French video site stakes claim to indie cool

By Cristina Black

NEW YORK (Billboard) - With its popular Take-Away Shows -- on-the-spot live music videos -- French music Web site La Blogotheque is becoming an important point of exposure for emerging North American indie bands.

Each shot in one take in an offbeat location, the videos have drawn more than 6 million views on blogotheque.net, YouTube and band Web sites.

The brand has recently expanded to include sites dedicated to local scenes in specific markets, such as One Take New York and One Shot Seattle, giving regional bands exposure on the international indie market. La Blogotheque's English and French versions average 7,000 hits per day.

"La Blogotheque has become as relevant as a radio station like (noncommercial) KEXP (Seattle) or a magazine like Mojo," Ed Horrox, head of A&R at label 4AD, says.

Helmed by Parisian producers Chryde (aka Christophe Abric) and Vincent Moon (aka Mathieu Saura), Take-Away Shows began in 2006 and quickly evolved to include dozens of artful videos.

Popular clips include Arcade Fire in an elevator in Paris, Vampire Weekend in a tour van in England and various street performances by Beirut, which commissioned La Blogotheque to shoot a live video for every song on its 2007 album, "The Flying Club Cup," a series that is now available for viewing and for purchase on DVD through La Blogotheque's site and flyingclubcup.com.

"Here's something an artist can do in an afternoon," says Ben Goldberg, head of Beirut's label Ba Da Bing. "There are no overdubs or trickery, so it benefits any artist who plays well live."

Profits are to be split 50/50 between La Blogotheque and acts, but La Blogotheque has yet to turn a profit. Most of the videos are distributed free, but Moon and Chryde are looking into licensing content to French labels and are also in talks with Chunnel rail line Eurostar about providing video programming for passengers. The pair pay for the low-budget productions themselves, they say, with outside gigs producing Web videos and blogs; Moon directs traditional music videos for such acts as R.E.M.