The WSJ ($) nails a YouTube sensation named Marié Digby. While she’s been promoting herself as an innocent little singer who accidentally stumbled upon 2.3 million YouTube viewings, she’s actually been signed the whole time to Hollywood Records, who bought her a computer, made a video of her, and guided her through a fake career.

From Ethan Smith and Peter Lattman’s story:

In an Aug. 16 blog posting on her MySpace page, Ms. Digby wrote: “I NEVER in a million years thought that doing my little video of Umbrella in my living room would lead to this . tv shows, itunes, etc !!! [sic]”

Ms. Digby’s MySpace and YouTube pages don’t mention Hollywood Records. Until last week, a box marked “Type of Label” on her MySpace Music page said, “None.” After inquiries from The Wall Street Journal, the entry was changed to “Major,” though the label still is not named.

The paper is relatively kind to the artist and her label:

The fact that a big company supported Ms. Digby’s ruse reflects how dearly media giants want in on the viral revolution that’s changing how young consumers learn about new entertainment — even if it means a tiny bit of sleight-of-hand.

My emphasis. But the accreted examples, er, accrete, and not just the lying-about-her-label status. The company conspired with her to record cover versions of popular songs to increase her chances of getring noticed on YouTube. The label arranged her to visit an LA radio station:

As Ms. Digby’s star rose, other media outlets played along. When Los Angeles adult-contemporary station KYSR-FM, which calls itself “Star 98.7,” interviewed Ms. Digby in July, she and the disc jockey discussed her surprising success. “We kind of found her on YouTube,” the DJ, known as Valentine, said. Playing the lucky nobody, Ms. Digby said: “I’m usually the listener calling in, you know, just hoping that I’m going to be the one to get that last ticket to the Star Lounge with [pop star] John Mayer!” The station’s programming executives now acknowledge they had booked Ms. Digby’s appearance through Hollywood Records…

Then she went on Conan:

“I don’t think we need a television show to find talent in America,” crowed NBC late-night talk show host Carson Daly, introducing a performance by Ms. Digby last month. “We have the Internet.” Mr. Daly’s music booker, Diana Miller, says she booked the singer through Hollywood Records’ public-relations department.

Then she did an online chat for NBC:

“I just did this YouTube video two months ago and never, ever imagined that it would actually get me on TV or radio or anything like that,” she said. “I just did it in my living room and it blew up first on YouTube and then I guess it got to Star 98.7 and then Carson Daly found me so that’s why I’m here.”

Isn’t Digby a big plastic corporate puppet of a fucking liar?

Still, for the record, this isn’t a digital-age phenomenon. Any time there are distribution methods that traffic in authenticity, there will be labels and artists who try to finagle some indie cred out of nothing. Back in the Pleistocene era, right after the release of “Nevermind,” this sort of thing happened a lot; labels would sign a band, and then arrange to have their first single, or EP (those were the days!), or full-length release put out on one of the hip indie oufits. (Sometimes they had covers on them, too, to get a little easy college-radio airplay. College radio DJ’s loved covers, and so did, ahem, critics.)