Does Hulu mix with Music Video?
Wednesday, it was reported on MashableMashable
that HuluHulu
– the web service that popularized television on the internet – was Flirting with Music Video
Norah Jones it seems, can now be found – among Saturday Night Live, Glee, Dollhouse, and Desperate Housewives – on Hulu.
As an avid supporter of Hulu, I was happy and excited to see such a great service expanding like this. Though I wasn’t exactly a big fan of Norah Jones – I wasn’t exactly sure who she was – I eagerly clicked play on the video embedded underneath Mashable’s story.
I found myself immediately disgruntled at being presented with – instead of the music video I was expecting, – a thirty-second advert. Blinking in surprise I realized that I should have expected this. Hulu was all about Ads. After years of illegal and ad-free content on the web, Hulu was the one that started bringing the content to the web legitimately, paying for it all with ads.
Yet there was something unsettling about having my, two-minute long video prefaced by something I didn’t want to watch as long as a fourth of what I DID want to watch. The simple act of including a commercial was completely altering the experience of a Music Video.
After watching a few videos I found that the experience wasn’t always exactly the same. Sometimes the ads were 30 seconds, at other times 11 seconds, and even sometimes 4 seconds. The shorter times – the 4 seconds especially – were much more bearable. Still, I think the consumer of music video is much more used to the instant gratification of the play button.
What do you think? Will Hulu be successful with Music Video? Do you think the ads will prove to be a problem?
November 22nd, 2009 at 3:44 pm
Can we actually talk about the issue of this music video being NOT good? Especially the dubbing?
Okay, but in all seriousness…it sucks.
Okay, but really now.
I don't want to listen to an advert before I watch a music video any more than I want to listen to an advert before I listen to a song. However, if we weren't trained from birth to be accustomed to TV commercials, either, we wouldn't be able to focus on TV with all the advertisements. I feel like I could get used to it. I dunno.
The other thing is, I am pretty sure anyone who has comcast can watch music videos for free without advertisements, which is ten times better, because they're on your TV. That being said, I know not everyone has comcast.
THAT being said, there are plenty of places for us to illegally watch this same music video without the advertisement. The end.
November 28th, 2009 at 4:22 am
The video I chose to embed here isn't the same video embedded by Mashable on their post. They included a live performance.
Sorry it disappointed you so much.
That said, I rather liked this video.
Television came to fruition in an era where there was no alternative. If a viewer was upset by an advert, they couldn't go find their show in another location that had no adverts – with music video they can. YouTube has such a monopoly on the market that it would be difficult to compete with in the first place, but they also don't eat your time with ads before the videos.
And as you said, even if its not on YouTube, there are illegitimate avenues that aren't all that difficult to go down.
I guess this means we see eye to eye?
November 28th, 2009 at 11:22 am
The video I chose to embed here isn't the same video embedded by Mashable on their post. They included a live performance.
Sorry it disappointed you so much.
That said, I rather liked this video.
Television came to fruition in an era where there was no alternative. If a viewer was upset by an advert, they couldn't go find their show in another location that had no adverts – with music video they can. YouTube has such a monopoly on the market that it would be difficult to compete with in the first place, but they also don't eat your time with ads before the videos.
And as you said, even if its not on YouTube, there are illegitimate avenues that aren't all that difficult to go down.
I guess this means we see eye to eye?