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I Want My MTV... PC?
Tsar writes: "MTV Networks is putting their imprimatur on a line of entertainment-oriented PC's to be available early this year. Targeting the college-age crowd, they'll have TV & radio tuners, DVD players, remote controls, and 'MTV-specific content.' CNN has this article on CNN's SCI-TECH page, but the original story was posted last Thursday on IDG.net. There's also news of MTV's impending digital music player, which uses DataPlay's 500MB matchbook-sized discs with built-in digital rights denial^H^H^H^H^H^Hmanagement."
Damn, doesn't MTV remember the past? They've tried this sort of thing before, and where did it get them. I think it was in 95 or 96, they considered releasing a similarly themed "Media Box" that was part laser disc, part cd player, part tape deck, part vcr, etc, etc
Needless to say it failed (You don't see any around anymore, do you?). During it's short lifespan (Remember those annoying commercials with the flashing colors and slow, loud beat?), a friend of mine picked one up.
I've never seen a worse piece of consumer grade electronics in my life. The laser for the cd must have been loose or something, because it would skip on just about every damn cd. And the tech support? It was a nightmare.
Basically my friend was told to bugger off because they had stopped production. In the warrenty it covered against this, so he was SOL.
And now they want to try this sort of thing again? God I hope they do a better job.
I'm in college now, and I have to tell you, MTV will do amazing with this if they promote it the right way.
Most college-age guys and girls want nothing more than to write papers and play music on. Sure, it's an amazing waste of processing power, but that's all they want.
If it says Windows, the goons think "Word", and if it says MTV, the goons think "Music". Word and Music, that's the only reason they need the PC anyway.
The internet is a big factor, but people are slowly starting to realize that the internet is available anywhere with a connection, and isn't PC dependant at all. They're still shaky on the music and processing part, for some reason.
Oh well, I expect to see dozens of these in the dorm room next year.
Well, I'm a bit cynical about all this, but here's my theory:
MTV built itself up in the 80s as being a cool, rebellious channel that played all sorts of music. Because old habits die hard, they still have this reputation today. I think that somewhere along the line, MTV's bottom line changed from playing music videos to being a profitable corporation. Marketing became the controlling force, and if a show wasn't generating buzz or good ratings it would be axed. Anyone remember Headbanger's Ball?
So then comes along shows like The Real World. People watched them, and MTV decided to experiment a little more with what people would watch. As I recall, in the early 90s they experimented with animated shows like Aeon Flux and Beavis & Butthead. But on the whole, shows like Road Rules probably got higher ratings than videos, as well as being a better target for merchandising.
I think MTV today is just a further reflection of this trend. It has little or nothing to do with music any more, it's just shows that are designed to be watched by a certain demographic (teens who need someone to tell them what's cool). Unfortunately, that demographic isn't terribly intelligent, and the shows reflect that. MTV will never take a risk on anything that would potentially bring them lower ratings and less advertising cash.
Or maybe I'm just completely off-base. You be the judge!