Spaniel Production's submission for the m83 music video contest hosted on youtube. The contest ended a month ago and still no winner has been announced.

The dirty secret about these video contests is that they only exist to serve two specific marketing goals, and neither of those goals involve the winning video.

First, the contest is created to get the band some press. "Indie rock band asks fans to direct new video" could still garner a blurb in the news columns at Pitchfork, Stereogum, or Brooklyn Vegan, so by merely creating the contest, the band gets some press without doing any hard work.

Secondly, the band rallies it's hardcore fans, by getting them to spend countless hours creating something free to advertise music. These fans will tell everyone they know about the contest, play the song ad nauseam while editing their animated masterpiece in their dorm room, and will flood their facebook friends with pleas to vote for their video on the band's website. Once again, more press, no work.

However, once the entries are in, there's no more press to squeeze out of the project. If the band does decide to pick a winner (50% of the time the contest is brushed off and forgotten about) all of the blogs that announced the contest won't be that interested in posting the winning entry- after all it's just some video- there are tons of those all over the internet. The band won't be interested in having their music be represented by a video that was made by young amateurs for no money, it would make them look bad. As a result, the contest mysteriously "disappears".

I remember a few years back this type of thing was called the end of the video industry by some antvillers, I think now we can see that it's nothing more than a cheap marketing ploy. When a band really wants to represent their songs visually, they still go right back to the usual suspects.

Not bad. The mirrored thing is not terribly original, but I'm glad to see something that isn't a retread of the usual M83 'kids being kids' thing.

Speaking of contests, remember Radar? They have transformed from a site where people line up to make videos for free into a site where people PAY to pitch on videos with negligible budgets. They actually charge people 20 quid for the privilege of reading briefs.

Kind of... Radar works as an open agency. There's a commissioner who takes treatments for anyone interested that's subscribed, and she gets paid her 10% on each awarded commission for digging up the work. Same as any commissioner. Some of budgets bands post are hilariously low; though, I think everyone will soon realize you get what you pay for. :D

despite what budget says i think it can be well worth it to enter a video contest. :)

after a long wait, they announced the winners

yes yes, our video was one of the runner up's, not a winner though. But Alas, "Budget" was proved wrong. We had a really fun time making this video and I think contests are always good (even if it slowly disappears and no winner is announced) because it motivates people to create and learn about who they are as artists. While some of the marketing ploys are somewhat suspicious, I don't blame a band for being open to fan's interpretations of their music. Overall, it was a good experience and given our "budget" was less than $200, I would do it again in a heartbeat. Thanks everyone for watching!

chill, man, mine was also a runner-up (and im getting quite tired of this runner-up thing) our budget was zilch, btw, and the only thing i regret is that mute wont allow my vid to be featured on the dailymotion uk front page, cuz it aint the official vid.

but budget is right, tho. this contest was a publicity stunt, yet, on the other hand ,everybody who entered it - myself included - knew it only too well: it was the most convenient way for a label/ band to have a video made for free whilst generating internet buzz, etc. but its ok in the end, yet another runner up accolade to slap onto yer resume