Mtv is a very dominant music channel, due to the fact of the large percentage of the market share that they own in the music industry. Therefore, Mtv is very popular and appeals to a broad target audience which start from as young as 13 to people in their late 20’s. Mtv isn’t targeting a specific sex (male or female) because at these specific ages, most people experience that it is the most social time in their early life and find out who they are as a person. This enables them to interact and explore with activities they find interesting and most importantly, listen to music they enjoy.
As Mtv targets a broad musical audience, it is important for them to play music that appeal to them. Mtv had made the decision of playing mainstream music, solely to appeal and become popular with their audience also, the music is always high up in the charts as they need to keep up with their high reputation and provide audience satisfaction.
5 artists that play on MTV include
Beyonce
Katy Perry
Ne-yo
Tulisa
Rita Ora
All of these artists are mainstream and even though they are signed up to different record labels, they still have the same objective. Which is to sell records, and by being in the top 10 MTV charts, shows that these artists are selling thousands of records.
However, Mtv isn’t just a music channel, it also is a multinational brand with merchandise owning sister programs such as jersey shore, bevus and butthead, my super sweet sixteen, made and choose or loose. Mtv also have sister CHANNELS that include, MTV2, MTVu, MTV HITS, MTV jams, nickelodeon Nicktoons and comedy central.
VH1
VH1 is a music channel, owned by Viacom and created and based in the United States. It was first released in 1985 on January 1st, just four years after MTV, VH1 acronym stands for ‘video hits 1’.
The target audience for VH1 is for over 16’s and for early 30’s. VH1 target an older, more challenging demographic, by playing the ‘softer side of popular music’, differing from MTV. They appeal to the older side of their audience by playing ‘top 20 video countdowns’ and ’20 cheesiest songs’ or ‘songs from the noughties’. This is the case, as they have to do something different with their playlists because MTV is an oligopoly in the music channel industry. The early 30’s target audience includes a gap in the market and allows VH1 to stay in close competition. Therefore, VH1 play similar mainstream music to MTV, however the new songs are not played on VH1 first, and appeal to their broad audiences with different playlists.
The most popular artists on VH1 are
1. Demi Lovato
2. Train
3. Owl city
4. Robbie Williams
5. Take that
These artists are both mainstream but unique too, brought out by the fact that they each hold their own genre.
The sister programs that VH1 have, are MTV, VH1 soul, VH1 classic. This is so that they can have a spread of the market share and appeal to their older demographic audience.
VH1 have a very colourful logo with colours like yellow, pink, green and blue,These popular colours link in with the popular music that VH1 play along with the different types of music played.. The sleek style of font shows that the program is cool and it’s demographic is middle-aged.
The colourful 4 sided box has connotations to VH1 having many sides to their music. Orange being more relaxed
Pink being more funky music
and blue meaning classical.
BOX
The box is a television channel mostly played in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The target audience for the box is 14 to late 20’s. This is because they cater to mainstream music like Mtv and therefore their demographic is wide. But because they mostly play in the UK, there is more uk artists such as skepta and dizzy rascal being played on this music channel.The type of music played on this music channel is mainstream music, but with a mixture of UK artists and Rnb Hip hop genres too. Artists such as
1. J cole
2. Wiley
3. Rita ora
4. Justin Bieber
5. Kayne west
are often played on VH1. Also, taking into account that VH1 stands for ‘video music one’ indicates that the channel is looking out more for the video itself, which can mean that performance based videos are popular with VH1. Sister channels for VH1 include 4music, Heat, Kerrang!, Kiss, Magic and smashhits. These sister channels are following the same object which is to attract their target audience, and each sister channel has a different audience that they are reaching out too.
The box logo is cleverly produced with the word BOX, in box shape. The white stencil inside the box shows the letter more clearly and stands out. The logo appeals to the target audience in the way in which it is easy to read, and unique. The black background over the white stencil can denotate a silhouette, this can signify that the box channel has its OWN shadow and Is unique who doesn’t follow anybody else.
SCUZZ
Scuzz is a british music television channel written and owned by the CSC media group, it realise in 2003 on 17th april and has gone to be one of the most highest-rated rock tv station on uk television.
