Research into television music channels

Research into television music channels

The purpose of music television channels is to give fans and audiences a different and unique way of experiencing music to enjoy their favourite artists and songs. They are easily accessible for audiences and are available for all different genres and platforms of music. Music television channels such as MTV are also used as a way for artists to promote their music and sell themselves how they like as an artist by giving an insight to their characters and music through these videos. Music television channels also host a variety of different programmes for their audiences such as Worldwide top 40,R&B classics, 90's pop hits, etc so fans can enjoy a wide range of music videos. 

MTV

The target audience for MTV's television channels are teenagers and young adults, specifically 13-21 year olds as they have a particular interest in most of the artists and genres that MTV tend to play. This is clear as MTV's television channel, MTV Base, has scheduled programmes such as 'Super base beats' for 6:00, 'Chris Brown: Official top 10' for 4:00 and 'Sean Paul: Official top 10' for 7:00, all artists and genres that apply to 13-21 year olds. Super base beats attracts and sells to its audiences with the 'hottest base beats from todays biggest art its', with artists such as Chris Brown and Sean Paul flying in the charts lately because of their popularity with this specific target audience.

This enables more popularity for MTV as more people will be attracted to tune in and it will get attract its target audience. MTV is known for playing popular chart music as it allows them to play the current days biggest and most popular tunes that audiences wants to listen to.This also allows avid music fans and record labels to keep up to date with who is the hottest artists to date and the videos they are producing to become so successful. Some of the popular artists amongst MTV's current charts include Chris Brown, part of the R&B genre, Jason Derulo, part of the pop and R&B genre, Taylor Swift, part of the pop genre, 

MTV are owned my media conglomerate company, Viacom Media Networks, who are also home to television channels such as Nickelodeon and Comedy Central. This allows MTV to become more successful and popular as they are able to broaden their television horizons with a variety of different programmes that serve different purposes such as comedies and kids programmes that have made a name for themselves at nickelodeon and comedy central. Being owned by Viacom Media Networks also means that they have a high influence of wealth and reputation behind them to move forward in the right direction and create globalisation and more popularity. The MTV logo is displayed as a large 'M' to represent music and a 'TV' to represent television, Music Television. This logo appeals to its target audience as it includes three different representations of media platforms that teenagers and younger adults are attracted to. It also is perceived as quite simple and does not require much thought. It is also displayed in graffiti form, something that is perceived to be popular with adolescents.

4Music

4Music is a music and entertainment channel in the United Kingdom and some digital television providers in the Republic of Ireland. 4Music is targeted at all ages, particularly younger adults and middle aged adults as it plays a variety of genres and has a number of different music television programmes which are broadcasted daily. 4music is primarily  known for focusing on POP music, however because it is part of a chain of popular music broadcasters such as Kerrang, Kiss and Magic, they have a number of different genre programmes such as 'Official top 40's', 'The versus chart' and 'Six steps'; each including a number of different genres. 

Official chart programmes are where a chart is compiled of songs from particular artists from different genres make up the best 20 songs in the charts to date. 4Music viewers vote for their favourite songs online and the results are based from this, allowing more engagement from its audience and popularity as the songs they are playing are those most popular with their target audience, a major factor in its popularity and chosen target audience. Other programmes such as Six steps and the versus charts compare the development of artists music videos and songs and compare genres to each other to find out which is the most popular with its audience. By broadcasting these sort of programmes and music videos, 4Music are able to maintain their vast popularity and reputation for playing different types of genres, allowing them to have a large target audience that want to keep listening to them.This also allows avid music fans and record labels to keep up to date with who is the hottest artists to date and the videos they are producing to become so successful. Some of these artists that are involved in these types of programmes vary from the like of rap and R&B artists such as Snoop Dog, Chris Brown and Rhianna to pop and band artists such as Beyonce, Mariah Carey and Mcfly. These artists use 4music to promote their music and feature on these programmes with interviews to give audiences a better insight to their thinking behind the songs, videos and why they have planned for the future, to keep fans excited and tuned in to 4Music. 

