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 &amp 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."

Comments

Anyone remember?

[Beltec]

Anyone remember the other theme based PC's and what happend to them? Barbie ring a bell? Ok, so this may have more of a chance, but really, MTV doing a computer?? Besides, I'd rather build my own anyhow, so I guess it really dosn't matter to me :)

Re:Anyone remember?

[jarodss]

Yep, I build my own too but I've never been able to get flames on the side like the hotwheels computer, except for the time some guy named Tom took the heat sink off my Athlon.

Re:Anyone remember?

[aka-ed]

Hah! you haven't seen How Cool It Looks!

You know you want it.

I could see this...

[PeeOnYou2]

You have to realize how hardcore a lot of teens are about MTV. Yes, the rest of us can see how lame it really is... but those who are sucked into it eat, sleep, and breathe it. If MTV says something is, IT IS dammit!

I should know.. my little sister would die without it. I think she even has withdrawals sometimes.

I can't wait to see if she wants one of these once they start advertising them all the time.

MTV Specific content... yes!

[Foxman98]

4 Words...

Jenny.
McCarthy.
Nude.
Screensaver.

College age crowd?

[CajunArson]

The last time I saw MTV (and its been a while) it was more geared
towards teenie boppers than college students

Maybe they are hoping a whole bunch of stupid freshman with
rich parents will buy? Or is this more for the N'sync/Brittney Spheres crowd?

Re:College age crowd?

[nomadic]

College students these days ARE teeny boppers. I swear, most of them seem to see college as just an extension of high school...

Say it ain't so?

[Brontosaurus Jim]

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.

Re:Say it ain't so?

[demaria]

"Remember those annoying commercials with the flashing colors and slow, loud beat?"

You've just described....every MTV commercial, ever. :)

Although failure the first time around doesn't necessarily mean you shouldn't try again, after learning which mistakes you made in the past.

Wrong Audience

[fleabag]

People at college...

- Have lots of spare time
- Don't have much money
- Are subject to a LOT of peer pressure in respect of the technology/clothes/whatever they own.

MTV aim to satisfy them by:

- Stopping them from ripping their friends CDs
- Appealing to "convenience" (look, you don't have to waste time with normal PCs and that Linux stuff...)
- Guaranteeing that they will have the credibility in class of an AOLer

Am I the only person who sees something strange in this...or do you need a qualification in marketing to see how this works?

Re:Wrong Audience

[HoaryCripple]

So true. I would not be caught dead with one of these bimbo boxes. But you know what, many college students have no freaking clue about computer hardware. Hard to believe in this day and age huh? So these people are the ones targeted. They will buy the stupid mtv computer, and marginalize the the crowd that knows hardware (not that this isn't already the case) as a bunch of quacks/dorks.

When you say that college students are subject to peer pressure -- I don't think that the hardware saavy (sp?) individuals are exerting peer pressure on anyone other than their hardware saavy friends.

Speaking of peer pressure, I am reminded of the time three other friends and I were in a bar. My one friend was kicking it to some woman, and my other two friends and I were talking to her somewhat cute friend (another female). Well, I was inebriated, and so naturally the topic changed to operating systems. In an uncanny moment of smoothness, I asked her if she used Windows. You can guess that she said "yes." I immediately replied that people who use Windows are idiots. Well, that pissed her off, but the amazing thing was that my other two friends joined in ripping on her because of her choice in operating system. What a fiasco that turned out to be for my (normal) friend who was hitting on the other woman. Needless to say both women left.

And if you're wondering, It's GNU/Linux all the way baby.

Re:Wrong Audience

[elefantstn]

Well, I was inebriated, and so naturally the topic changed to operating systems.

Just think about that for a minute.

MTV Will do Amazing with This

[Ieshan]

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.

Correlation?

[satanami69]

Just how much Silicon can one company push?

Re:How will they use it?

[garcia]

Warning: I was not a STAT major, but it my my belief that:

if they include specific pictures of nude music superstars (*cough* Spears *cough* Twain *cough* Hill *cough*) as wallpaper then I think that the 15s attention span might actually go up to 17 - 20s instead.

Some people might take longer b/c pictures would obviously have to be downloaded from www.thehun.com and sometimes depending on traffic that could take sometime, especially over traditional connections. That could bring the attention span all the way up to a *mind*-blowing 30s.

What it will look like

[KirTakat]

They are saying the pc will be produced by Lan Plus, so this is probably what it will be.

