Digital shorts available through sites such as http://video.ez-tracks.com/ and www.youtube.com are increasing in popularity as more and more internet users are seeking out homemade, music and other types of video files for entertainment.
As the user driven format has grown over the years, internet savvy individuals have taken note of the entertainment value inherent in homemade videos. The result has been a selection of popular titles that have spread like wildfire over the internet. From rapping and lip-syncing teenagers to stunts and caught-on-camera buffoonery, these often hilarious clips have found a home in the collective conscience of internet users.
Likewise, music videos from various artists, once a mainstay of MTV, are now finding an audience online. Many cite MTV's move toward regular programming as one of the reasons for the increased availability of video content produced by musical artists.
According to Matt Bradley, director of videos for up and coming recording artists from labels such as YepRock and Liberty and Lament, "From the artists perspective, the internet offers the opportunity to produce something and immediately find an appreciative audience. From a consumer standpoint, people are still very much into music videos, and the television outlets available such as MTV2, MuchMusic and Fuse aren't able to deliver because of the commercial element that dictates what is seen and heard. Artists and fans have found the internet to be a medium where they can subvert the powers that be and match the audience with the art."
In addition to homemade and music videos, clips from the television and motion picture industries are also invading the World Wide Web. Studios and networks are beginning to realize that the internet is a medium that has the potential to reach an audience that only a decade ago might have been in front of the TV set. For movies and shows aimed primarily at youth culture, advertising on the internet is becoming less of a novelty and more of an essential marketing tool.
That's not to say that traditional advertising methods don't still hold water. In fact, revenues for television advertising are at an all time high, even for cable networks. The issue at hand, however, is not if, but when television advertising will be eclipsed by internet advertising. With recent market studies indicating that many people now spend an equal or greater amount of time online than watching television, video shorts that feature trailers for upcoming releases in all mediums may be the future of advertising for the entertainment industry.