Video killed the…?
Music Television started as an inexpensive avenue of television production and advertising for the music industry (and now everything pop culture.) This was the perfect way to entertain, sell music and other advertising. Essentially it was entertainment/advertising that people were willing to watch. The company and purpose of MTV changed as they experimented with different formulas to attract a wider audience. They began airing The Real World and TRL (which was music videos intertwined with other pop culture elements) to win over the pop culture consumption of teenagers and young adults. Since that experimental stage, MTV has filled their airtime with cheaply produced television shows that kept their audience entertained…until now.
With the lowest ratings in years, MTV has been forced to restructure their entire company. Do they follow the audience to the internet or do they try to come up with something innovative to bring people back to the television?
A couple months ago, they announced that they were cutting back their production and development costs even more to keep some sort of television running (possibly until they ran themselves into the ground, I’m assuming?) They laid off one of my best friends and his entire department which was on the forefront of their previous initiative to take advantage of the internet and social networking.
Yesterday they announced that they are going to put music videos back on MTV. Sound a bit redundant to you? Well, you know that I’m a sucker for music videos…and well…I think that it is the perfect idea. The New York Times stated that, “On Monday the network starts ‘AMTV,’ a six-hour block for music and advertising experimentation. From 3 to 9 a.m. Monday through Thursday, it will show music videos, news, interviews and performances, harking back to the network’s origins as a 24-hour home for music videos.” To be honest, I think that this is their best move in a while.
I’m a huge fan of VH1′s “Jump Start” which plays music videos back to back for a couple of hours – pretty much the same formula for AMTV. The writer of a music video blog that I read religiously, Videostatic, poked fun saying, “[AMTV is] perfect for watching as you enjoy your morning coffee, or while shaking off last night’s meth binge. Or, better yet: Just set your DVR.” Now the question is, what kind of music will they be playing? I am assuming that the type of music and the formula could be what makes it successful or a failure. Obviously enough, someone interested in indie rock music is not going to sit through five pop music videos to watch one rock video. VH1′s Jump Start features a variety of pop, alternative and rock which somehow seamlessly fit together – or at least I think so. We’ll see how they set this up.
What do you think about this initiative to win back their stake in the music video industry and pop culture consumption?
If you’d like to read more, click here to read the article from The New York Times. I found it really interesting, especially after Warner Music Group took down all of their videos from YouTube.
Share your thoughts.
March 30, 2009
One response to Video killed the…?
In all honesty, MTV has grown from music video hot spot to reality trash. They really need to bring back music promotion and prominence, and actually show the entire video instead of 15 second clips.
Speaking of WMG, their take down on videos has forced them to take down any related videos with their music and it’s subsidiaries. My “Youth of the Nation” video was forced to be muted as to not have the track playing the background (P.O.D. was Atlantic owned), just so I could keep it on YouTube. I really don’t think it’s right for them to take down other people’s creative efforts on a free-form site, considering that the actual video material is all their own. They can take down their own videos if they want, but to decline other fan’s creative efforts confuses me.
And when you come to think about it, isn’t WMG benefitting from fan works anyways? My video is now at a view count of 300,000, and it is all for the fans that love the song or for those that are experiencing it for the first time in a visual form. WMG is only shunning itself from free internet promotion, which would then result in consumers purchasing their products in the future. Doesn’t that make sense?