4Music are owned by 'The box plus network' who also have their own music television channel 'The Box'. They are also home to and in charge of 4Musics sister channels, Kerrang, Smashhits, KissTV, Channel 4, Magic and Heat, who all have on air television music channels in the UK. 4Music and the box plus network have the slogan 'music and then some' insinuating that they are more then a music channel and have a variety of music related programmes and entertainment available. This is a benefit for 4Music and a major factor in being owned by the box plus network as they able to increase their popularity and the music networks reputation. They can also prove to be successful from this as The Box own a number of different channels showing they are highly powerful and knowledgable in what they are doing. This means that 4Music have a high influence of wealth and reputation behind them to move forwarding the right direction, creating globalisation and popularity. 4Musics new logo displays a bold 4 sign in pink with 'music' labelled across it to represent its on screen of all of there different genres and has taken inspiration from their exciting, broadcast image. 

Kerrang!

Kerrang! is a UK based magazine and music television channel that is devoted to rock music. In 2001, EMPAP TV launched Kerrang TV! and is it shown across music channels in the UK. Much like the radio station and magazine, they cover the more mainstream and classic rock artists and bands such as Aerosmith and ACDC, and classic heavy metal bands such as Guns 'N' Roses and Metallica. Kerrang TV is now a joint venture between EMPAP TV and Channel 4. 

The target audience for Kerrang TV! is predominately males, aged 20-40 who have a interest in the rock and heavy metal genre. The TV stations playlist also plays sub genres of music that their audiences would like and are similar to Rock and Heavy Metal such as pop punk and skate punk, although with some unusual expectations. Unlike most music channels, they have requested video system in place where their audience can pick their music for them and they pick their most popular videos from this. It shares much of the ethos as the namesake magazine and radio station and tends not to play unassigned acts like magazine features because it is one of Kerrangs biggest platforms and in order to meet its audiences demands and preferences. Mostly American and British artists are played as they are more mainstream and they rarely play European acts, however with the exception that they are featured on some of their music related programmes such as A-Z of punk and rock, Rock 100. These are two of the biggest and most popular features of Kerrang! TV and are scheduled daily or weekly to keep audiences up to date and happy as they are requested a lot and to maintain their views and popularity. Many of these videos and programmes are heavily censored due to Kerrangs strict polices and genre of music they play. They remove sings of profanity, violence and references to god as they are a multi cultural music channel that has a globalised audience, on many platforms. 

Kerrang TV is owned by EMPAP TV and Channel 4, although Kerrang! as a franchise is part owned by media conglomerate, the box plus network. Much like 4Music, is part of a chain of sister music channels that are owned by the box plus network, including Heat, Kiss TV, Smash hits and The Box itself. This is a benefit for Kerrang! in being owned by the box plus network as they able to increase their popularity and the music networks reputation. They can also prove to be successful from this as The Box own a number of different channels showing they are highly powerful and knowledgeable in what they are doing. This means that Kerrang! have a high influence of wealth and reputation behind them to move forwarding the right direction, creating globalisation and popularity. The logo for Kerrang! is has a dark colour scheme of red and black towards it in order to appeal to its target audience and match its genre of rock and punk. It is also displayed as bold and edgy, such as some of the conventions of rock music's songs and videos.

Clubland

Clubland is a televised music channel that broadcast on all television networks in the United Kingdom. It is known for its upbeat, dubstep and house music with remixes of popular pop and R&B songs and artists. It features upbeat pop music in the morning and dance music videos and is based from Clublands compilation albums. It is the most popular dance music channel in terms of ratings and history and as of 2014, it had alomost double the views and ratings then its rival MTV dance.

