“Weird Al” Yankovic Excited By Breakthroughs In Viral Technology

anthonyjmiccio | June 18, 2008 1:30 am

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The online efforts of Jack White, Trent Reznor, and Thom Yorke have been interesting, but it’s not like their music is necessarily improved by eliminating corporate middlemen or pre-release waiting periods. To find someone who could truly benefit from new technology, one must look to visionaries who truly strive to capture a cultural moment. Like “Weird Al” Yankovic. “Certainly there is the possibility of me being a lot more topical,” Yankovic told Billboard. “Before I would have to wait until I was getting ready to put an album out and hope I’d be able to latch onto something that was topical and timely–and even then it would be a couple months before I’d be able to get an album in stores. Now, with iTunes and portals like that, ostensibly I could come up with an idea, record it and get it out in the marketplace within a week. That’s exciting.” It most certainly is.

Yankovic says he’s having “an ongoing discussion” with his label, the Zomba Music Group subsidiary Volcano, about ways to achieve that. “I don’t have a deal in place with my record label right now where that would make sense,” Yankovic acknowledges, “but the technology is obviously there, and that’s a direction I could certainly see my career going if we could figure out how to make that particular paradigm work.”

Yes, he uses the word “paradigm.”

Digital Delivery Could Help Weird Al Get Topical [Billboard] My Bologna [YouTube]