SIREN SONG. The music video strategy is a smart one for online companies, says David Hallerman, a senior analyst at eMarketer. After all, Internet advertising is a fast-growing market expected to bring in $16 billion this year alone, according to eMarketer projections, and advertisers particularly covet the teenage and young adult market.
According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, more than 81% of people aged 18 to 29 use the Internet, compared with 78% of people aged 30 to 49, and 60% of people aged 50 to 64. “The younger group has a larger penetration of Internet users than the older group, and I just think it is natural that people want to hear music on the Web,” Hallerman says. “The Internet lends itself to the same mentality of television, where you take a little bite here and a little bite there. It is not long extended plays. And music is small bites.”
Competitors have made some key advances. Yahoo Music, which has streamed video since acquiring Launch Media in Dececember, 2001, is the most visited destination on the Web for free music videos, followed by AOL Music, according to July data from Nielsen//NetRatings. MTV Networks, with 8.3 million unique viewers, ranked No. 3. It trailed AOL’s 19.1 million and Yahoo Music’s 24.3 million.
