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Music Media

MTV enters digital music market 26

Posted by Hemos from the enter-the-goliath dept.
KevinRemhof writes "MTV has signed a deal with Diamond Multimedia subsidiary RioPort. They are going to sell digital music on MTV.com, VH1.com, and other MTV sites. They will share profits with RioPort. " Additionally, MTV also gets a piece of RioPort-financial details not disclosed, of course.
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MTV enters digital music market More

MTV enters digital music market

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  • The Fat Lady is singing. (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I think this is a Big Thing(tm)

    MTV knows this market segment about as good as anyone. If they start selling MP3s, whoosh!

    DT
  • Posted by Lord Kano-The Gangst:

    I would pay $0.99 for a song. I hate paying $17.99 for a CD that has three songs that I actually like.

    I'd have about a grand in savings if I didn't pay for 8 songs that suck ass every time I buy a CD.

    LK
  • Posted by Solar Jetman:

    That is the big question, IMHO. Who is going to buy singles for 99 cents... or even a dime for that matter? And what happens when my drive crashes or the download fails? The cybersavvy might know what to do but the average Joe can't even program a VCR let alone navigate the complexities.

    The average Joe would pay, because the average Joe can find www.mtv.com a lot easier than an underground mp3 site. But the average Joe is also on a modem, and would get disconnected, etc. fairly often. I would imagine that the site will have some way to deal with this -- not charging until download completes, etc. As for hard drive crashes, tough luck...I don't get a refund from record companies when I lose a cd.

    But here's a question: why can't radio stations, who have a license or something to broadcast 'singles' over the air, 'broadcast' them over the net via mp3 for free?
  • MTV.com are the assh*les that tried a scheme
    (or should I say scam) to charge ISPs for access
    to their wonderful pompous
    we're-so-so-cool-we-should-charge-you-to-access- our-site

    http://www.wired.com/news/news/business/story/78 4.html

    They've also pulled a scam where the drummed up
    publicity by pretending they're site got hacked
    just to promote the MTV Video Awards show....

    I'm sorry but I hate MTV. They don't play music
    video anymore and they have single-handedly
    commercialized every tiny aspect of youth culture
    and pimped it all out to Pepsi and AT&T ad execs.

    F*ckers!


  • 5 years down the road you'll still be seeing Backstreet Boys videos on MTV, only they'll be the subject of ridicule.

    Aren't Backstreet Boys videos already the subject of ridicule?

  • This is all we need. (Score:3)

    by brennanw ( 5761 ) on Tuesday July 20, 1999 @09:43AM (#1793865) Homepage Journal

    Whenever you download an MTVMP3 (catchy, ain't it)? You will start to hear the song, but it will be overlaid with giggling teenage girls requesting the song, along with some frat guy talking about how "that song rawks", and halfway through the song some halfwit Veejay (MP3jay) will stop the song and suddenly you'll be taken to an excerpt of MTV's "the real world."

    And a 2:20 song will suddenly be an 8 mb download.

    I freakin' can't wait. The revolution will be pre-packaged and sold in styrofoam containers.

  • MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon, M2, Nick-At-Nite and Showtime are all owned by Viacom. They all share the same IS department, infoWorks (although MTVOnline has it's own set-up). They share other things also, like HR. It's really one big company. All but Showtime are in the same building in Times Square - Showtime is just up the street. Check out Viacom's site to see what else they own - it's amazing and a little scary.
  • MTV does own VH1, but they are slightly different. VH1 will commonly play more light edge stuff than MTV, and will usually play it for a longer period of time.

    Also I was reading in TV guide a little while ago, that was talking about the transition that VH1 did to become a sort A&E of the music world. They have shows called "Behind The Music" which I guess could be compaired to Biography on A&E. Plus they have the "Rock and Roll Picture Show" which shows rockmusical movies (if that's a term, I probably just made it up)
  • Does anyone else remember the old MTV.com? Every week there would be a few new .au files you could download. Gad, they were huge, and they sounded terrible. But I bought a number of CDs because I liked the music they offered. It was the whole song too -- but they attached the text message: "Brought to you by MTV.com" at the end of each song.

    Ah... Back in the day. (And then they fired the VJ responsible for the whole thing... I also remember the fights they had over ownership of the domain name...)
  • VH1/M2 are the music-oriented business at MTV Networks.. MTV has now positioned itself as more of a pop-cultural resource, rather than a music resource. I think a lot of what VH1 is doing right now is fairly exciting, showing a lot of interesting back-info about artists, focusing on specific artists, and taking a lot of the older MTV music-oriented material like Rockumentaries (essentially VH1 Behind The Music) and MTV Unplugged (VH1 Storytellers) and presenting them to a new audience. For all of the vitriol that MTV generates, it's still hugely popular.

    As an employee of MTV Networks, I can say (for myself, of course, not for the company) that I don't personally like the content on MTV that much, but both M2 and VH1 are, well, pretty cool. A lot of what MTVN is planning to do in online upcoming looks like it'll be good as well -- Music First once again, and not just for VH1 watchers.
    I'm excited about it as a music fan, not as an employee of The Company.

    The online music initiatives should be broad and interesting, not pop-culture focused like the cable channel.

