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MTV Launches Music Video Site

Posted by Soulskill on from the guess-what's-top-rated-right-now dept.

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."

45 of 192 comments (clear)

  1. Enjoy it while it lasts by dyingtolive · · Score: 5, Funny

    In about 8 months, they'll have nothing but Real World, and you'll have to go to www.mtvmusic2.com if you want to actually see music videos.

    --
    Support the EFF and Creative Commons. The war is coming, and they're supporting you...
    1. Re:Enjoy it while it lasts by Spazztastic · · Score: 2, Informative

      A good number of record companies have started releasing videos on Youtube. I can't cite this information because it's blocked at work, however they have many accounts created specifically by Universal Records, paramount, etc.

      --
      Posts not to be taken literally. Almost everything is sarcasm.
    2. Re:Enjoy it while it lasts by HungryHobo · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I take it Real World / Road Rules are like big brother over here. "big brother season 3065 now with even more fucked up people!"

      But unfortunatly this site isn't available to people in europe and I can't be assed going through a proxy.

      Fucking regional distribution. I'll stick with piracy since at least the pirate sites treat me the same whether I'm a fucking red blooded american or not.

    3. Re:Enjoy it while it lasts by Rune69 · · Score: 2, Informative

      I heard they had to form a committee to research what exactly music videos are and whether they are relevant to the company's core business.

      It's actually worse than that. They paid a consultant $2 million so that he could, after months of research, tell them that their core business should be music television.

      And no, I am not joking. I was in the meeting, trying not to piss myself laughing.

      --

      When faced with a problem, many web developers say "I know, I'll use JavaScript!".
      Now they have two problems.
  2. Music video site? by Chriscypher · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I wonder how long until they subvert the channel to only broadcast crappy reality shows.

    --
    "You have liberated me from thought."
    1. Re:Music video site? by dotancohen · · Score: 2, Funny

      I wonder how long until they subvert the channel to only broadcast crappy reality shows.

      It's even worse already. All they are broadcasting at the moment is:

      Internal Server Error - Read
      The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.

      Reference #3.934519d4.1225292456.1d7561c4

      --
      It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
  3. So that's where all the music went... by thomsomc · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.

  4. Neither music nor television by hoto0301 · · Score: 3, Funny

    mtvmusic2.com will soon be dominated by jackass and some other useless bullshit that will destroy any remaining dignity the internet may have once had

    1. Re:Neither music nor television by timmarhy · · Score: 2, Funny

      huh sorry i missed that i just farted?

      --
      If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
    2. Re:Neither music nor television by jonaskoelker · · Score: 2, Funny

      Says you:

      will destroy any remaining dignity the internet may have once had

      Says DNA:

      There is another theory which states that this has already happened.

      Says I:
      http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1011281&cid=25553165

    3. Re:Neither music nor television by db32 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      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.

      --
      The only change I can believe in is what I find in my couch cushions.
  5. Does this mean..? by Burning1 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Does this mean that they can stop wasting our time with those stupid music videos on their TV channel, and get back to their reality TV roots...?

  6. US only by JohnstonDJ · · Score: 5, Informative

    I was thinking this was going to be really cool. If it was of a higher resolution than youtube, and all neatly organized it would be awesome. However It gets major negative points from me, as on the three video files I tried all i got was a "Copyrights prevent us from playing this file outside the U.S." Back to youtube for me.

    1. Re:US only by JohnstonDJ · · Score: 2, Informative

      Looking around it seems to be that. About half the video files are copyright restricted. I know it falls under different copyright laws, but the files I am attempted to watch on the website I have viewed on New Zealands version of MTV. Damn having broadcast rights, but not streaming rights.

    2. Re:US only by whoisrich · · Score: 2, Informative

      Urgh, im in the UK, and I tried the top 4 most viewed, and all were not available outside the U.S.

    3. Re:US only by clickclickdrone · · Score: 2, Insightful

      >Urgh, im in the UK, and I tried the top 4 most viewed, and all were not available outside the U.S.
      probably a blessing - be happy about it.

      --
      I want a list of atrocities done in your name - Recoil
    4. Re:US only by ErkDemon · · Score: 4, Insightful
      Only about half? (!!?)

