Why Doesn't VH1Classic.com Want to Share?
I was intrigued this morning to note (via Lost Remote) that VH1Classic.com now features “thousands of music videos from songs released in the 70s, 80s, and early 90s.”
Now, while a lot of this stuff is likely available on YouTube or someplace else on the Interwebs, it’s great that high quality, full length versions of classic videos can now be easily viewed in one place.
Big problem though: the videos aren’t portable. There’s no Share button or embed code, in other words, that lets you publish the video anywhere you want. So therefore I can’t provide a visual example below to advertise VH1Classic.com for them. I’d love to show you R.E.M.’s “Losing My Religion,” but instead I have to settle for a link. Alternatively, a quick search on YouTube lets me advertise for them instead (and maybe they’ll need it, what with Google digging in its heels in its copyright suit against Viacom):
I know why the people at VH1Classic.com don’t want to share. It makes sense on the surface. They want people to head to their site every time they want to watch classic videos, and then get involved in the site in other ways, such as posting to the message boards, playing games, and so on.
But the Internet doesn’t really work that way anymore. YouTube became YouTube largely on the strength of two factors: incredible ease to embed and watch videos on blogs, social networking profiles, and websites, and its related videos feature that goes something like, If you liked that clip from Porky’s, you’ll also love this scene from Revenge of the Nerds. These features propelled YouTube to become familiar to most people without ever needing to visit www.youtube.com.
It’s the classic “walled garden” versus “open platform” debate, which has been decisively won by the open platform camp.
Aggregating great content like classic music videos is always a good thing, which made me check out VH1Classic.com in the first place. But closing off the ability to make its content “portable” is going to hurt its chances for success in the long run.
