Seemingly Hiding in YouTube

I know this isn’t “new news” for anyone, but last night I was reminded of the empowering nature of social media for the consumer and the somewhat vulnerability of the supplier. The “product” is put on the market and the supplier loses control. In this case, the product is a music video.

Last night, my roommate and I realized it’s been months since we’ve seen a music video! We sing along to all the songs on the radio but realized we haven’t had the pleasure lately of relaxing and watching those words come to fruition on screen. So, we took it into our own hands with… YouTube! If you don’t know already, trust me, you can find almost any music video (plus some) on the Internet. We spent too many hours than I’d like to admit on YouTube catching up on the latest music videos.

This got me thinking though – had I not taken it into my own hands to search for those videos I would not have ever seen them. Think about five years back, you couldn’t turn on MTV without getting music videos shoved down your throat. I may have a differing opinion, but I enjoyed that. If I wanted to watch a drama series I could switch the channel! My MTV was for MUSIC! You could sit down and see musicians you may not have heard about or liked and be persuaded by the quality of their video (or maybe just the catchiness of repetition) to give the artist(s) a chance.

Not anymore though. In this aspect, with social media the power is in the consumers’ hands. We control what we want to watch – but, while this is empowering and all to make our own decisions, are we missing out? Or, should I say, are the artists/producers/record labels missing out? I think so. This is not social media’s fault though. It is just another channel of communication- the problem really lies in the hands of TV producers who would prefer to torture (although it is at times a guilty pleasure) viewers with nonstop (fake) “reality” shows.

What do you think? Do you miss the ability to have music videos streamed to you through the TV set on a regular basis or do you like the control of seeking out the videos you’d like to see?