      As an exercise, I've just gone back and tried about twenty or thirty major MTV-friendly videos from major MTV-type artists and current chart singles (US and UK), and I haven't gotten a single one to play.

      Zero success rate. They all have the "US-only" copyright notice.

      This is bad. It has National Security implications. How are we supposed to convince the Aggrieved Iranian Youth to drop hardcore Islamic values and embrace the West, if we don't let them see the purty videos with wimmin-in-bikinis jumping up and down? They're just going to be even more aggrieved, and the people who win are going to be the repressive local governments who wanted to block all this material anyway.

      MTV is supposed to be the international shopfront for The American Dream. It's sometimes partly credited for the destruction fo the Berlin Wall (glum East-Berliners had illegal MTV cable wired under the Wall, and thought the West was all conspicuous consumption and pink cadillacs).

      How're you gonna export US aspirational fantasies to other cultures if you set up an info-wall that stops outsiders from being able to see in?

      "Hearts and Minds", people! Ya can't corrupt the youth of North Korea and Afghanistan with Decadent Western Values if you don't show them the goodies! Leave a vacuum, and, gawd, they're just gonna develop their own cultural material.

      The US has lost so much influence around the world in the last eight years in so many areas, popular entertainment is perhaps is last major niche where it can claim world dominance. Of those, TV and movies and music are the three "broadcastables". Pull the plug on world access to MTV, and you're losing a major component of the infowars where the US has technical superiority -- music tends to be cheap to produce, music videos tend to be expensive.

      --
      Eric Baird
  7. Give me the box by RemoWilliams84 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Great, now mtv has another way to brainwash kids into thinking this emo crap is music. I also hate how some of my favorite bands are pigeonholed as a certain type of music because if they ever have a hit song it has to be just the right amount of pop. I miss the box music network. They seemed to have a great rotation and mix of music, at least in my area.

    --
    "I don't have to think. I only have to do it. The results are always perfect, but that's old news." - Meat Puppets
  8. Proper music goes in the ears... by pandrijeczko · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ...not the eyes.

    Yes, by all means show me a concert of some proper musicians playing live to an audience, or show me some historic footage of a band in a documentary.

    But please don't show me pretty "mini-movies" that do nothing more than try to distract me from realising how crap the underlying music actually is.

    MTV have done for music what pork fat has done for cardiac health.

    --
    Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
    1. Re:Proper music goes in the ears... by Spazztastic · · Score: 5, Funny

      MTV have done for music what pork fat has done for cardiac health.

      "MTV is to Music as KFC is to Chicken"
      -Lewis Black

      --
      Posts not to be taken literally. Almost everything is sarcasm.
    2. Re:Proper music goes in the ears... by mdm-adph · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Nobody's showing you anything. If you don't want to watch, don't go to the site or turn on the channel. Jeez.

      --
      It is by my will alone my thoughts acquire motion; it is by the juice of the coffee bean that the thoughts acquire speed
  9. Is it me, or is the music quality really bad? by TheSunborn · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.

    1. Re:Is it me, or is the music quality really bad? by Jamu · · Score: 5, Funny

      Luxury. Outside the US it's 0Kbit/sec and we have to add our own noise.

      --
      Who ordered that?
    2. Re:Is it me, or is the music quality really bad? by TheSunborn · · Score: 3, Interesting

      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.

    3. Re:Is it me, or is the music quality really bad? by TheSunborn · · Score: 4, Funny

      Dam, I did not know that Denmark had been accepted as a new state in USA. Now I only have a few days to find out which president candidate to vote for.

      Why was I not informed before.

  10. Lucky default? by jonaskoelker · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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

    1. Re:Lucky default? by jomegat · · Score: 3, Interesting
      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.

      --

      In theory, practice and theory are the same. In practice, they're not.

  11. ffs, Rick-Rolled already? by jonaskoelker · · Score: 4, Informative

    Here's what a quick look on the site says:

    Top Rated:
    <img/>
    Never Gonna Give You Up
    By Rick Astley

    ffs, /.

  12. Thanks! by GuloGulo · · Score: 3, Funny

    I thought proper music was live bands? Oh, then it was wax cylinders I think. Isn't it vinyl these days, with CDs being the product of the anti-christ?

