Music Channels

Music channels

List of music channels:

·         4 music

·         Bliss

·         The Box

·         Buzmuzik

·         Channel AKA

·         Chart shot TV

·         Clubland TV

·         Dance nation TV

·         Flava

·         Greatest Hits TV

·         Heat

·         Karrang

·         Kiss

·         Magic

·         Massive R&B

·         MTV bass

·         MTV classic

·         MTV dance

·         MTV Hits

·         MTV live

·         MTV music

·         MTV rocks

·         Scuzz

·         Smash Hits

·         Starz TV

·         The Vault

·         VH1

·         Vintage TV

·         VIVA

MTV

MTV started off as a music channel airing in 1^st August 1981. Their target audience is from 12-24, and to ensure they can reach a wide audience as possible they have many subsidiary labels including base, hits, dance, rock and classic. Especially in today's society teenagers have strong beliefs and opinions, which is shown through their taste in music, as they like various different genres by MTV having subsidiary labels they will appeal to their target audience very well. Having several subsidiary labels will make them more established and liked worldwide because they will have something that appeals to everyone. It is important for MTV to appeal to as many people as possible since having different channels for different genres. For MTV dance the target audience is around 13-24 and aimed at teenagers and young adults because they are the ones going to clubs or even do dance themselves. So having specific channels creates several different target audiences for each one and that way MTV as a whole appeals to everyone. Also as each different channel has its own target audience they can aim to reach their demands much more easily than if there was one channel which played every type of music. The MTV logo appeals to the target audience as its bold, black and white and simple so it appeals to more than one age group. The simple use of black and white conveys a sense of endless fashion so it will never be unappealing as they are colours which we will always use. The funky use of font for the word 'tv' relates to the young, hip target audience as it resembles a look which seems like someone has graffitied on the perfect bold 'M'.  The black writing in capital letters underneath the big 'M' tells people what their channel is and I think this is good to attract new viewers in. Also because there target audience age range is so wide using black and white on the logo will appeal to everyone and can be looked at as a music channel easily by consumers across the world.

VH1

VH1 is a mainstream music channel, which first aired on 1st Jan 1985 based in New York City. Their slogan is ‘watch and discuss’ which suit their target audience which is 25-35 because discuss is a word related more to older people rather than teenagers. VH1 is a subsidiary label of MTV and when VH1 first started off they played smooth jazz, classical and new age bands all of these genres have an older target audience which was the idea MTV had for VH1 but it has progressed since then to now play more modern pop artists. They play a various amount of music from lots of different eras, including 80’s 90’s as well as modern artists such as Ed Sheeran, Nicki Minaj, Flo rida and Pink. They have ‘100 greatest women singers of the 90’s’ and ‘Top 100 hits from 80’s’ which will appeal to the older target audience. But although they play music from different eras it is all soft pop music. The logo for VH1 appeals to their target demographic as it is colourful, using bright pink and orange. These colours connote the 70’s because it was the fashion then to wear bright colours and stand out, which also relates to the target audience who are 25-35 and would have been born around the 80s. It conveys a different groovy style, as the letter V sticks out slightly and the cube conveys the different genres. The use of bright colours attracts attention instantly and I think it makes people want to find out more if they don't know what it is already. 

BOX

Box is a music channel in United Kingdom and Ireland, but originated from Miami when it was originally called the Juxebox network. Box is a subsidiary label of channel 4, kiss, kerrang, heat, smash hits and magic, which are all listed as links at the bottom of the box website. Their target audience is teenagers from about 13-20. Box play mainstream music which is perfect for their target audience but it does includes a variety of music genres including pop, rap, indie and dance. Some of the artist box play include Rihanna, Rita Ora, Plan B, Tinchy Stryder, Kayne West and David Guetta. Box were noticeably recognised as the force of making spice girls ‘wannabe’ as they played their song before the release date. The logo is in black and white and is the word BOX and each letter is in a square shape which connotes a box, similarly to the MTV logo with the use of black and white it will appeal to all ages. Also the use of neutral colours allow the logo to appeal to both genders equally. I think it is a quirky logo, which conveys the music they play which are various genres yet still all mainstream.  The main colours used on the box website are pink, grey, white and blue. The box logo is at the top with black lines coming down from the letters making them look like lollipops. There are pink cherries in the top background heading, conveying a sense of freshness, innocence and youth.  On the home page of the website there is a box which says ‘leave messages for your mates on the wall’ this is written in a graffiti looking font and the background of it is a wall, this clearly shows the age Box’s target demographic is teenagers. Also the simplicity of the use of black and white and the font which box has been written in convey their target audience are teenagers because they like things to be simple.

