New Site Will Host Low-budget Music Videos

— -- The name is a little misleading for a video site. The videos don't cost $99 to watch. The site (www.99dollarmusicvideos.com), which launched today by Next New Networks, will host videos made from the collaboration of budding video producers and bands that cost less than $99 to make.

Next New Networks says it hopes to appeal to "to a new generation of filmmakers by demonstrating innovative techniques to produce innovative music videos using limited resources." The best videos sent in will get prime time placement on the homepage of the site.

The reason I think this site has a chance is that video is huge among the twenty-somethings; and yes, so are bands. And while bands can post their home-made videos practically anywhere on the web for free, there's really no place that specializes in low-budget videos, as $99 Dollar Music Videos is proposing. Sure you can post your video anywhere from MySpace to Facebook to YouTube, but it gets lost in many other categories of content.

The site it being developed by, among others, Fred Seibert, MTV's original creative director. Seibert is saying it feels like old times. "I was there at the start of MTV and this has the same feeling all over again . . ." That may be overstating the potential of the site just a little bit, but Seibert's involvement is notable.

Next New Networks is perhaps best known for its Barely Political property, which is responsible for creating the "Obama Girl" videos.

To me the only thing more boring that watching some unknown band's crappy looking video is watching a "the making of" video of that video, and, yep, $99 Music Videos has those too. But I'm just a regular Joe--young musicians and filmmakers may flock to the site to check out the work of their peers, and look for new collaborators.