    It's a good thing we have people like you to tell us what proper music is.

    --
    "The government grants you rights, not the other way around."-- beav007. Yes, these people really exist...
  13. USA Only? by ErkDemon · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

    --
    Eric Baird
    1. Re:USA Only? by Bryansix · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Ya, tell that to the BBC. Jackasses, the lot of em'.

  14. It's still some corporation that thinks they know. by i_want_you_to_throw_ · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It's still some corporation that thinks they know what it is I want to see.. right off the bat I tried...
    1. XTC
    2. Wall of Voodoo
    3. Human League


    Granted these are niche bands...nothing on any of these.

    When MTV gets around to allowing users to upload videos and then replacing them with their own pristine copies, I'll be impressed. Maybe they should have tried THAT model.

  15. allmusic.com by pretygrrl · · Score: 2, Informative

    allmusic.com has a huge selection of videos, im guessing legally, as they are a huge site thats been around forever.
    i haven't had it happen where I looked for a video and not found it there.
    i bet they got more selection now than mtv will in 2 yrs.

    --
    Contemplate the marvel that is existence, and rejoice that you are able to do so.
  16. Why by Chutulu · · Score: 2, Informative

    the fuck is a band like Morbid Angel stuffed in a "Rock" category? And no Burzum or Bathory videos? This suxs.

  17. Obscured videos by implowry · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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.

  18. Re:Only thing that will matter to me is by thatskinnyguy · · Score: 2, Informative

    The new encoding isn't junk. It's MP4. Try changing the extension.

    --
    The game.
  19. Censorship by Fireye · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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

  20. Re:Disappointing by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 4, Funny

    I guess in your case, you *can't* dance if you want to.

  21. Re:Convenient? by cashman73 · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Maybe I'm just getting old (I am 25 after all), but who wants to sit at their computer at watch music videos?

    Ever hear of S-Video out on your graphics card? Many computers have them these days.

    As for the quality, yeah, it's probably about on par with Youtube, though some are better, since they're converted from the original recording and not some fan's degraded VHS tape from the 1980s. Searching for a song on MTV's site is still a lot better than Youtube, though, since you generally get the song without having to sift through all the other crap on Youtube,...

  22. Re:Which videos? by edmicman · · Score: 5, Funny

    Isn't "Under Pressure" that song Queen ripped off from Vanilla Ice?

  23. Is this different than the VH1 Classic site? by Yesfan001 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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

  24. Re:Which videos? by Provocateur · · Score: 2, Funny

    Uhura: Captain? They want to know if you want to pay by credit card or Paypal.

    Captain: (Searches uniform) Ehrm I seem to have left my wallet at home. THis thing doesn't even have pockets! Spock?

    (Spock nerve pinches the first red-shirted guy on deck, gets that guy's credit card and hands it to Kirk)

    Captain (to Spock): Did you just nerve pinch that guy...

    Spock: I believe the proper term is 'identity theft', Captain.

    --
    WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
  25. Re:Which videos? by Inda · · Score: 3, Funny

    All right stop, collaborate and listen
    Ice is back with my brand new invention

    You are going sing this in your head all day long.

    --
    This post contains benzene, nitrosamines, formaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide.
  26. okay, allmusic.com DOES have lots of videos by ErkDemon · · Score: 2, Informative
    Ah, found the problem.

    The specific "music videos" search engine link on allmusic.com is a bit screwy. If you click "Music Videos", use "Madonna" as a search term, and then click on the provided "Madonna" artist link, allmusic.com only calls up two videos, "Die Another Day", and "Human Nature".

    OTH, if you don't click the videos link, and you just do a general artist search, the provided "Madonna" link calls up thirty Madonna videos rather than two (and eighteen Britney videos rather than three).

    It's me. I have a talent for going straight to the one link on a site or the one function on a program that that doesn't work properly. :)

    --
    Eric Baird
  27. Actually.. by RulerOf · · Score: 4, Funny

    The people behind MTV Music's web presence filmed a short video detailing their goals with the site, and outlined how they'll separate the Music videos from other MTV content to help establish a more defined web presence. I found it worthwhile.

    http://www.mtvmusic.com/video/?id=55086

    --
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