MusicPlusTV Is Cool…I Think
Natali Del Conte
31 comments »
Music Plus Television Network (MusicPlusTV) is what MTV was in the 80’s: fun, young, and actually about music. It is an online music video/concert station that launched in June of 2005. Earlier this week they announced a seven-figure round of funding and licensing agreements that made us take note.
MusicPlusTV is a network of shows, each with its own genre to focus on. It reminds me a lot of D7TV, except D7TV is not music-centered and it is aimed at the mobile market. MusicPlusTV is musical content for your computer screen.
The shows stream live at scheduled times so that viewers can AIM video requests.
“AIM is actually a pretty important tool for our audience participation on just about every show we have,” said Bryan Kim, a spokesperson for MusicPlusTV. “We’ll have viewers IMing, requesting videos, questions for guests, etc. from all over the world, which is a big reason we stream live - for the interactivity.”
Shows are streamed to Windows Media Player within the browser. Kim said that MusicPlusTV’s goal is to broadcast a mixture of new bands and major-label bands. Snoop Dogg recently did a station ID for the company and other in-studio guests have included Jurassic 5, Living Legends, Jon B, Planet Asia, Blackalicious, and more. They also have several exclusive concert footage on the site.
“I would say we lean on introducing more music,” Kim said. “But the main thing is to provide a balance from all the top 40, limited playlists you get at radio stations, and MTV, and the like.”
Kim said that the company is close to seeing one million hits per month but he wouldn’t give an exact user number, nor would he disclose exactly how much funding the company received from Kenai Investment LLC.
On Wednesday, MusicPlusTV announced agreements with Windows Media Guide, Akimbo, Tvext, and Globe7 to distribute MusicPlusTV programs through their respective sites.
This is one of the coolest music video sites I’ve seen but I have to admit none of these genres are my kind of music. I don’t consume content that is nearly this hip but if I did, I would give this site full props because it is well organized, production value is high, the streams are clean, and the shows have plenty of musical content instead of some VJ who wants to chat about their own life. If I were cool, I definitely would say this company is cool.
But you are not cool. And never will be. Just keep firing people.
gr8 site!
I hope to enjoy some live shows of Metallica or U2 who never perform in India. Cheers.
The site is weird or maybe its just not my kind of music. The google ads are really distracting. The site should really consider allowing users to comment on the video show. Even better yet, real-time chat so people can talk to one another about the show if someone happens to be watching at the same time.
The site looks great but too slow
This a very welcome development, it shows that internet television has come to stay and that it can be adoptted on different niches. consequently, with this development runing a multi channel portal looks so much a viable option.
I can’t for the life of me figure out exactly what any of these channels is going to play — for example, Rock Block. Apparently, clarity is not this website’s forte. The website sure is “busy” looking though. Yikes!
These guys should have done their due diligence on the trademarks; the name and logo belong to Astral Media, who owns the Canadian TV channels MuchMusic and MusiquePlus, both of which use the same logo: M+. This one is bound for the courts !
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MusiquePlus
isn’t this like yahoo music sort of kind of….
um, why is this site being featured? There’s nothing remotely interesting about it. It looks terrible, and if IMing requests is the most interactive thing they can do, they clearly haven’t paid attention to what’s going on. Sites like this are what make YouTube look good.
As someone who is more interested in true independently produced music, I find the site incredible and a welcome change from the commercial-ridden big label deals thrown down by the bigger sites like YouTube. Quality Varied Music TV. Just go to site and put on fullscreen.
Compared to the to Yahoo music feature on today’s edition, this looks really weak.
If I enter the site during a stream, I want to know what’s playing.
I might also want to purchase it or see them live in concert.
I might even want to hook up with local girls who like this music
They could do so much more with this, what is wrong with these people????
another aweful post. Mike, find a better writer.
so Sam Sethi?
“This is one of the coolest music video sites I’ve seen but I have to admit none of these genres are my kind of music. I don’t consume content that is nearly this hip…” - Natali
Yeah, I feel so old…maybe a little too old. These days I see the excitement understand but cant be a part of it….sad….very sad…oh for those days…
Not a bad site, very slow for me though.
Still waiting for an investment or finance start-up? When are you going to cover one of these?
Cheers
I don’t know about US market, but MTV in India stinks, Same songs are played unde different garbs and premises. Looks like they have lost their focus on Music with Soap Operas and reality show, In fac Inddian TV Industry Stinks, thats the reason why I took up blogging.
Is it just me or is there no search? I scoured the site for a good five minutes, albeit all while watching an awesome video by The Faint.
I like the concept behind this site, and the 3 tracks I just listened to were all interesting and well-chosen.
BUT…this site has “MySpace Disease” in a big way: Its a great idea, but it looks awful and is just busy and poorly designed. Pitchfork Media, who has even more content crammed onto their pages, does a much better job with layout, typography and desgin.
I feel like production values are getting thrown out the window with the current generation of new-media sites. Aesthetics do matter: Mac’s are a pleasure to use because of their design. Porsches are fun to drive for the same reason. Ikea makes clean, well designed stuff for your house.
@Daja - find another site to read. no one is forcing you to read TC. oh yeah, and find a better spell checker too.
Muchmusic’s site, for reference, seems to have a lot of content and doesn’t appear to have adwords-type advertising, which I think differentiates it for the kids. (”Much” have been using this crowded albeit clean design pattern for years, and I think it works well.)
http://www.muchmusic.com/
They’re the Canadian MTV equivalent.
Incorporating streaming video with IM is a powerful concept but as noted in many of the comments, this is a well-worn idea. The primary problem may reside in poor organization of a large content base. Navigation is imperative. Here is a link to some alternate information/analysis/humor concerning the company:
http://www.venturemidwest.com/blog/?p=71
Natali,
Who are you kidding? You not cool enough? You are cooler then a polar bears toe nails.
Wow, a whole million hits per month? And they need funding?
The site looks low budget. Like something I would have done when I started in the web business.
My dos centavos.
This sounds pretty cool, though I must agree with you, I’m not very “cool” so I wouldn’t know from first-hand experience.
it a site with one page…basically.
and its not really cool. anything that needs to use the word “cool” or define itself as “Cool” to be “cool” is not “cool”
this is the first rule of “cool” and if any of you geeks where actually “cool” you’dve known this.
its just a page streaming/and mostly buffering music videos.
Tech Crunch lost it’s mojo. Mike please give us better coverage of emerging technology, not of some bloated cookie cutter drupal site. Natali is hot, and thats about all she has going for her.
musicguru,
She is a very smart girl. Just give her time. She is A OK in my book.
Cut Natali a freak’n break. Her contributions are more significant than the polutants you guys contribute with your useless comments. They waste our time. Just because you don’t like a post, you have spend the time bitching about it. Why can’t you act like a normal person and simply move on to another story.
Not as exiting as the post suggests. Sites like http://3voor12.vpro.nl/kijkenluister/overzicht/ and http://www.fabchannel.com/ are much more fun to watch and listen to