TVSquad

Pearl Jam is making one of their videos available online under the Creative Commons license. Why do I care about Pearl Jam doing this? Well, I don't actually, but it got me thinking about music videos and how they've found a new life online and in DVD form, as television has all but eradicated them. While many networks and channels are moving online with broadband content while still remaining secured to TV, these days you can't really see a video from your favorite band unless you go online, or buy a number of DVD collections dedicated to certain video directors like Michael Gondry and Spike Jonze, among others. The thing is, videos haven't gotten worse, in fact, they've gotten much better, I think, and while the idea of sitting through three whole minutes of song might cause the programmers at MTV to gasp in horror, I'm glad to see bands are still making videos, and making them easily accessible to fans and anyone else who wants to check them out. The Web can be a place not only for networks to try out online-only content and rerun old shows, it can also be a place where ideas no longer suited to television can still find an audience.