    -s

    as always, i don't speak for my employer.
  • Hey all,

    Just a friendly reminder. MTV got to be the 500 pound gorilla of the music industry by making exclusivity pacts with artists and labels. If you wanted to see your favorite band's video, it was ONLY on MTV. Up until recently, if you wanted to market your music to 12-24 year olds, you had to be on MTV. Period if you are looking for any kind of exposure or commercial success.

    They may try the same thing here. Exclusive web streams of content. Exclusive rights to distribute online. This is their growth strategy and it works real well.

    The weak link in MP3's is that you have to know an artist exists before you can search for their content. If MTV makes it so that to hear your favorite music, you HAVE to go to their site first, then maybe people are more likely to go there when they want music in general. If this is the case, then they control who gets online mega-exposure. Every band can make a website, but only a heavy like MTV can make people come.

    In other words...the indie online advantage is being threatened.

    MTV wants to be the microsoft of music. Either you do it their way, or not at all.

    dan
  • Since when has MTV had anything to do with music? I thought all they did these days was peddle moronic game-shows, chat-shows, 'real life' shows, commercials, cartoons, and maybe one music video snuck in somewhere in between, at 3 am or something like that. But, ranting about MTV's lameness aside, I have to say that this is a pretty encouraging step for the acceptance of digital music as a legitimate use, instead of just a mass-piracy scene that the RIAA seems to be so concerned about. I don't know enought about SDMI standards/goals to make a judgement about that, but if it makes them happy and makes 'net distributed music less of a boogeyman, I say all for it. And of course, for the naysayers, there will always be mp3, so don't get your panties in a knot... nobody's gonna make you buy MTV's music at gunpoint.

    Just my $0.02


    - Dave

    "Take what thou hast and give it to the poor."
  • You forget that when you get cable, you pay for MTV (aka eMpTyV). They tried to make ISP's charge you because they have a (S#!ty) web page. Nice that they are leading the charge for internet taxation by private enterprise. Read the writing on the wall, it's probably sprayed on like Ricky Martin's hair color...


    http://www.wired.com/news/news/business/story/78 4.html
  • I'm hangin out in the wrong places! ;)
  • But here's a question: why can't radio stations, who have a license or something to broadcast 'singles' over the air, 'broadcast' them over the net via mp3 for free?

    Sure they can broadcast those singles, as a "radio show", even in mp3 format. But not for free though - they do have to pay for it. They even have to pay for broadcasting them over the air (at least in here in Finland they do..). And having a repository of mp3 files would be a totally different thing..
    --
  • Yours:
    Score -1: Stupid
    Mine:
    (Score -1: Redundant) :P
  • Maybe I'm just out of the loop, because I don't even get cable, let alone watch VH1 or MTV, but does MTV own/control VH1? The press release says it will sell digital music on VH1.COM as well as MTV.COM and other sites they obviously own. Anyway, if they do own VH1, what is the point, don't they play the same overplayed, alternative/Top40 unoriginal @#%$? Which I assume is the same kind of stuff they are going to sell, so count me out.

    Spyky
  • The article mentions allowing the buyers to download SDMI compliant music, it does not really say you can download mp3s. Are there even any SDMI compliant portable players out yet? I thought they were not suppost to come out until Christmas at the earliest. Also are Rios able to play SDMI compliant stuff or did the evil industry end up trying to make it SDMI or mp3 but not both?

    Rich
  • MTV is perfect for Diamond's Rio player. They (MTV) cater to those who love to listen to the overplayed crap from the latest sensation to hit the music scene. Now all the 14 year old girls can download the newest release by "that really cute guy" and jam out to it at a sleepover with their cheap boombox.

    I'll tell you what I find funny about MTV - anybody catch the show a couple of months ago where some celebrities were sitting around, talking about how bad the videos of 5-10 years ago were? 5 years down the road you'll still be seeing Backstreet Boys videos on MTV, only they'll be the subject of ridicule. How hypocritical. MTV has managed to exploit artists and "fans," and I admire them because that is a damn good idea - appeal to the idiots, because they're the majority.

    -Drew Boyles-
    dboyles@resnet.gatech.edu

  • Aren't Backstreet Boys videos already the subject of ridicule?

    Ahh, by those of us who choose our music based on the actual *music*, yes. If I chose my music based on what the singer/group looks like, I'd be in line for Britney Spears tickets...

    If you've ever seen a/an [insert teen heartthrob here] "interview" on MTV, and they show the audience, check out who's there. Isn't there something wrong if teenage girls make up ~95% of the audience?

    I think once MTV starts putting some of its crap in MP3 format for download, we'll see a sharp rise in Rio sales.

    -Drew Boyles-
    dboyles@resnet.gatech.edu

  • Is it just me or does this smell like MSNBC fodder. All a Heart and Minds game to keep investors from bailing over free music.



    Expect a little help
    "Our audience demands and expects that we help them download music. RioPort provides us with the opportunity to be able to do so in a secure and easy way that is SDMI compliant," MTV Networks Online president Fred Seibert said in a release. "With this agreement, RioPort is our private label download solution, aggregating content, providing music management software, and licensing and marketing the production of consumer hardware devices."


    Translation : "See, We will/still have control over distribution"


    Reality: The horses have eaten their children.
    my2c

  • Since when can MTV distribute music directly?
    Are they talking about the same music the RIAA
    presses on CD and sells to us for $8 too much?I can't imagine MTV having any rights except to distribute videos on-air only.

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