When MTV shut down its remaining music-only channels at the end of 2025 — closing with “Video Killed the Radio Star,” the same song that launched the network back in 1981 — most people treated it like the final nail in the coffin for the music video era. David Gebbia? He thinks people are calling time of death way too early. "Some of the biggest careers in rock were built on music videos, and somewhere along the way, the industry decided that didn't matter anymore," the CEO of Gebbia Media and Co-CEO of Big Machine Rock said in a statement. "We don't agree." He's not wrong about the industry. Billboard recently reported that labels have "redisbursed" their video budgets in recent years, with cinematic, high-concept visuals increasingly reserved for tier-A superstars while newer artists are pushed toward smaller productions. Lizzo even declared the format "dead" on TikTok last September. The numbers tell a more complicated story.…