MusicPlusTV.com launched a revamped website today. As well as a new look, it has doubled the resolution of its flagship 24/7 television broadcast stream, added social networking capabilities, and more. MusicPlusTV.com is an interesting blend of online video/music and a traditional TV network - only with a niche audience. It reminds me of Revision 3, which is also creating niche online TV shows. I like these websites, because they're not just regurgitating mass media TV (a la the recent NBC/News Corp deal). It is all about fresh made-for-Web content. MusicPlusTV's business model includes revenues from advertising, content licensing, brand integration, event sponsorships and digital distribution.
In its first three weeks in open beta, MusicPlusTV.com’s new site has already generated an active base of users and creators. Currently it is getting an average of 140,000 page views per day, which equates to over 4 million page views per month. Not too shabby.
I checked out the broadcast TV aspect - it's mostly youth-oriented (no surprise), with a lot of music. A good example is (indie) substance, hosted by 20-year old Avital - screenshot below. The shows are recorded in Los Angeles.
MusicPlusTV.com’s key new features include:
There's a more complete rundown of MusicPlusTV.com’s new website features on their blog. Also check out this video tour of MusicPlusTV.com’s new website.
MusicPlusTV.com seems to be differentiating itself from the likes of MySpace and YouTube with its broadcast TV option. Some of its early beta registrants have been prominently featured on MusicPlusTV.com’s live shows, which helps drive traffic to their profiles. The site is still quite difficult to immediately grok, but its central purpose seems to be as a social network for young music/video fans - with content creation being an important part of the appeal.
Of course, MusicPlusTV.com is hardly alone in the field of Web TV - check out Josh Catone's recent R/WW review of Joost, Babelgum, Zattoo, and others. It's exciting though to see what is being done in online video outside the mainstream Google vs BigMedia legal wranglings and oneupsmanship.
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Wow, all I can say about this is that when I checked out MPTV back in the Fall of 2006, the quality of the original content was nothing short of ATROCIOUS.
[of course I can't check it now --even though i really want to-- because of the WMP issues]
Anyways, a few of the clips I saw then had this Music+TV clown interviewing Jurassic 5 and it was nothing short of embarrassing! The band was completely uninterested and the guy asking the questions obviously had no idea what he was talking about.
I think a huge lesson for web-content creators is that fake, MTV-esque personalities do not translate *at all* to the small screen. Like Bob Lefsetz says, MTV's been a joke for a lot of young people's whole lives at this point. That formula is unsustainable
If you are on the web, you are micro-targeting viewers, and when they know more about the band than the idiot your LA-based casting director dug up, your credibility is going right into the crapper.
I was able to check out "Jenn" from the Strictly Live show and that was totally palatable. I fear that is because the indie scene is so hyper self-conscious that even program director-types can figure it out...
I read a great review today from an eMusic editorialist who was in a bit of a flame war over some band called "Explosions in the Sky" [not that great, I got their album]. Indie peeps were up in arms about him calling the band "emo," and he straight up blew them off, saying:
"This is all just proof to me that, as I said before, indie rock is no longer in the business of selling songs, but selling lifestyles. This is just cool kids exercising class perogatives."
Damn! So true.
How much more ironic can you get, cynical indie rockers???
Pass me my Pitchfork Media-branded coffee mug so I can throw up!
Great post though, Richard, interesting take. I think content produced specifically for the web is no different than for any other medium. It just has to be really really really good to hold anyone's attention. Talent is the only thing that matters.
Best regards
Posted by: Ethan Bauley | March 26, 2007 11:24 PM