Fall Out Boy's Wentz talks music and marketing at Mobile Entertainment Live!

SAN DIEGO--Proclaiming that "people are only interested in your art as long as you keep engaging them," Fall Out Boy lyricist/bassist Pete Wentz offered his perspective on digital music, viral marketing and social media during a far-ranging keynote Q&A here at Tuesday's Mobile Entertainment Live! event. Marketing "is an art," said the newly-shorn Wentz, outlining the evolution of the emo hitmakers' "Citizens for Our Betterment" viral campaign, which touted the upcoming release of the band's fifth album Folie à Deux via fake hacking of Wentz's Decaydence Records website. "The idea was to get people confused and worked up," he explained.  

Wentz expressed regret that the music industry did not more quickly come to terms with the Web. "The industry made some poor decisions by treating [the Web] as an issue where you sic lawyers on it," he said. "If we had embraced the possibilities, we'd be in a much different situation now." Wentz also championed Twitter--Fall Out Boy's Twitter feed now boasts more than 1.5 million followers. "I use it to drive campaigns, and also when I like something," Wentz said. He dismissed the idea that services like Twitter have made artists too accessible to their fanbase: "The Internet is a closet door. It's only as wide open as you let it be."

While little of Wentz's keynote touched directly on the mobile platform, he did profess his sincere affection for rapper T-Pain's auto-tune iPhone app. "The T-Pain app is the most hilarious thing in the world," Wentz said. "I do a song a night."