Long Live Visuals

The topic of music videos has come up lately as the recent job cuts at MuchMusic, MuchMoreMusic and MTV in Canada continues to be long and painful.

Years ago, I was at a convention and on the panel was someone from MTV in NYC. During the Q&A session, someone asked the person from MTV – what the “M” stood for which was followed by an uproar of laughter. By that time, the focus away from music programming at the network had begun.

In the 80s and 90s, video flow was huge. In our cross-media, cross-platform, gadget laden world it's ridiculous to expect anyone today to sit in front of a television and watch music videos. That notion is about as ridiculous as to claim Paris Hilton is popular because of talent.

YouTube is the #3 website on earth. This is not because we are watching Jim smack Bill in the face with a baseball bat, or watching Sally's wedding video. Bright forward-thinking companies are realizing that online visuals are a way to tell more of their story. Have a look at the Doghouse Video.

YouTube may be the most popular, but it's obviously not the only outlet. We can produce material that goes to cellphones, emails, microsites, the ideas are only limited by our imagination.

The best advice I can give in our economic times is to seek out potential customers and go to them. Few will survive on the hopes their phone will ring on its own.

Coldplay is the biggest band on the planet right now. "Viva La Vida" has sold more copies – online and in stores – than any other collection in 2008. Their world tour broke records. But at the core is good bloaks making great music and fun visual stories linked to their songs.

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