For a long, long time, trailers and music videos were considered a promotional device – an add on – not the real content. In fact, MTV Networks was created when Bob Pittman realized that he could take all this “free” content and put all in one place, thereby attracting lots of eyeballs and then advertising – lots of advertising dollars.
The recording artists were the ones who paid for it all, including the stretch limos and shrimp cocktails for the A&R Reps and the coke in the back room.
And now iTunes has come to monetize the promotional stuff. Music videos, shorts, and perhaps one day…even movie trailers. I think there are lot of people who would collect great old movie trailers the way they do classic posters. For a $1.99 a download, that comes to a lot of money. In fact Apple’s iTunes (needs a new name) reached 1 million video downloads in 20 days. And why stop there. I could see putting up classic commercials that are just sitting around. In fact, Universal has a CD called As Seen On Tv: Songs From Commercials. Pretty soon, it will be best commercials on DVD. Advertising geeks and insiders already pay up to $500 for a Superbowl DVD (all the spots shown each year.)
And just as the musicians (and composers) get screwed, the directors of these videos and trailers don’t receive anything.
Yeah, I know this blog is supposed to be focused on music to picture issues, but I had to get this out. Our world has turned into intellectual property. Your DNA is even being copywritten (as this lasts longer than patenting – thanks Disney!) as we speak.
Here’s a director-centric article at Boards magazine.
Have a nice day – now back to our regular programming.