Some music video producers are starting to understand the days of expensive productions are over, not only because of increasing budget contraints, but because viewers don't care if productions are made like the slick music videos that started to emerge in the 1980s.
"The new aesthetic is that it's very low-budget, lo-fi, very do-it-yourself, not at all dedicated to the old style of music video which was always bigger and louder and more explosions and more money," says Saul Austerlitz, author of Money for Nothing: A History of the Music Video from the Beatles to the White Stripes.
The days of the approximate $7 million budget for Michael Jackson's "Scream" and many projects in the $2 million range are probably over.
Music video director Samuel Bayer said: "A comet hit the earth and the dinosaurs are dying. There's a new age coming. I think those days are over with."
Professionally and personally I don't think this is a bad thing for the industry, in reality it is probably a blessing in disguise for those willing to accept the new finanical limitations in the industry.
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It offers everyone more of an even playing field, and new artists could be discovered that he old industry wouldn't have promoted or taken on in any way.
The other strength is it forces those wanting to survive to start innovating and looking for ways to creatively put their wares out there. The industry is no longer protected by the corporate priesthood that protected existing artists and controlled who would become big. It can now happen to anybody.
This isn't bad news for existing artists either. Now they can think of much more simple and effective ways to get their music out there on videos, and do it much cheaper than in the past.
It's almost like being a garage band again with all the excitement of potentially making it big.
Those willing to come up with innovative and creative new ways of putting their music on video specifically made for those viewing on the Internet, will be way ahead of those trying to make quality, costly productions viewers don't really care about much anymore.
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