http://www.askmen.com/entertainment/austin/music-videos-are-dead.html That basically sums up the issue. Music videos were expensive to make, and television time is really valuable. So if the cost of making and airing the video cannot be recouped from sales of CD's there is no incentive to do so. The other issue is sequential no-choice programming. How many of you sit down turn on a local radio station sit back and do nothing else except listen to whatever music they throw at you. I listen to the radio in the car sometimes if I forgot to bring my usb song collection to plug in and there is no NPR news available, but even if I am just looking to see what is new and hot in pop music, I can find it on Spotify. How many promotional type videos (the stuff MTV used to string one after the other) are now available on the internet for you to pick and choose without having to sit through ones you dislike in between?
MTV is not the only cable station to have lost its way in the the fading promise of cable TV. My first cable bundle which, by the way, featured no advertisements because my subscription fee was supposed to cover the cost, included:
Arts and Entertainment, which was to be the venue for live and recorded concerts by symphony orchestras, ballets and modern dance, and visual arts criticism and commentary.
The History Channel, that was going to be devoted to airing documentary work about history
Discovery, which was going to explore the exciting world of science
Look at the lineup on those channels now (which feature a very large number of commercials interrupting the content) and you will find mostly true crime and reality shows, and reruns of old broadcast shows. There is so much content needed to fill hundreds of channels 27/7 that production budgets have all but dried up, the production talent pool has been stretched thin, and only the cheapest content is affordable for most cable-casters.