Cocktails won’t be served, but ABC says a new online “music lounge” will offer a full menu of songs and artists featured on its shows.
The virtual ABC Music Lounge is aimed at making the most of the tunes included on “Grey’s Anatomy,” ”Desperate Housewives” and other programs, the network said Thursday.
The Web site offers a streaming “radio station” playing 200-plus singers and bands whose songs have been heard on ABC, Web pages for featured artists and a link for online song purchases.
Music videos, exclusive performance footage and interviews with artists and show producers also are on the site.
“This is way to bring all the music of ABC into one place, to allow people to find and enjoy it,” said Michael Benson, ABC executive vice president for marketing.
Artists showcased on the new site include Adele, the Fray, Lenka, Anya Marina, Joshua Radin and Rilo Kiley.
ABC Music Lounge’s scheduled Thursday debut was to coincide with 100th episode of “Grey’s Anatomy.” To mark the occasion, the Web site offered a retrospective of the music featured throughout the drama’s run.
Other TV networks highlight on-air music on their Web sites, but ABC said its goal is to offer the most “robust” destination. The Music Lounge is another measure of the growing importance of television to the music industry, ABC executives said.
“There’s been so much talk about CD sales declining. That doesn’t mean the use of music and demand for music is declining,” said Peter DiCecco, ABC senior vice president of business and legal affairs for music. “People always want a venue to find music. TV is that venue.”
ABC also is taking on the “important responsibility” of helping to launch new artists in a changing music industry, said Dawn Soler, ABC vice president for TV music.
According to the network, sales of the Fray’s “How To Save A Life” jumped nearly 300 percent after playing in a n episode of “Grey’s Anatomy,” while digital downloads of Lenka’s “Trouble Is A Friend” also jumped after it was included on the show.
The network is working with Epic Records and other labels to create a new business model that provide for revenue-sharing and help reduce license fees for the use of music on TV, Benson said.
Ron Cicero and Bo Clancey Launch Production House 34North
Executive producers Ron Cicero and Bo Clancey have teamed to launch 34North. The shop opens with a roster which includes accomplished directors Jan Wentz, Ben Nakamura Whitehouse and Mario Feil, as well as such up-and-coming filmmakers as Glenn Stewart and Chris Fowles.
Nakamura Whitehouse, Feil and Fowles come over from CoMPANY Films, the production company for which Cicero served as an EP for the past nearly five years.
Director Wentz had most recently been with production house Skunk while Stewart now gains his first U.S. representation.
EP Clancey was freelance producing prior to the formation of 34North. He and Cicero have known each other for some 25 years, recently reconnecting on a job directed by Fowles. Cicero said that he and Clancey “want to keep a highly focused roster where talent management can be one on one--where we all share in the directors’ success together.”
Clancey also brings an agency pedigree to the new venture. “I started at Campbell Ewald in accounts, no less,” said Clancey. “I saw firsthand how much work agencies put in before we even see a script. You have to respect that investment. These agency experiences really shaped my approach to production--it’s about empathy, listening between the lines, and ultimately making the process seamless.”
34North represents a meeting point--both literally and creatively. Named after the latitude of Malibu, Calif., where the idea for the company was born, it also embraces the power of storytelling. “34North118West was the first GPS-enabled narrative,” Cicero explained. “That blend of art and technology, to captivate an audience, mirrors what we do here--create compelling work, with talented people, harnessing state-of-the-art... Read More