A&R Channel: Putting Quality Content back into the Music Industry
The music industry has seen it’s share of challenges to keep up in the digital world throughout the past several years. Seth Shapiro, of A&R Channel, recently shared his insight about what they are doing to provide a platform where users can discover and share quality, new bands and artists. At one time, the music industry was great at seeking out superior new artists, but as times have changed, the need for the traditional A&R rep has decreased. The digital revolution has presented itself an opportunity that A&R Channel is leveraging in order to provide quality music content to music fans.
Utilizing a combination of traditional TV and new media, A&R Channel and ARChannel.tv are focusing on finding tastemakers from all over the country who have their finger at the pulse of what is happening in the types of music they are passionate about. They have an online presence, as well as an on demand network in 17 million homes, powered by ComCast, allowing the viewer to have a variety of offerings when they want it. They are trying to capture that sweet spot between the power of TV and the Internet to provide quality content to the music consumer. Between the two, their objective is to create a platform where the user can go and seek out new music, as opposed to artists they already know about.
Genres aside, A&R Channel is all about quality music. As Seth Shapiro points out in his interview, a lot of great musicians do not necessarily fit into pre-defined categories, thus having trouble gaining exposure. ARChannel.tv is an outlet where users can submit content about bands and artists they like to an audience that is seeking out new, quality music.
ARChannel.tv currently has content, but they are actively interested in people coming to them as tastemakers where they can have a voice to build their audience. Eventually, the site will have a much bigger social networking component as well. The site is expected to launch by October 2008, check it out at www.archannel.tv or the A&R Channel on ComCast.