Clubland has 6 different music television programmes that they broadcast throughout the day. They start off their programming with 'Wake up' in which they play dance music to start the day, followed by Am2Pm, a mixture of non stop house, techno and endurance music to get their audiences feeling lively and happy as they play their favourite genres and songs. In order to maintain their popularity and keep audiences entertained and involved with the music channels, they play the programme 'Clubland' for name sake of the music channel. This is because it is their most popular programme and they want to advertise the name of their brand and enhance its popularity. Along with the programme 'Mania', they play a mixture of music requested by viewers and a selection of commercial dance music. They are also up top date with the latest and most popular new dance songs and are partial to viewers nostalgia by playing new and upcoming tracks and some of the classics. This benefits Clubland TV as they are able to give their viewers a wide variety of music to suit all different kinds of viewers.

The channel launched in July 2008 as part of sky's broadcast music channels, until in August 2008 when it moved up the EPG along with other music channels as part of Sky's EPG Re-shuffle. The channel was initially run in partnership with Mushroom LTD, former operator of Stars TV and Channel AKA, therefore it had good experience of running a music channel and an established reputation of running music broadcast company's, programmes and channels. The channel is now owned by the team behind the highly successful Clubland compilation album series, where viewers text in and control the viewing with clublands highly beneficial and important, be spoke facility. The Clubland logo features its writing and colour format to represent a disco ball and is given in bold, stand out writing that we would often associate with clubs and discos to match its theme and genre of music.

AKA

Channel AKA is a British music broadcasting channel that is known for playing rap, R&B and grime artist across Great Britain and the states. Despite this, it is a music channel that helps to play upcoming grime/hip hop/urban artists and has been a benchmark and platform for some of the biggest artists in the genre today, including Tinchy Stryder, Tinie Tempah, Dizzie Rascal, Chipmunk, Wretch 32, Devlin and N Dubz. Channel AKA is not only a significant outlet for upcoming artists but it plays many established artists and is known for its particular. Its material includes crude productions shot with handheld digital cameras and helps artists build a reputation and fan base. Some of Channel AKAs programming includes British bass and beats, Hip hop and rap rhymes, UK gold and street stories, urban throwbacks. Each of these playing a significant part in Channel AKAs popularity and upbringing of artists. The main target audience for Channel AKA is teenagers aged 16-19 and young adults aged 20-25 all with an interest in the rap genre.

Channel AKA is owned by all around the world productions, who are known for specializing in dance and R&B music and artists. It is also a subsidiary of universal, therefore bringing Channel AKA wide success and popularity due to the reputation, knowledge and wealth of universal and its subsidiary's. It is also a sister channel to popular British music channels such as Clubland TV, Now Music and Pop Planet. Channel AKAs logo shows a man in a traditional gangsters outfit that classic rap and R&B artists tend to wear leaning by the letters 'AKA' in a bold suitable colour scheme that matches the music channels genre and reputation.

I think that MTV is broken down into 5 different genre based channels (dance, rock, classic, base, hits) as it allows audiences the chance and freedom to listen to whatever music they want when they want rather then listening to one music channel that plays all different styles of genres that some people won't be interested in or want to listen to. By having an series of different music channels, this makes MTV more diverse and gives them variety making them more popular amongst audiences and the average fan as they can listen to there favourite music, genres and artists without listening to music they aren't interested in. Music channels are important in appealing to target audiences as they are a huge and easily accessible platform to listen to music on and watch music videos and therefore you have more and more people tuning in and watching them. They are therefore highly important and influential in appealing to target audiences, as the more they give audiences and the more opportunities and variety they present, audiences will be able to engage with them more and watch them more regularly. I also believe that there is a variety of music channels so there is more competition amongst the industry and amongst all the different music channels and genres and the main purpose for them is so they can separate the types of music and give audiences more. Also, there is a variety of music channels as it also give them there own identity and allows them to make an image and reputation for themselves to grow and to help publish there music genre and give it more recognition and popularity. I have learnt from analysing different music channels many more styles of music and the purpose of music channels and how they deliver music to their audiences and the styles of music they aim for and the image they want to achieve from the general fan and audiences. This has also helped me with planning my own production as it has helped me choose which genre i want to go with and the conventions and sort of music and artists that go with it to help include into my own video.