Statewide Pure Michigan singalong video may not return to YouTube
Bad news for fans of Pure Michigan's viral statewide singalong video: It may not return to YouTube after getting pulled from the site in September for copyright issues, MLive.com reports.
A scene from the video shoot at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor.
Status Creative, the Grand Rapids-based marketing firm behind the video, says the copyright issues with the song's major record label were resolved, but a secondary copyright holder filed for infringement and asked for compensation, MLive reported.
The Ann Arbor portion of the video was shot at Michigan Stadium and featured 40 members of the University of Michigan Marching Band, 40 cheerleaders and 25 dance team members.
More than 100 people showed up for the Ypsilanti shoot at the water tower on Cross Street to participate in a 5-second clip to be featured in the promotional video.
Status Creative co-founder Rob Bliss told MLive that he's in continuing negotiations with the secondary copyright holder and remains hopeful the issues will be resolved.
Comments
Kai Petainen
Wed, Oct 31, 2012 : 11:32 p.m.
i'm going to give pure michigan a compliment... yikes! they are improving.... just recently i saw that they were promoting some activities for winter in the UP... so it's nice to see that they are becoming more 'aware' of the other 1/2 of the state.
Kai Petainen
Wed, Oct 31, 2012 : 9:34 p.m.
this was incredibly unprofessional of the Pure Michigan campaign. "but a secondary copyright holder filed for infringement and asked for compensation, MLive reported" with $25 million to spend on the campaign... it's smart of them to ask for compensation. the video itself was quite well done (apart from snubbing the UP)... now... every time that I hear that song on the radio, I think of Michigan... and so it was an excellent advertisement.
Alan Goldsmith
Wed, Oct 31, 2012 : 8:02 p.m.
So millions to an out of state company that didn't even KNOW you have to get the copyright owner's permission to use MUSIC in a commercial video? It's perfectly fine to STEAL from artists when it's the State of Michigan doing the theft? Less Pure Michigan and more Pure Incompetence. Michigan Economic Development Corp strikes again and tosses your hard earned tax dollars down the drain. Thanks once again to our Governor for this brilliant move and his Republican fellow travelers in the State House and Senate who are quiet as little mice in their silence.
Soulful Adrenaline
Wed, Oct 31, 2012 : 7:20 p.m.
Check out the Pure Michigan video on the Renaissance Festival.
LXIX
Wed, Oct 31, 2012 : 7:15 p.m.
Jeff Barrett and Rob Bliss run startup company Status Creative out of Grand Rapids. In August Michigan Economic Development Corp. awarded Weber Shandwick $5.63M for web media and PR and in March 2012 renewed a three year contract with McCann Erickson Worldwide (big sister company of Weber Shandwick) for the Pure Michigan campaign. The contract is worth $28.2M this year alone of which $2.3M went to McCann Funding is determined each year by Lansing. The three year contract also adds two possible one year extensions. If funding level stays the same then the Pure Michigan campaign could cost up to $155.63M - more than a new Ann Arbor library - complete with a pulled singing video. McCann Erickson is a subsidiary of Interpublic Group.of Companies out of New York City (NYSE - IPG), one of the four largest advertising companies in theworld. From Wikipedia - "In December 2011, the non-partisan organization Public Campaign criticized Interpublic Group for spending $1.3 million on lobbying and not paying any taxes during 2008-2010, instead getting $15 million in tax rebates, despite making a profit of $571 million and increasing executive pay by 32%".
Greggy_D
Wed, Oct 31, 2012 : 6:56 p.m.
Exactly. How much tax money just went down the black hole? Incompetence knows no bounds in this state.
Ron Granger
Wed, Oct 31, 2012 : 6:14 p.m.
How much money was blown on this fiasco? Are we to believe the marketing agency had no concept of copyright, and the need to secure rights? Why have they not been fired?