RUMOR MILL
“We’re going back to our roots of connecting artists to fans and empowering them to subsidize, support and help their favorite bands get heard, not just by their friends and peers, but by the entire country.”
——Van Toffler
Thursday, April 18, 2013
MTV/VH1/CMT LAUNCH “ARTIST OPPORTUNITIES HUB”
New Initiative Designed to Enable Bands to Extend Their Fan Base and Reach on a Potentially Massive Scale, Including On-Air Video Rotation and Live Performances
With today’s launch of the artist opportunities hub, MTV/VH1/CMT are opening their gates directly to artists and allowing them to opt into a myriad of opportunities to have their music showcased across the network’s TV, digital and social screens, including MTV, VH1, CMT, MTV Hits, MTV Jams, VH1 Soul, CMT Pure and Palladia, potentially reaching more than 100 million homes. The hub will live on the network’s artist platform pages (Artists.MTV, Artists.VH1 and Artists.CMT) and will be updated regularly.
“We’re going back to our roots of connecting artists to fans and empowering them to subsidize, support and help their favorite bands get heard, not just by their friends and peers, but by the entire country,” said Van Toffler, President of MTV, VH1, CMT and Logo. “Starting today, artists of all levels and genres will be featured across our television channels, sites, stages, blogs, social channels, concert tours, radio shows, and most importantly, provided a direct link to their fans via artist platform.”
Participating acts will also have the chance to vie for such external opportunities. At-launch opportunities include music video rotation, two spots to play the Hangout Music Fest in May and, most intriguingly, a fan crowd-sourced opening slot for Hunter Hayes’ N.Y. show in June. Based on fan support (measured through traffic on the page and plays of their videos), the list of potential opening acts will be narrowed down to 10, with Hayes then personally selecting the opening act artist.
While the new hub will likely resonate with emerging artists, there's also an advertiser and consumer element in play as well, especially considering the vast expanse of virtual ground it covers. With advertisers increasingly looking to associate their brands with artists and genres on the rise, the hub gives them a comprehensive new way to find the artists that best suit their needs/goals, and the opportunity to then create custom campaigns with tremendous scale that could play out across all of the network’s platforms and screens.
“We’re going back to our roots of connecting artists to fans and empowering them to subsidize, support and help their favorite bands get heard, not just by their friends and peers, but by the entire country,” said Van Toffler, President of MTV, VH1, CMT and Logo. “Starting today, artists of all levels and genres will be featured across our television channels, sites, stages, blogs, social channels, concert tours, radio shows, and most importantly, provided a direct link to their fans via artist platform.”
Participating acts will also have the chance to vie for such external opportunities. At-launch opportunities include music video rotation, two spots to play the Hangout Music Fest in May and, most intriguingly, a fan crowd-sourced opening slot for Hunter Hayes’ N.Y. show in June. Based on fan support (measured through traffic on the page and plays of their videos), the list of potential opening acts will be narrowed down to 10, with Hayes then personally selecting the opening act artist.
While the new hub will likely resonate with emerging artists, there's also an advertiser and consumer element in play as well, especially considering the vast expanse of virtual ground it covers. With advertisers increasingly looking to associate their brands with artists and genres on the rise, the hub gives them a comprehensive new way to find the artists that best suit their needs/goals, and the opportunity to then create custom campaigns with tremendous scale that could play out across all of the network’s platforms and screens.
