Are you sure that's such a good idea, Queens?

 

Queens of the Stone Age's new music video for "The Way You Used To" is out now!

 

But it's only available through Apple Music.

 

Don't bother looking for it on Youtube, vimeo, or dailymotion...It's not there.

 

QOTSA gave a preview of the video on their twitter a couple of days ago to entice people....


 

 

But I don't think limiting your music video to be available on only one platform is such a good idea. I understand the logic of it, though. You want people to get excited about it, so you give them some teasers, then you find out the music video is ONLY available in ONE SPOT which makes it 'special' and 'rare'. Maybe you'll be one of the cool kids that downloads it and has it on their phone, like "Oh, have you not downloaded QOTSA's new music video yet? Well I have. Check it out!" Then their friends will see it and think "I want to be one of the cool kids that owns this music video that almost no one else has!"

 

But I still think it's flawed logic, and just a way to get people's money. First of all, the people that fit the fake scenario above are just a handful of people. Sure, there are hardcore QOTSA fans that have already downloaded it. But, like I said, I see flawed logic here.

 

When a music video gets put up on Youtube, you can get thousands of hits in a second, and millions in days. Those 'views' are telling you how many times people have watched and enjoyed your stuff and consequently may go download your music on iTunes or other platforms.

 

When you put a music video on Apple Music (that isn't available anywhere else) you are limiting the amount of people that can see the video AND limiting the amount of people that can share it. If you try to share the video without a subscription, you only get to watch 30 seconds of the video. You're limiting your potentially new fans and holding the video hostage until they give you money. That's not cool.

 

And, yes, I know a lot of people have Apple Music because of the mass popularity of iPhones and iPods that we live off of every single day. But (shocker) not everyone has an iPhone. There are other phones out there. Other downloading sites.

 

I'm not saying "don't put music videos on Apple Music". Not at all. In fact, in high school I downloaded almost every My Chemical Romance music video from iTunes to put on my iPod so I could watch them anywhere I was. (I was a bit of a fan girl). But do you know how I FIRST watched those videos and learned about them? Youtube. Youtube showed me the video and I liked it so much that I bought it. So, my argument for QOTSA is, 'don't make me buy something before I even know I like it'. (Some people might be sold by the 30 second teasers, but I'm selfish and want the whole enchilada.)

 

So, when I talk about putting music on Apple Music (exclusively) vs. Youtube, think about how many people have each of those.

 

Apple Music: Millions of people have the potential to download and watch the music video.

 

Youtube: THE ENTIRETY OF THE UNITED STATES. BILLIONS OF PEOPLE. CAN WATCH IT. AND SHARE IT. FOR FREE.

 

Maybe I'm just being too not-picky. Maybe QOTSA will eventually upload it to Youtube. But until that day, I stand by my thoughts that I'm not getting a $15/mo subscription + the cost of downloading the video when I can just go to Youtube and watch Stone Sour's "Song #3" for the thousandth time. For free.

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