Major Labels Finally Try To Make Some Money From Videos

From Forbes.com: "Here’s a lousy deal for you-give away your product, help a new business grow from zero to multiple billions and get nothing in return. That, in a nutshell, is what the music companies did with their promotional music videos more than two decades ago when they supplied then-upstart network MTV with free programming…"

"But new media is giving the music labels a chance to learn from their mistakes. The music video format, which no longer figures heavily on MTV’s flagship network, has found new life online, where fans download or stream the mini-movies to their computers. The model is beginning to find traction on mobile phones and now the labels are beginning to cash in…"

"The most recent example is a pact announced today between Warner Music Group and Viacom’s  MTV in which the cable network will have access to the music company’s video library to create new clips it will serve up over wireless phone networks…"

"The real news here is that both companies have agreed that whatever revenue is generated will be shared by both sides. That’s different than MTV’s traditional model, where labels pay to create the videos and the network shows them for little, if any, payment to the labels…"

Read the full Forbes.con article here.