Hannah Worboys

Music Channels

What is the purpose of music channels?

The purpose of a music channel is to produce a broader range of access to music videos. This allows

for the artists/ singers to promote their music to a wider audience/ fan base. There are multiple music

channels that are accessible to the public and in different mediums. The channels are either internet based or aired on TV. So as to stand out among the

different channels each one will have there own particular style and target market in mind. This

allows for the music channel to accommodate to their own chosen style, genre and targeted audience.

Music videos are so important as they can potentially launch an artists career globally; e.g. Psy, Gangnam

Style.

What channels are out there and how do they differ?- MTV is a popular American music channel that often targets the teenage audience with mainstream and popular music. MTV both has there own website as well as there own TV channels which are only provided on some TV bundles; e.g. SKY and BT vision. As well as featuring music videos on there site they also provide news on the artists themselves and their music. http://www.mtv.co.uk/music

- Vevo is an internet website that was created by three of the biggest major record labels; Sony Music Entertainment, EMI and Universal Music group. Vevo has more than 50,000 videos on their channel of which although still heavily features a lot of mainstream pop it has a bigger diversity of genres. The target audience for Vevo is much broader as a result. Also there layout of there website lends itself to a more mature market, e.g. teens – adults. Although Vevo is accessible from the internet is is not yet available worldwide. Vevo links to YouTube as they have there own channel through this site. Using this they post all the main official music videos. http://www.vevo.com/#/

What channels are out there and how do they differ?- Channel AKA is a British TV channel that is owned by All

Around The World Productions. The channel is is aired on SKY, however it does also have its own YouTube channel. AKA specialises in playing music videos specifically from the genres of hip hop, Urban and grime. It focuses upon upcoming artists rather than playing more established artists. http://www.youtube.com/user/channelakaofficial

- 4Music originally started out as a channel that was only accessible on TV but it has now been made available to view from the internet. It is aired only in the UK with the exception of the Republic of Ireland. The channel focuses upon mainstream and popular music and does regular updates that include; Today 4Music Top 10, Your official Top 20, UKHot40 and etc. 4Music don’t just show the music videos as they also include interviews with various artists as well as getting the artists to host they own set of the show. The format of the show suggests that there target market is the younger audience - teenagers. http://www.4music.com/

Fact File:

Date started: August 1, 1981

Owned by: Viacom Media Networks

Country of origin: United Sates

History: In 1977 when the first two way interactive cable television system was created many specialised channels were launched. One of these channels was called Sight On Sound. This channel enabled viewer to watch concert footage and music oriented TV programs. As the system was interactive the channel allowed for the audience to vote for there favorite artists and song to be featured on the channel. The MTV system was created by a media executive Robert W. Pittman of whom is now the president and CEO of MTV Networks. In 1970’s Pittman began hosting and producing a 15 minute show, Album Tracks that was aired on a New York TV station called WNBC. The first ever music video to be played on MTV was ‘Video Killed the Radio Star’ by The Buggles.

On the 1 August 1987 MTV launched a new channel called MTV Europe this allowed for MTV to reached to a wider audience. The channel was aired in all regions within Europe being at its time one of the only channels which target all areas in the continent. However today the channel is only aired to a selection of European countries as in 1997 MTV Networks began to regionalise all its networks.

MTV continued to air new shows and created different segments for the various music categories which they play. As they continued to grow they started to shows such as the MTV Music Video Awards, this allowed for them to create a night where all the viewer favorite artists performed and collected awards which the viewer had voted for. This is then aired on the MTV channel. However so as to compete with the other music channels now available MTV’s style and genre had to become more speacialised.

Other existing music channels