There’s the story: A young, unknown female singer/songwriter uses MySpace [website]/YouTube to become a star.
And there’s the rest of the story: Long before Marie (pronounced Mar-ee-ay) Digby found Internet stardom, she already had a record deal with Hollywood Records.
Way back in 2005, when MySpace and YouTube success stories weren’t yet old news, Hollywood - the label behind Hilary Duff, Miley Cyrus, Jonas Brothers and other mega teen acts - signed the unheard-of Digby and tossed her right into the studio.
“In January of 2006, I recorded the album of my dreams,” said Digby, 25, who plays with fellow Internet sensation Eric Hutchinson on Friday at Cafe 939. “I expected Hollywood to release it by early 2007. But time just kept going by without even a tentative release date. I knew enough about this industry to know that people change their minds about projects in a heartbeat no matter how much money they put into a project.
“I racked my brain for some way to stir up enough excitement to get Hollywood to release it,” she said between bites of a turkey reuben she was munching somewhere in Cleveland. “I didn’t have any money, so I asked the record label to buy me Final Cut Pro and a computer to make some music videos. They gave me a computer.”
Not giving her the editing software turned out to be the best gift the Los Angeles singer/songwriter received from Hollywood. With no way to make an ambitious promo video, Digby shot sparse clips of herself singing and strumming her gentle, pop folk tunes and one special cover: her version of Rihanna’s “Umbrella,” which has now been streamed seven million times.
“Umbrella” led fans to Digby’s original songs, as well as her covers of tunes by Britney Spears and Jordin Sparks. Eventually, Hollywood realized she was a phenomenon in the making.
Well, that’s the way she tells it.
Skeptical conspiracy theorists believe Digby’s grassroots campaign was actually orchestrated by her record company, a hypothesis supported by Digby and Hollywood’s failure to publicize their partnership until after the singer broke big. Not until after “Umbrella” became a hit - the millions of streams also led to it charting on Billboard and appearing on “The Hills” - did Hollywood announce the signing of the YouTube phenom.
Digby denies she was part of an elaborate scam.
“(Hollywood) said, ‘Here’s the computer, good luck,’ ” she said. “YouTube was my last resort to promote myself. But it was a blessing in disguise that I didn’t get Final Cut Pro. The thing that works about those videos is that people feel like they’re seeing something real, that it’s not manufactured.”
Certainly she doesn’t have any hard feelings toward Hollywood and its stingy computer software budget. She’s thankful her record company came rushing back after she became a star.
“They were like, ‘We love you, we believed in you all along,’ ” said Digby. “The truth is that some people did believe in me all along and they didn’t have the pull to get everybody on board. I don’t hold any of that against them. For them to sit in a room and try to figure out how to market my music would have been very, very hard to do.”
Of course that’s the record company’s job. But never mind the details. Digby is happy. And so’s Hollywood. “Unfold,” that debut album Hollywood sat on for two-plus years, hit No. 29 on the Billboard Top 200 last week.
Marie Digby, with Eric Hutchinson, Friday at Cafe 939. Tickets: $15; 617-358-7000.