Re:Digital Rights Denial?

[ryants]

thus denying the Constitutionally given rights of content creators and copyright holders, no?

The US Constituon does not give rights to content creators and copyright holders at all. All it does is permit Congress to enact copyright legislation:

Section 8. The Congress shall have power ... To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;

Nothing is guaranteed in that statement.

Re:How Does MTV Survive?

[JWhiton]

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!

Whine anyone?

[ImaLamer]

I know this will be taken as a troll, or flame-bait. But here I go.

Everyone has put down MTV, the MTV computer idea, and so much more. It goes to show one thing:

Computer geeks don't get pop culture

Someone above posted:
Even if you are a college student, would you want your computer to come from a channel that headlines a show where people pierce their asses? Not me, I just don't see this idea being sucessful.

I guess that person doesn't realize that many, many people watch that show [Jackass]. MTV is way more than just a shiny things type of network. It's young 'veejays' are usually working 100 times harder behind the scenes. It's movie awards, while a comedy show, has really challanged the Oscars by giving awards to movies that the majority actually like. The Matrix would be a good example. No doubt that movie was a hit, but no nod from the academy.

If anyone is closer to what is on the minds of the public [from age 11-2?] than MTV, where are they? No doubt their success is proof.

Will this venture work? Maybe not. But if they got these machines hooked up to a broadband connection - it could be another MTV.

Remember, music artists spend millions to put their music on TV when they receive no immediate reward. Computers offer much more than TV.

I think free music would be one big draw. And even without DRM it would keep some piracy at bay. Think a thousand mp3 streams at your finger tips. MTV has the money and power to put that together.

Most college students I know are downloading mp3s and using P2P just to have something to listen to.

If they don't try to make this a computer, and more of an appliance that plays music, movies and videos... it could work.

Just something to think about.

Re:Whine anyone?

[Maul]

Your post makes sense, except that many college
students are beyond the "do whatever MTV tells me"
mentality. Of course, maybe I'm wrong since I only
hang out with other CS people.

A question I have that is hard to answer:

Does MTV merely understand teen pop culture well,
or are they part of a process that creates it?
Or is it a bit of both?

Re:Whine anyone?

[ImaLamer]

I think it's a bit of both. [reminder: NOT A FAN BOY]

The people who run MTV are sometimes the same people you see on screen. During the 80's and 90's MTV was mostly run by people who provided for an older audience. The people who ran MTV were young, 20's, and they were trying to put on an adult show. Not for older adults or people looking for class, but they were giving people what they wanted, and influencing pop-culture their own way.

Now I think we are seeing a shift to trying to understand and create {pop} culture as well. MTV doesn't do bad at providing adult programming as well. But most of what we see is adults and young adults trying to show kids culture. They touch on issues, but 9-5 it's mostly an adult showing kids groups or groups for kids. By kids, I mean teenagers - younger than the people who we are talking about now.

MTV though does have it's strong points. Wrestling, IMHO, is a bad move. But Jackass, and the Real World are two college age staple programs. These shows do appeal to many college age, 'hip', `poppy', type of kids.

This product could catch on and because of that bring back that 18-24 year old audience. They seem to be slipping when it comes to music videos.

But MTV2 seems to provide a better range of more complex music and music styles. If this thing could stream MTV2, that could be a hit. I know more people in college, living on campus, that have computers [and no cable] than cable tv.

Depends on the specs and functions. If it works well, and provides a 'cool' set of tools - it could take off.

Will MTV start a revolution in music distribution? Maybe. Something to think about again. They depend on it, as well as the artists depend on MTV.

A sane DRM system and internet distribution channel could sure help a whole bunch of us. MTV provides a jukebox at a certain cost, and sell [basically] singles to burn. You burn at home - the machine is the key. With the computer they provide the appliance and ease of use. Combine that with a library of music, Voila.

If it becomes easier than P2P and the many steps in between - the appliance becomes your computer and personal CD creation station. Normal people would just get this because ease of use and features. It's like a Tivo for music. I guess.

Just a thought.

It could be big...

[pinkpineapple]

at least from the minority stand point.

And it may actually take a big market slice away from already small percentage that is controlled by Apple Computer. Apple is trying to get the rest of us interested about looking at them and the company is diving right into the music market with iPod and the new "digital nub" iMac. Having MTV jumping in there with more than they can provide like for example content, may causes some tooth ache to SJ and its mignons.

PPA, the girl next door.