MTV Music: Hulu for music videos, or too little too late?

Filed under: Audio, Internet, Video, Web

MTV Music: Hulu for music videos, or too little too late?

by Brad Linder Oct 27th 2008

MTV launched a new music video hub today at MTVMusic.com. And it looks remarkably like online video site Hulu. Except instead of hosting hundreds of movies and TV shows, the site hosts thousands of music videos.

The site has a nice mix of new and older videos. You can watch videos on the site or embed them on another web page. And you can watch in full screen.

There's also a handy "similar artists" feature that will let you know that if you like Tori Amos you might want to look for videos from Fiona Apple. But the recommendation engine is far from perfect. For example, when you click on the page for Mike Doughty, you'll discover that Jack Johnson is a similar artist, but there's no link to the 5 music videos from Soul Coughing, the band Mike Doughty used to perform with.

The biggest challenge MTV Music faces is the fact that there are dozens, if not hundreds of places to find the exact same content on the internet, and then some. You can find a much wider selection of music videos on YouTube or dozens of other online video sites than you can on MTV Music. It's true that some of those videos may not have been uploaded legally, but they're out there.

So while Hulu is one of the few places you can go for free, legal, and full length TV episodes, MTV Music is jsut the latest music video portal to hit the web. And while the web page is new, it's not like MTV hasn't had hundreds of music videos on its website for years.

[via Silicon Alley Insider]

Tags: mtv, mtv-music, music-videos

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Christian said 8:13PM on 10-27-2008

I wouldn't mind this idea as I stopped watching MTV cuz they don't do enough music videos the way they did in the early 90's... all of these shows that I don't like.

FeedME said 8:59PM on 10-27-2008

Well those Hulu have a great interface. It's about time MTV took a break from all the horrible reality shows and joined the rest of the world online.

whiskey said 8:19AM on 10-28-2008

The biggest challenge MTV Music faces is the fact that there are dozens, if not hundreds of places to find the exact same content on the internet, and then some.

Unless they remain open to show their content to the whole world and support playlists... Even preprogrammed ones, you know, a la old MTV (back when the M served a purpose), where you could hear music playlists of a specific music genre (tip: include the new arrivals here as an option) or a country (just to be more global: k-charts, j-charts... not just the usual US stuff)... Offer links to buy the songs from an affiliate service (hold the DRM please) and offer widgets to not only embed a video but a playlist on one's site (or maybe just delegate to xml and include there the ads)...

Keep this one without the "reality" shows and maybe MTV will become relevant again. The shows can have their own site (and you could run ads for the shows from time to time inside the playlist).

kyleabaker said 8:19AM on 10-28-2008

I'm with Christian, I'm glad that MTV is finally showing interest in their original market once again and this time the site is dedicated to music and at the moment very Web 2.0 and clean. I just hope it doesn't get jumbled and filled with garbage ads.

Maff said 8:19AM on 10-28-2008

it's rubbish, doesn't work outside the USA, lets you get as far as clicking to play a video.
Nice of you to say so in the story (since this is an internet blog, the internet being a global thing)

cToyos said 1:56PM on 11-02-2008

unlike Hulu, MTV music DOES work outside the USA.

WL said 9:16AM on 10-28-2008

It could possibly work for them if they use what leverage they have, like somehow tying in the site their "music" television programing.

andyg8180 said 9:35AM on 10-28-2008

MTV does music??
I thought thats why they made MTV2... oh they dont have videos there either... Gosh...

Well honestly, it only made sense for them to do it... But all the local radio stations here in CT have full access to free music videos... Youtube has a good selection of remixed and Live music videos...

So MTV better step it up like no other...

R said 10:06AM on 10-28-2008

This is a good thing. Navigating the main MTV website is a nightmare.. Horrible design and bloated. By offering a separate site just for the music videos, it makes things easier for those of us that don't care about all the non-music fluff they offer these days.

gambit9 said 1:22PM on 10-28-2008

Have you gone to MTV's website lately it's filled with a bunch of flash garbage. All I need is playlist and this site would be perfect.

Slappy said 7:04AM on 10-29-2008

Not impressed, missing a ton of stuff I knew there were videos for.

Blahole said 2:36PM on 11-14-2008

I think it's impressive myself - hours and hours of time wasted, but well spent.

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