Last year we had a Jay Z/Justin Timberlake video premiering on Facebook, and now Michael Jackson's estate is taking it to another level tonight with the premiere of the video for "A Place With No Name" on TV, Twitter, and in Times Square.
Probably most importantly for us on the internet, the video premiered tonight at 10pm on Twitter. Instead of including a YouTube embed, the player is actually in the tweet. This is a new Twitter feature, and the first music video to be released this way. Here it is:
Its time! The first ever premiere of "A Place With No Name" right now on Twitter #MJXSCAPE
https://t.co/rRA0KJEBpg
— Michael Jackson (@michaeljackson) August 14, 2014The video may or may not show up in the embed, but click on the URL and it'll take you there.
The video also was shown on tonight's episode of So You Think You Can Dance and on a screen in Times Square.
The video itself is directed by Samuel Bayer of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and many other famous music videos fame. If parts of the video look familiar, it's because the footage of Jackson is repurposed from his 1992 video for "Out Of The Closet."
Premiering on Twitter seems clunky enough to fade away, much like premiering on Facebook does, but it's an interesting concept. As with almost all alternative premiere avenues, there are no visible metrics, so we'll never actually know how well the video is doing.
