MTV to host Video Music Awards in two venues MTV's Video Music Awards will take place at two venues this year in New York and on the Web

There's lots to celebrate at this year's MTV Video Music Awards.

There's the return of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, whose rock and roll retrospective video for "Dani California" is up for seven awards. There's "Hips Don't Lie," the multiculti protest/

love song from Shakira and Wyclef Jean, who also hold seven nominations. But, most of all, there's the renewed demand for music videos -- as an art form and as commercials.

With the success of such video-heavy social networking sites as MySpace and YouTube, and Web portals including Yahoo and AOL -- not to mention cell-phone companies, cable providers, Internet music retailers like iTunes and Rhapsody, and, of course, Apple and its video iPods -- companies can't get their hands on enough music videos to draw visitors and advertisers.

Everyone, it seems, wants to bring you more music videos. And yes, that includes MTV -- though that change isn't necessarily visible on its main cable channel.

"So much of what we do lives online," says MTV president Christina Norman. "That's where our audience is, and that's where we can have a great, deep experience. Our audience is looking forward. They're looking for what the next thing is, not necessarily looking at the past."

Going broadband

To reflect that, MTV will have a separate Video Music Awards broadcast, filled with backstage coverage, on its Overdrive broadband Internet site. It will also customize VMA coverage for its MTV2 and MTVu channels. "It's our biggest night, and we've got all these great platforms with distinct audiences," Norman says. "We thought it was a great idea to expose the show to as many viewers as possible."

And these days, few things on the Internet (aside from, you know, porn) draw an audience like a music video.

"It's difficult on TV, because you have to get people to stay tuned for 15 minutes or about five videos, and good luck trying to find five videos that hundreds of thousands of people are going to agree on," says Jay Frank, Yahoo Music's head of programming and label relations. "We can get millions of people a day and serve each of them the videos they want specifically for them."

Because of online demand, more artists are producing videos again, after the music industry pulled back significantly starting in 2000, Frank says. He added that the number of new videos submitted to his site has nearly doubled in the past five years.

Drea Clark, executive director of the Los Angeles-based Music Video Production Association, says more artists and directors are creating videos geared for viewing on small portable players, cell phones and computer screens. "You'll see more close-ups and fewer epic shots or shots with subtlety in the background," Clark says. "Some will shoot different versions depending on where they're going to be released."

Adding to music videos' importance is the new revenue stream they bring, now that iTunes and other sites are selling them for around $2 apiece, allowing record companies to recover their investments for the clips directly, instead of waiting for them to generate CD sales.

A return to roots

Of course, MTV won't rely entirely on videos to entertain at its Video Music Awards. Shakira, Beyonce, Panic! at the Disco, Christina Aguilera and others are set to perform live Thursday at Radio City Music Hall.

"This year, we're going back to our roots," Norman says, adding that the show returns to New York after a two-year stint in Miami. "We're putting a little bit more of that New York danger back into the Video Music Awards."

Justin Timberlake, who will perform his single "SexyBack" for the first time, says the return should help the show. "In my opinion, it lost a little bit of its luster, so I think it's exciting to have it back in New York," he says. "It's the Video Music Awards. Something outrageous is bound to happen."