The video revolution – Looks aren’t everything; they’re the only thing (IV)

Of course, some artists don’t need video exposure, feel they don’t benefit from video exposure, or have record companies who choose to limit the expense of video exposure. “Certain artists with less of a video audience,” said video producer Lara Schwartz, “like Clapton or BB King, make less videos and for a lot less money than other pop artists who rely heavily on videos, such as Madonna or Kanye West or Britney Spears.”

As with so many recordings, many artists are taking the do-it-yourself route for a video as well. One of the pioneers of this concept (and music video in general) was Todd Rundgren (him again?), who helped develop desktop video editing and effects in the early 1990s. His video for “I Can’t Change Myself” was “all done on desktop computers; it wasn’t done with any expensive mainframe equipment,” he said. “As a matter of fact, I bought all the equipment and produced the piece within what would have been a relatively slim video budget. This kind of stuff can be done by anyone if you have the perspicacity to undertake such a thing.”

A little less than a decade later, Pete Townshend was just amazed by what a person could accomplish with a digital camera and a desktop computer. “From now on the whole thing is going to be movies,” he said.

Music is going to disappear. Everybody is going to become a filmmaker. You know, anybody that’s got an iMac, they’re away! They’re going to be making movies. A musician today has to be so visually oriented. So, there’s going to be an explosion of that. My kid, Joseph, got an iMac for Christmas. He’s ten. He made his first proper skateboard movie, just like the ones that come out of Seattle. He spent an afternoon doing it with a friend.

By capturing video directly to the hard drive of a laptop, and using the artist’s apartment as a set, director Jacob Rosenberg created a professionally crewed video for L.A. singer/songwriter John Gold to promote his DIY album the eastside shake and the lead track “Cactusflower.” Using a borrowed Panavision camera (ostensibly so they could demonstrate the viability of recording direct to computer), professional lighting, and ultimately, special effects, they made a video that would not seem out of place on MTV for literally next to nothing.

While the DIY videos might not get on MTV, much like the DIY records, that’s sort of the point. They have a different target. The videos do get used in clubs, on local channels, even in clothing stores. Nor are they free. The equipment costs money. If you don’t have to necessarily hire a crew (e.g., you have friends shoot the video, take care of the lighting, etc.), you at least have to feed them. Then there’s the time it takes to do a DIY production, a heavy investment, although not directly a monetary one.

If the tightening of radio had started to commoditize music, MTV finished the job. “Videos are nothing but commercials,” said Nispel. “The only difference is you have a product that sings and dances if you’re lucky.”

“You’re making a three-minute marketing tool,” agreed a vice president of video at Warner Brothers Records. “It’s like designing an album cover. We’re not making Gone with the wind.”

However, as the internet has started to change the average person’s access to any kind of music he or she can imagine, and as the bandwidth constraints become less and less of an issue in most of the industrialized world, visualized music has found a second life. Internet sites like Launch, Youtube, and AOL, to name some of the largest among dozens – perhaps hundreds – that stream music videos on demand, have become an exceedingly important part of the video promotion mix.

Add to that the advent of the video iPod, Pocket PCs with the power to play videos, and even cell phones with video capacity, and people have begun to pay $1.99 or more to download their favorites. Townshend seems to have once again predicted the future – everything is movies. In fall 2005 iTunes began selling music videos, and by mid-December 2005, MTV had arranged with Microsoft to integrate a new service into the popular Windows Media Player that would offer downloads of music and videos. Thanks to the technology that the record business spent so much time resisting, what once was a promotional expense has become a potential source of revenue. Provided anyone wants to pay to see it.