MUSIC CHANNELS

Origins
Music channels have had a role in music for hundreds of years. As early as 1895 music channels were present, with the worlds first music video being filmed in Thomas Edisons studio, and then being projected onto a wall. The development of music channels and thus music video continued long into the 1900s, with the climax of development taking place in the late 1970s, with the announcement of MTV, which would soon become a household name in music. On the 1st of August 1981, the first major music channel, MTV launched to the public, to critical acclaim.

MTV

The most well known music channel is MTV MTV were the first major music channel, and the channel revolutionised how music was created, listened to, and distributed. On August 1, 1981, at 12:01 a.m., MTV launched with the words "Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll," over footage of the first Space Shuttle launch countdown of Columbia, which took place earlier that year, and of the launch of Apollo 11. At the moment of its launch, only a few thousand people on a single cable system in northern New Jersey could see it. The first music video shown on MTV was The Buggles' "Video Killed the Radio Star. The screen would go black when an employee at MTV inserted a tape into a VCR as they changed between music video on the chanel

MTV Now

MTV itself now focuses its efforts into its reality TV scheme. Almost all of the content produced on the MTV channel is based on this scheme, and thus very little time is spent on music videos. However, several other channels, such as MTV Bass have been set up in order to stream 24/7 music videos. This has been combined with a range of other separate companies music channels in order to give the consumer a vast choice when choosing a channel

Further Developments

In the modern era, a vast range of music videos are available at our leisure These include; Viva, Kerrang and Smash Hits! This vast wealth of music videos allow for significance viewing of music videos, and are in many cases a primary source of music promotion.

Kerrang!

Kerrang! Is a music channel that first aired in 2001, and is owned by Box Television Whilst it shares a name with the well known magazine, it is only loosely connected with the company itself. This does however highlight how different companies are trying to use the music channel industry for promotion, perhaps indicating that it is still useful, even in the modern day with all other technology available to play music videos Kerrang! Is different to most music channels, as it operates a guarentee to play request show constantly, where viewers may text in and request a song to be played. Regardless of how many songs are ahead of it, it will be added to the playlist and it will eventually be played. Box Television own a number of other music channels, including Heat, The Box and Kiss. On 2 April 2013, the show went free to air on satelite, highlighting its demand across a variety of networks.

Viva

Viva is a music channel that was originally German based, debuting in 1993 only in germany Much like MTV, this was a free to air music channel Viva is an example of the music channel market becoming more proliferated, as eventually, MTV moved to acquire it This was confirmed in 2005, with the channel then becoming much more global, most notably acquiring a slot on the vast wealth of music channels available on SKY Differently to most music channels, VIVA focuses on a more entertainment based style of presentation. Whilst still remaining as a source for music video, the channel also displays a number of TV shows, including 16 and pregnant and The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. This is an example of how music channels are being forced to change in order to stay relevant, due to the influx of video hosting websites online, such as YouTube

Music Video Today

Despite still being recognised as the main music channel, channels such as Kerrang and Viva are also becomming recognised as significant music channels In the modern era, music channels mainly serve the purpose of listening to the genre that you like, due to the wide range of channels available to you, whereas originally, choice was very limited to mainstream pop and rock music Music channels have become a much more recognised and social aspect of the TV package, and instead of being used to promote songs as much, they are used as an entertainment source, with viewers usually just flicking between all channels until they find a song that they like. However, as a result of new technologies, mainly the use of the internet, the use of the TV as a source for listening to music has been reduced significantly, with all the videos now being able to stream online.