• by Shankar Gupta , February 21, 2005

The music video for rapper Eminem's "Mockingbird" will make its debut on the Internet today on MSN's music site, where it will stream free of charge, but preceded by an ad.

"Mockingbird" is the second video to debut on MSN, thanks to a recent collaboration between the Web site and the music company Universal Music Group. Starting last week, MSN began hosting Beck's new single, "E-Pro." An MSN spokeswoman declined to comment on the details of the deal with Universal, but said that other musicians likely would premiere their videos on site.

As with much of MSN's other video content, users who stream the videos first see a brief ad. MSN plans to use its new search engine to promote the video's premiere--the top news link for an MSN search of "Eminem" yields MSN's press release announcing the video.

Additional Eminem videos already appear on MSN and other music portal sites--including AOL's music channel, which hosts the videos for "Like Toy Soldiers" and "Mosh."

Eminem fans who stream from MSN likely will not be getting the whole, uncut video, complete with the rapper's profanity laced lyrics and edgy imagery. In the past, MSN has edited out portions of the musician's music videos; in "Like Toy Soldiers," raised middle fingers and images of firearms were censored, and various words blanked out from the song.