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

Enjoy it while it lasts

[dyingtolive]

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.

Music video site?

[Chriscypher]

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

Does this mean..?

[Burning1]

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...?

US only

[JohnstonDJ]

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.

Re:US only

[ErkDemon]

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.

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

[Jamu]

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

Re:Proper music goes in the ears...

[Spazztastic]

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

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

ffs, Rick-Rolled already?

[jonaskoelker]

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

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

ffs, /.

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.

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

[TheSunborn]

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.

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

Re:Disappointing

[Chris Mattern]

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

Re:Which videos?

[edmicman]

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

Actually..

[RulerOf]

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