popular thinking

MTV KILLED THE MUSIC VIDEO (BUT NOT THE MUSIC VIDEO STAR): Buggles!

Videos don't mean diddy to MTV anymore, no matter what the "music television'' network tries to prove tonight during its 22nd annual Video Music Awards ceremony from Miami.
Bands still make music videos.
Fans simply go elsewhere to find them - streaming videos online, downloading them to cellphones or calling them up "on demand'' on cable TV.
Google "music videos'' and the top listing is Yahoo!, not MTV.
"Since MTV has stopped playing music videos . . . for kids, this (venue) is their primary function for watching,'' said Yahoo's Y! Music spokeswoman Charlene English. "They can keep choosing video after video, or they can watch their own music show.''
Yahoo's Y! Music began as a separate company called musicvideos.com, which became Launch in 1999, then was acquired by Yahoo! in 2001. The popular portal has attracted more music video fans since then, with streaming views more than doubling from 1.3 billion screenings in 2003 to 2.9 billion last year.
So far this year, Mariah Carey's video for We Belong Together has aired more than 7.5 million times online at Yahoo!
Even more people visit America Online's music site.
Its music video traffic increased 145 percent from May 2003 to May 2005, and since doubled again from June to July, with more than 6 million videos screened via AOL daily. AOL has benefited mightily from positive feedback and word-of-mouth for its streaming feeds of the Live 8 concerts in July, which overshadowed MTV's coverage of the global event.
"Live 8 was really a big wake-up call for people who weren't paying attention to the Internet in terms of marketing,'' said Jack Isquith, who runs daily operations for AOL Music and AOL Radio.
The spread of high-speed broadband and DSL hookups, combined with faster computers and bigger monitors, has made online viewing comparable to TV.
Except online, fans have more control.
"The key driver is that people can watch what they want when they want,'' Isquith said. "It's that element of control. There's a whole generation of kids who have grown up to expect that.''
Mariah Carey in a bathtub for her new video, Shake It Off, is a hit online and on TV.
Certainly, other top artists gravitate toward the top of the charts, whether it's MTV's "TRL'' or AOL's "Top 11'' multimedia show.
The lists do differ, though. MTV's chart-toppers lean toward teen faves and MTV-hyped musicians, while AOL's list sometimes favors in-studio Sessions@AOL performances and last week featured more rock artists.
Y! Music's technology uses viewer selections and ratings to steer fans toward other music.
"Say you like Mariah Carey,'' English said. "You call her video up and it plays for you, and then a show will come up with videos that are similar and you can rate them. Each time you come back to the site, it culls your musical taste.''
While more viewers are choosing AOL, Yahoo!, MSN and Comcast, cellphone companies also are jumping on the bandwagon.
Verizon Wireless launched its V-Cast service this year with Super Bowl ads featuring Christina Aguilera and Kid Rock. For a $15 monthly fee, customers get access to clips of news, sports, weather and entertainment - including an Encore channel that provides live concert footage. Last week's offerings included three songs from Journey's Aug. 20 concert at the Bank of America Pavilion.
Music videos, such as Pretty Ricky's Grind With Me, My Chemical Romance's Helena and Faith Hill's Cry, can be downloaded onto the phone for $3.99 each.
V-Cast will have an exclusive this week of John Legend's new video for Number One.
The audio and video is quite good, but limited to the small cellphone screen.
Not that all music video fans have abandoned TV.
Music Choice, a partner with Comcast Cable and Sprint cellphones, counted more than 100 million views of its Music Choice On Demand selections since its launch last November, with Ciara's 1, 2 Step viewed more than 2 million times.
"We knew that consumers were getting a lack of music videos from the providers on basic cable,'' said Damon Williams, Music Choice's vice president of music programming. "The music fan has been lost in the muck.''
The music videos have become the most popular portion of Comcast's On Demand service.
AOL also has an "on demand'' channel service with Time Warner's cable systems.
Isquith predicted even more growth for music videos online and on demand, as parents and other adults older than 30 catch onto the service that already has captivated teens and 20-somethings.
"We're doing a listening party streaming the full albums Monday from the Rolling Stones, a new Bob Dylan double-CD coming out . . . and Herbie Hancock,'' he said. "These are all the things that maybe four or five years ago, people weren't thinking of marketing this stuff online.''
Even Apple's iTunes has gotten involved.
Though no plans are afoot officially to offer music videos on next-generation iPods, iTunes did have 596 music videos available for free viewings last week.

Related:
-- See pretty pictures, charts and graphs that go with my story by buying a copy of today's Boston Herald.
-- AOL Music
-- Y! Music
-- MTV
-- Music Choice
-- Comcast Music
-- V-Cast
-- iTunes