MTV Launches Music Video Site

An anonymous reader writes "MTV Music has just launched a website where they offer over 16,000 music videos — like YouTube, but with fewer notices and DMCA takedowns. They've also set up development tools for third parties to incorporate the content into their own creations. Users creating accounts at the site face other challenges, however, such as the six separate agreements and privacy statements that must be accepted via a single checkbox. Thankfully, at the time of writing the MTV Music website was making this process easier on its Firefox 3 visitors by automatically checking the accept box whenever any agreement is viewed."

Comments

So that's where all the music went...

[thomsomc]

I guess they finally had to move ALL of the music videos off the air and onto a new website. I was wondering where they were going to actually show music videos...now I know.

Is it me, or is the music quality really bad?

[TheSunborn]

Is it me, or is the music quality really really bad?

It almost sound like they encoded the music as 96Kbit/sec mp3 and then added noise.

Re:Is it me, or is the music quality really bad?

[TheSunborn]

Example: Try to listen to Tori Amos Winter
http://www.mtvmusic.com/video/?id=47577
And then compare to the youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnboUbOGDOM

The Mtv version got a really bad 'noice' in the background in the beginning of the song.
Or maybe it's just a problem with their player and Linux.

Lucky default?

[jonaskoelker]

Thankfully, at the time of writing the MTV Music website was making this process easier on its Firefox 3 visitors by automatically checking the accept box whenever any agreement is viewed.

I sure as hell hope this is ironic. It's my vague recollection that there are laws (or court findings) against the default behavior being entering into a contract.

In US contract law, there has to be a meeting of the minds for a contract to be formed. That is, both parties have to believe they agree on what the contract says.
(Source: female lawyer from the defcon media archives; can't remember exactly who though)

When you click next without having read the contract, have the minds met? If the checkbox is on by default, you implicitly say you do, but did you mean to do that?

In any case, if it's not illegal, it's something that smells wrong.

Consider this: when you install Debian or Ubuntu, you're asked whether you want to install popularity-contest, a program that reports anonymous usage data [which packages are installed, when have they last been used].

I trust the Debian project and Canonical to not misuse that data, and to aggregate enough of it such that usage patterns which could identify individuals with high probability are lost in the aggregation process.

But it's still the right thing for Debian and Ubuntu not installing popularity-contest unless the user explicitly wants to.

-- Jonas K

Re:Lucky default?

[jomegat]

Oh yes, thankfully they check that box for me. I was at a drug store this summer trying to get some Sudafed, but in order to do that, I was presented with an electronic notice telling me how I could go jail if I told lies about my intended use of the product (or some such rot - thanks meth-heads!). As I was reading the notice, they clerk "thankfully" grabbed the pen and checked the "Yes, I read this and understand it" box "for" me before I had even finished the first sentence. I was astounded. She got all huffy when I insisted she start all over, because I wanted to read all the fine print before agreeing to anything.

MTV's approach is not that much different.

USA Only?

[ErkDemon]

COPYRIGHTS RESTRICT US
FROM PLAYING THIS VIDEO
OUTSIDE THE U.S.

So this site will shortly be eliminating pretty much all the competing sources of music videos on the web, but nobody outside the US is going to be able to watch it?

Geographical firewalls on websites are a really bad idea. They're anti-www, anti free trade, and they Piss People Off. They make large chunks of the world population feel discriminated against, and resentful against the company or industry or country that's stopping them from being able to watch or read what other people can watch and read.

They also make it more difficult to complain about other country-specific blocks, like China blocking its own population from being able to access certain external political sites. The more companies do this, the more frustrating the web will become.

Obscured videos

[implowry]

I stopped watching all MTV channels when they decided to show half the actual video. When they do show videos they are 75% obscured by 5 not so invisible station identification emblems. Like I can't figure out what station I'm watching.

Do I dare mention the enormous banners that either pop on screen or just stay there, telling you how you should watch the video you're trying to watch. I think I hate all of those things even more than Lewis Black does.

I'm sure that watching the videos on the computer in miniature resolution and poor audio quality with popups all over the place causing more epileptic seizures than the video itself is capable of, will be a pleasurable experience.

Censorship

[Fireye]

I was perusing this yesterday, and came across the Weird Al video "Don't Download This Song". One line in the original song goes:
o/~ Like Morpheus or Grokster or Limewire or KaZaA o/~

But the version on the new MTV site goes:
o/~ Like *beep* or *beep* or *beep* or *beep* o/~

Does anyone know if it was aired on MTV/VH1 this way, or is this unique to the web version?

MTV: http://www.mtvmusic.com/video/?id=108884
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yz-grdpKVqg

Is this different than the VH1 Classic site?

[Yesfan001]

At http://www.vh1classic.com/browse/video/17278/featured-playlists/index.jhtml, you can play lots of videos.

These have been available on the VH1 Classic site for quite some time now, I believe.

Since MTV and VH1/VH1 Classic share the same corporate parent, maybe they've just now added the VH1 Classic video content to MTV's site.

Pete

Re:Neither music nor television

[db32]

Whoa whoa whoa...say what you will about MTV and their hordes of Real World style bullshit shows, but Jackass is awesome.

1. They act like idiots. They know they act like idiots. They go over the top acting like idiots. Idiot watching is amazing so long as the idiots are safely corraled and can be observed from a safe distance. Even before Jackass, think back to all the videos emailed around and such...almost all of the videos were of people doing something monumentally stupid, all viewed from the safety of your PC. Idiots are only a problem when they run free.
2. It causes other idiots to run free! This is education at its finest. These morons severly injure themselves trying to pull Jackass style stunts not understanding that the Jackass crew is "professionals" (a bit of a stretch of the term, but they aren't just doing ameture dumbass shit, they have crews on hand to handle things). You can tell a kid not to jump off a roof onto a fence wearing roller skates...but you can be sure that he will fully understand why after he does it once and will probably never do anything even remotely as stupid again.
3. The hilarious disclaimer at the beginning of the episode to absolve themselves for the legal liability of reason 2.

Now, to address the internet having dignity. That was gone a LONG LONG time ago if it ever even existed. Goatse, tubgirl, GNAA, geocities, myspace, twitter, facebook, etc...nevermind that the majority of the internet is porn or other sex related pills, pumps, and so on. Why you are worried about MTV having any impact on the dignity of the internet is beyond me.