These days, outsourcing it the name of the game. No longer the the subject of scathing Michael Moore-type documentaries, everyone’s pretty much resigned themselves to a world where outsourcing is a daily occurrence in business, like stocktaking or safety inspections.
It’s not even just for huge, faceless corporations anymore. Small businesses and individuals can get in on the racket, with books like The 4-Hour Workweek urging readers to outsource time-consuming menial tasks like checking emails to virtual assistants.
But what about outsourcing something creative, like a painting or a music video? Even when companies like IBM and Apple outsource their manufacturing and assembly to places like India and China, they pride themselves on keeping the creative and innovative work in-house.
Well, with musicians these days consistently trying to find new ways to cut costs, not unlike a company, Ontario singer-songwriter Drew Smith’s little-known venture from 2012 may become a trend. The artist and Bollywood fan outsources his music video for ‘Smoke and Mirrors’ to Bangalore, India for $2,000.
“You hear so much about big corporations outsourcing,” Smith told the New York Times during a break from his day job teaching English to immigrants in Hamilton, Ontario. “I was just trying to think of a unique way to release the album and promote it.”
Readers can check out the result of Smith’s experiment below. The clip, which was the work of a dance school in Bangalore, doesn’t exactly match the song and is obviously low-budget (apparently none of the $2,000 went to colour grading), but it bears remembering that $2,000 wouldn’t cover catering on a typical video shoot.
