No More Embedding Videos From MTV Anymore

An MTV developer announced on the MTVN developer blog that it will no longer allow video content to be embedded using the MTV API.

“Going forward we’ll no longer be making our embeddable video player directly available to third-party developers. Specifically, starting in early March the <media:content> nodes, which contain our embedded player, will no longer be published in any returns.”

It’s a movement apparently caused by the economic crisis. Mark Jafar, an MTVN Corporate representative, had this to say:

“Every music video we stream through the API costs us money due to our deals with the record labels, regardless of whether an ad is attached or not. So, allowing developers to use the open music video API can be a money-losing proposition for us.”

This isn’t to say that they aren’t looking for solutions to the problem.

“However, we’re absolutely open to extending the music video API to third-party publishers who are willing to work with us to monetize. It’s all about striking that right balance between innovation and commerce as we continue to move forward and try new things”

This does not affect the end-users ability to grab embed videos and show them on other websites. The API will still support the ability to grab images and meta data about each video and embed that data onto various websites.

I feel this is just another large corporations inability to realize the power of the Internet. The Internet allows the passing of data and information for an incredibly low cost to the distributor. Monetizing this wouldn’t seem like a difficult task. Anyone could slap up an affiliate link to “Buy this artists latest album from Amazon or Itunes” underneath each video. Why is it that large companies like this always overlook small options like this?

Quote from Techcrunch

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