Many people have Yahoo as the homepage of their Internet service provider. When they click on the Internet Explorer or Firefox Icon the Yahoo homepage magically appears. The homepage displays a wide arrange of features including news, weather, sports, blogs, yahoo answers, and other engaging features.
The feature of note is Yahoo Music and it’s music blogs. The other day I visited the Yahoo homepage and one of the top featured stories was Where are the lost ‘Idols’? Although the theme was presented as the success and non success stories of past American Idol contestants (non winners), the articles real intention was promotion. Promotion of American Idol and promotion of it’s past contestants. Why? Well it’s no shocker that American Idol ratings are plummeting each year. To help raise morale and ratings, discussed the after lives of contestants. They even posted videos of some of their performances. Here’s an example of one below.
Remember Justin? Long time no see. I wrote this article to help indie artists better understand how to look at the current market. The thing to note is that your music video is not here. Yahoo, Google, and other Internet providers are in bed with each other. The push to make television go completely digital is not just for technologies sake but for theirs. People spend more and more time on the Internet. Standard cable has been restricted to around 1000 channels max. Computers and the Internet are not. By connecting the two, they can create more channels and avenues for promotion. Most importantly they can regulate content more closely. This means they will try to get you to buy what want they want you to buy. More than likely your music is not on their list of things to promote.
You have to promote yourself. Yes, talent scouts, record labels and the like are surfing the web looking for more talent, but they cannot find you buried underneath millions of other indie artists. You found me didn’t you? Right now, anybody can get a web page, but I predict this will become more difficult as they attempt to control and regulate the market and Internet.
Till Next Time
By Jamille Luney
Music Analyst
Filed under: Music Industry's Future | Tagged: INternet and television combine, regulating INternet, Yahoo Music
