Aristo

International

Report

Vol. 3, Issue No. 2

June 2010

www.AristoMedia.com

Promoting the World of Country Music Around the Globe

Since 2002, Tim Daley has been programming Australia’s 24-hour Country music video network, Country Music Channel.  We spoke with Tim about international Country music videos and the state of the global Country music market overall.

How much of CMC’s video content comes from Australian artists versus the rest of the world?

TD: It varies, but I’d say anywhere from 35 to 45 percent of our programming comes from local artists.  The bulk of the rest of it comes from American and Canadian acts, mostly.

Is that because there’s a greater interest in the American acts, or is it because there’s just so much more content to choose from? 

TD: Part of it is that the production quality in American or Canadian Country music videos is better because the budgets are bigger.  We play the local stuff because they are the artists that are generally touring in the Australian markets, and there are definitely good quality acts here to choose from.  At the same time, you want to put on the best overall quality acts that are current, so of course by sheer numbers there are a lot to choose from outside Australia.

Have you noticed a trend of CMC’s viewership numbers continuing to climb, or have they plateaued at a certain point?

TD: There’s actually two parts to that answer.  One is that we’re seeing sort of an organic growth, where more people are watching the channel as cable television continues to spread - our cable penetration is only about 36 or 37 percent here.  The other thing is changing people’s perception of Country music.  So our challenge is to present Country music as mainstream entertainment, and part of the way we do that is having acts like Brooks & Dunn, Tim McGraw, Taylor Swift and Sugarland tour Australia and having festivals like CMC Rocks the Snowys that show how good of quality this music is.

What do you think the biggest obstacle the Country music industry faces in terms of successfully globalizing this genre? 

TD: I think more artists need to tour internationally. Especially developing artists.  When they’re on their first or second video, they need to get overseas - do a promo tour, do a couple of showcases.  In most cases, something can be put together

where they aren’t going to lose much money, if at all.  In global markets, fans are honored if an artist will travel that far to perform for them.  It takes a bit of vision.  The artist has to say, ‘Do I want to be a global artist?’ or are they just happy to work the U.S. market?  When you get down to it, it’s only a week every two years to tour Australia, for example.

Does CMC play some of the up-and-coming indie artists to help lay that foundation for them?

TD: Oh, yeah.  We’re open to playing new music.  We love breaking artists.  Lady Antebellum is a good example.  When “Need You Now” started to cross over a little bit into pop radio, it was already our fourth or fifth single at CMC.  We’re flexible in the way we program our channel.  For instance, Tim McGraw is coming to town in a few months and we’re playing ten or twelve of his early clips, just to show viewers the backstory, what he used to look like, what he sounded like.  We’re not ratings driven, we’re brand driven.  It’s about being relevant for our audience and educating our audience and reflecting what they want. 

Visit CMC on the web at www.countrymusicchannel.com.au/

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