its upcoming album and North American tour dates. Arcade Fire is currently playing dates in Europe, but has North American dates from August’s Lollapalooza through early November.
A post on the band’s Facebook page – which is followed by just shy of 2.4 million people – accuses the group of falling short of a contracted arrangement with Everything Now Corp to promote its music. Everything Now is also the name of the band’s new album, and the company page appears to have made its debut earlier this month.
“Everything Now Corp doesn’t want to work with a band that’s content to be the ninth biggest in the world (current rankings). We want to work with those who strive to be number one, and who do what it takes to get there.
“With the release of Everything Now imminent, we’ve decided to temporarily exercise the right in our contract to take over Arcade Fire’s social media channels, in order to bring you some excellent promotional material that the band was unwilling to share. We’re starting with the much-better version of the “Creature Comfort” video, which we’re quite sure you’ll enjoy.”
If the fight is a real one, it could make for some interesting fallout. If it is, rather, a viral campaign, it’s a strangely meta one, but appears to have been pretty effective thus far… after all, we’re writing about it.
Screenshot of the post (full text and video below):
Everything Now Corp entered into what’s called a “360 degree arrangement” with Arcade Fire late last year. It was understood by all parties—or so we thought—that the band would be committed to promoting their music aggressively. It was also understood by all parties—or so we thought—that the marketing and promotion expertise brought to the table by Everything Now Corp would be acknowledged and respected. But as the campaign has progressed, it’s become more apparent that the band is unwilling to come to the table in good faith and consider every angle and offer, instead giving blanket refusals to many of our reasonable requests. (I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard “no big pharma!”)
Everything Now Corp doesn’t want to work with a band that’s content to be the ninth biggest in the world (current rankings). We want to work with those who strive to be number one, and who will do what it takes to get there.
With the release of Everything Now imminent, we’ve decided to temporarily exercise the right in our contract to take over Arcade Fire’s social media channels, in order to bring you some excellent promotional material that the band was unwilling to share. We’re starting with the much-better version of the “Creature Comfort” video, which we’re quite sure you’ll enjoy.
