New York Times on The Shift of Music Videos From TV to the Internet
This article isn’t nearly as luddite as my headline might suggest. Here’s a snippet:
Online social networking, especially the kind dominated by teenagers, has been remarkably fertile turf for music marketing. The community site MySpace.com features home pages for more than 350,000 bands, from indie acts to platinum artists like Nine Inch Nails and Black Eyed Peas. MySpace allows users to become “”friends”" with bands, communicating directly with them (or whomever they hire to answer e-mail) and sharing video and audio clips with other users. For MySpace users, the music content is a draw, giving them something to talk about online. And for labels, MySpace is a marvelously efficient, remarkably cheap and not terribly invasive means of spreading buzz.
Two months ago, MySpace began offering streaming video. Immediately, record labels began using the site for video debuts, including clips from Death Cab for Cutie and the Dears. Chris DeWolfe, MySpace’s chief executive, says the new model is superior to MTV’s old one.
“”Homogenized playlists leave an unfulfilled need,”" Mr. DeWolfe says. “”With community features, users can share video playlists with each other. The word of mouth happens naturally.”"
… Visitors to the Yahoo site watch more than 350 million videos per month. In the last week of May, AOL Music had an audience of 12.2 million, according to Nielsen/Net Ratings, and Yahoo Music was close behind with 11.3 million. Though the figures aren’t directly comparable, in the same time period, “”Total Request Live,”" MTV’s flagship countdown show, drew a daily average of 662,000 households, and “”106 & Park,”" BET’s countdown show, captures 605,000, according to Nielsen Media Research. Says David Saslow, who is in charge of video promotion at Interscope Records, “”If we have a No. 1 video at Yahoo, that’s as important as having a No. 1 video on a network.”"
