Ever since MTV started borecasting its Nickelodeon-style "real world road rules challenge" format, people have lacked a good way to watch music videos simultaneously. Sure, they're all on YouTube (well, they were until recently) and other online video sites, but you have to request each video individually for your own audience of one.
In the same way a song you own can sound better when a DJ has selected it for you and a bunch of other people than it does when you play it for yourself, it can be nice to experience something at the same time as other people, as we did in the pre-TiVo, pre-Internet days. MusicPlusTV brings the old school MTV approach onto the Internet, broadcasting music videos around the clock. They only have one stream, and it's live programming, meaning that everyone who is on the site sees the same videos. People get to request songs, ask questions from and talk amongst themselves while watching via instant messaging.
With a few exceptions, I couldn't really handle most of the musicplayed on the site, which consisted of guitar bands with that new whiney vocal style peppered with unintentionally nostalgic hard rock throwbacks. This reminded me why I like on-demand entertainment: I like choice. (Transparency: the music might be bugging me more than usual because I just watched a seven-paragraph version of this post disappear into the Internet ether.)
Still, if the site's programming is your cup of tea (litmus test: does the music in Madden'07 bug you?), MusicPlusTV gives you a decent way to watch music videosin the old, lazy way, but with the ability to interact with it in themodern style. If it gathers enough momentum, I'd like tosee MusicPlusTV splinter off into streams hosted by 5-10 different VJs. That would give people some Internet-style choice, while still keeping therealtime interaction aspect of the service alive.
(via TechCrunch)
