Video, And Universal Music, Killed The Radio Star
How’s this for irony: “Video Killed the Radio Star,” released in 1979 by The Buggles, is about how TV (MTV in particular) would kill radio. And now, 30 years later, Universal has disabled embedding the YouTube video.
Really, it’s good that Universal has embedding disabled. If I could put it in this post, you’d be able to watch it. It might even get stuck in your head. And then, perhaps, you could buy the song on iTunes or Amazon via the link to purchase it that’s over the video. Instead, I won’t, because I can’t. Universal will keep protecting its property by slowly killing it, and their unembeddable video will continue to kill their radio stars.
Maybe in 30 more years they’ll have figured out how to survive on the internet, but at that point there will probably be something else that’s come along that will take them a decade to figure out. [YouTube]
Gizmodo ‘79 is a week-long celebration of gadgets and geekdom 30 years ago, as the analogue age gave way to the digital, and most of our favourite toys were just being born.
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Comments (AU Comments | US Comments)
Or just embed a live version...?
rekoil
@Lite: is on a boat.: "Video..." is actually one of my favorite songs of its time. The same guy then founded The Art Of Noise, while resurrecting Yes in his spare time. Trevor Horn was a genius.
rekoil
@ShyamaGaius: Remember Universal wanted to get out of dealing with iTunes in regards of video. I don't care what you may personally think of the iTunes store they essentially were throwing money away every day they stayed out of it. Universal does not understand how people want to use technology and how it can benefit them. Calling them short sided is an understatement.
quayzar
@dragon:ONE: Wrong video. The MTV original is the famous one.
telepheedian
@ShyamaGaius:
They're imbeciles.
Loonie
Why not just use another video?
@Lite: is on a boat.: When you are right, you are very, very right. But when you are wrong....you are very, very wrong.
Why are label execs such killjoys? What a bunch of jerks.
Akibake-
@ShyamaGaius: I'm okay with pre-roll ads if they're short and to the point. However, it seems like pre-roll ads are a minute or two minutes long nowadays. People link me to a video, and half the time I'm bored watching the ad and close out of it before I ever get to whatever my friends link me. I can accept and ad or two, but... there are limits.
I wonder if they turned off the embedding on the MTV Music one?
telepheedian
I love sharing videos with friends (especially ones I can embed on my site). However, when these companies disable embedding I just look for another video. Rather than be forced to track down one I can embed, I just look for something better to share. Generally, that comes from a rival company or indie group.
@danger the pirate: RIP Keyboard Cat!
@Rory1: even if it were formatted properly, it wouldnt work, the address got cut off.
correct link. play him off keyboard cat!
@ShyamaGaius:
/AMEN
I just don't get it. I finally understand the business model of embedding and how smart it is of the various companies who embrace it (i.e. Hulu, most of YouTube, etc.). We get the content we want, where we want (i.e. posted on a forum, a blog, etc.), that content is nicely packaged, "pure", of good quality. They get to show some pre-roll ads or maybe some text ads, everyone wins. It's actually a great model. WTF is Universal's problem?
ShyamaGaius
@Rory1:
here you go
Warner *Sigh*
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/07/warner-music-group-deletes-keyboard-cat-.../
Rory1
And these companies pay themselves a lot of dough to slowly kill off one of their revenue streams. Dumb!
The worst thing is that this song is so... So... Annoying.
It's supposed to express how one thing killed another, and the song damn near killed pop music for me.
Oh sweet, delicious and somewhat spicy irony...
ryno365
@Lite: is on a boat.: I love that song! The female voice chorus is awesome:
"Aa aaaaaaaaaaaaaa, the radio sta a a a a a a aaaaaaah"
vqro
@92BuickLeSabre: It even turned up in Dance Dance Revolution ... it's a fun, nostalgic tune to play to.
MTV may have started their broadcast with this video but the premise of the song ended up being wrong - Radio is still plugging away while MTV killed the video star...
Froggmann
@rekoil: It's not THE video. The original video is historically significant as the first video on MTV. Aside from that, the Buggles are one-hit wonders that managed to come out with exactly one album.
telepheedian
@ShyamaGaius: Greed
Deimos_Anomaly