SCUZZ

Scuzz is a British music television channel owned by CSC media group and was launched on the 17^th April 2003. It is the highest-rated rock television station in the UK. The channel plays a range of rock music e.g. heavy metal, soft-rock, punk-rock. Some of the artists and bands Scuzz play are Linkin park, green day, Enter shikari, deaf havana, slipknot and korn. Rock is definitely not everybodys type of music and it usually isn’t a genre of music a teenager or child would listen to if they hadn’t heard somebody else listen to it or tell them about it so I think that Scuzz have a niche audience who tend to be 25+ but is still spread across a wide range of ages. I think that it's important that Scuzz know what their target audience want and like because as rock is such a niche genre anyway if they lose some of their audience they may have to shut down completely. Scuzz broadcast live performances from bands like slipknot and 36 crazyfists, which possibly appeal more to the younger audience as the concerts usually have mosh pits and they might not be old enough to attend so they can still watch their favourite band from home. 

Scuzz have several subsidiary labels such as tiny pop, bliss, flava, buzmuzik and the vault, but unlike all of these channels Scuzz is the only one which plays rock music. Also in the evenings Scuzz play traditional heavy metal, hard rock, punk, deathcore and death metal which no other music channel in the UK currently plays. The Scuzz logo fits into the codes and conventions as the colour is a silver/metallic which represents the heavy metal and rock genre they play. This relates well to their target audience who are predominantly people who would dress daringly in dark, dull clothing with spikes and thick soled boots. Also the font is edgy which conveys metal fence wires and knifes. I think this sign does appeal to the target audience and looks completely different to a lot of other music television logos, which goes well because they play completely different music to most other music television channels.

KISS

Kiss is a subsidiary music channel from Box television and was first launched in 1985. Kiss have other subsidiary channels which are heart, kerrang and magic. They mainly play mainstream music consisting of hip-hop, pop, dance and R&B. They play artists such as David Guetta, Calvin Harris, Chris Brown and Rihanna. The target audience of kiss is about 16-25 year olds, as they play a lot of party and clubbing music which appeals to the target audience. It is important for Kiss to keep up to date with the music their target audience like. Especially as the target audience are young,pop/R&B/dance music is mainstream so there are tons of well known and smaller upcoming artists that 16-25 year olds like to listen to so it is important that kiss keep there music fresh. The logo for Kiss represent youth and ironically the light blue colour represents calmness even though the music they play is the opposite of that, although I think the blue also represents the up to date, fresh music they play. The K has been stretched into a funny shape, which follows the dance, hip-hop and urban culture and the sharp edges appeal to boys. Whereas the word 'kiss 100' is written in a slightly curly font which appeals to girls so equally the logo is very unisex. Also the K represents the side of an open mouth shape 

Why do you think MTV is broken down into different channels (base, dance, hits, rock, classic)?

I think MTV is broken down into different channels because they can attract a wider target audience, show a wider range of music and that way they can become more well known and make more money. Also as an overall company they will appeal to everyone as they have so many music channels for different genres and each channel can focus and appeal to their specific target audience. This way I believe they will get more viewers overall rather than having just one channel which plays several different genres of music as it is less likely for people to watch a music channel when they don't like the majority of what it plays rather than watching a music channel full of the genre they like.

Why do you think music channels are important in appealing to a target audience?

I think it’s important because they can create a fan base for their channel and can promote other artists similar to the ones they already play. If a certain genre or music channel appeals to a bunch of people they will watch the music videos and can buy into their lifestyles e.g. Rihanna and Jessie J wear Boy London in their videos and a lot of people have bought Boy London merchandise so they have given that company a lot of promotion. If the music channels do competitions it is important to know which artists there audience are interested to meet or where to go on holiday e.g. the target audience of VH1 are less likely to want to go to Ibiza than the target audience of kiss, so marketing specifically for your own target audience is very important. Also nowadays a lot of pop artists are quite young e.g. Justin Bieber(18), Cody Simpson(17), Jessie J(24), Conor Maynard(19) so their fans will continue to grow with them, therefore it is important that the music channels know their target audience well and know what they want to hear. Especially as there are so many music channels now audiences can be easily put off or on certain channels so to gain the maximum audience the music channels have to be careful what they play.

Why do you think there are a variety of music channels?

I think there is a variety of music channels because everybody has different taste in music, so different channels have to supply for different people. Also if there was only one music channel it would either have to stick to playing certain genres of music or play all genres which may end up in loss of audience.

What have you learnt from analysing music channels and how will it help you with your own protection?

I have learnt that music videos generally stick to the conventions of their own genre to ensure that their fans don’t lose interest. Also an artist like Chris Brown makes pop/dance music and he dances in all his videos as he’s very good at it, so if he made a video to one of his songs but didn’t dance it would go against his usual conventions and it wouldn’t show all of his talent. Although I think it can be good to fade away from the codes and conventions and try something different, as the artist may gain new fans but it is a big risk.