Scuzz music channel is aimed at rock lovers that can be of any age from teenage to early 20’s depending on your chosen interests. Scuzz go on to state ‘ Our audience is musically knowledgeable, aware and responsive to content, an audience defined by passion and loyalty which makes them choose scuzz as their definitive guide to rock music on tv’. Scuzz make it obvious that they have a specific demographic for their target audience, which include being ‘Musically knowledgeable’, ‘aware and responsive’ and ‘whom have passion and loyalty to scuzz’. Therefore they haven’t put an age on their audience, but a defining set of characteristics.
Rock is the main genre played by scuzz channel, Daytime scuzz delivers pop-punk videos including acts like
1. Kiss
2. Metallica
3. Slipknot
4. Korn
5. Ozzy Ozbourne
But as the sun sets (in the evening) Scuzz turns to the darker side playing heavy metal until the early hours of the morning. This is because the younger demographic will most likely be watching more tv in the day time and only the older defining demographic will be watching the darker side at night. Scuzz have a number of sister channels, which include, Bliss, Pop, Pop girl, Flava, the vault and true entertainment. This music channel is unique and put their own little twist on their show in the way in which they use their brand to help up and coming rock artists and show them for the first time, they also do competitions every week to help fans, win the merchandise.
The scuzz logo is very sharp cut, which connotates the dangerous attitude their main performers have. The sharp edges show strictness and have a feeling of dark danger and the grey colour shows a colourless feel which could mean there is no other emotions associated with scuzz.
Kiss Tv is a commercial music television channel who predominantly play mainstream hip-hop, dance and RnB genres. It was launched in 1998 on June the 26th and is owned by Box Television
The target audience for Kiss is from young teenagers (14) to mid 20’s(26). This is because the mainstream music channel plays RnB music which is one of the most popular music genres therefore it is easier to connect and reach out to a specific demographic because they know all the characteristics and conventions needed to appeal to their audience.This channel plays mainstream RnB, hiphop and dance music, and is firmly dedicated to these three genres. The reason for this is that they can still compete in the music market with other sister channels such as the box, more4, magic, kerrang!, heat, e4, fim4 and 4Seven. Artists such as
1. Drake
2. Rhianna
3. R Kelly
4. David Guetta
5. Flo rider
As kiss is a British television channel, it also has its own radio station due to its fantastic status and growth. Kiss is based on the format of the bauer owned London radio station, but originally started as a pirate radio station in London.
The kiss logo is purple, so that it can appeal to both male and female, the cut out rectangle has the word KISS in the slit of it showing that the word has come out of the rectangle. The blue shape looks like deformed lips, relating to the KISS name and therefore appeals to its target audience.
Questions:
1 Why do you think MTV is broken down into different channels?
I think MTV is broken down into different channels because the different genres can cater to different target audiences and equally share the market share in the most efficient way as each genre can concentrate on their target audience. Also, MTV have sister channels that are not related to music, for example Nicktoons and comedy central. This is an example of a lateral merge when merging with a brand/company with similarities to your field to become more popular and cater for other peoples needs.
2 Why do you think music channels are important when having a target audience?
Music channels need to do research into their target audience and base many big company decisions on what will appeal mostly to their target audience. This is why a target audience is so important; the music channel will base everything on how to please them.
Labels will tell their artists what to do, how to dress, what to speak about etc in order for them to appeal to their audience and therefore channels need to find the special audience that they want to target and base their music decisions on their preference.
3 Why do you think there are a variety of music channels?
There needs to be a large variety of music channels because everyone is different, and music channels need to cater to different peoples need in order to make money. There are different, genres, which have different sub genres and the list goes on, this is why there are so many different music channels. However the industry is an oligopoly as there are a few main music channels that dominate.
4 What have you learnt from analyzing music channels and how will it help you with your own production? I have realized that there is more to a ‘logo’ then what it shows, it is important to consider what it represents. Also I have learnt that researching and finding the ideal target audience is a very important decision to make, and this will help me with my own production
I Have also learnt that sister channels don’t have to relate to the genre of one channel and also how important finding out the genre you want to play so that you can concentrate on one genre, and not lots of little sub-genres.
This post demonstrates a proficient understanding of how music channels appeal to an audience. You have considered a variety of music channels and have also considered the target audience that would watch them.
ReplyDeleteNow you need to relate your points to more detailed examples, by focusing more on the paylists that are included within the music television schedule. This will enable you to show more knowledge of the music industry.