MUMBAI: The success of a music channel or radio station that’s gone international or regional has opened a new segment for musical exposure. With the progression of these channels, the core question that remains is - Has the media finally started segmenting music? If yes, where is the segmentation heading to? The overall consensus seemed to be ‘yes, media needs to segment music.

A panel discussion “Is the Media segmenting music?” moderated by Artist Aloud AVP Soumini Sridhar Paul on the second day of Radionandmusic.com’s Nokia Music Connect 4 pondered on the issue. The session had Radio City SVP and Digital Media and New Business- Rachna Kanwar, Think Tank Launch Pad partner and Dicky ‘Speak’ Pvt Ltd CEO- Vikas Varma, and 9X Media head of programming 9XO Luke Kenny as co-panelists.

The revolution of music on radio and television commenced with the introduction of India’s first web portal PlanetRadiocity, which was followed by international music channel 9XO and first regional Bhojpuri music channel HummraM. Commenting on the current media segmentation, Kenny stated, “Media segmentation is necessary as there are musicians who don’t have proper TV exposure. In 9XO we have segregated each and every genre as per the audience demand.“

“We have also licensed Day One’s property ‘Live for Console’ wherein we will extract English music content. We also offer shows dedicated to independent artistes like Indiegenous and Big Daddy O’s. So, segmentation is necessary for these musicians as there is a huge demand for this kind of music. The point has been aptly proved with the success of NH7 Weekender,” added Kenny.

While agreeing with Kenny, Varma added, “Apart from proper exposure, we also need differentiation on radio. The mood gap is a major problem on radio and we haven’t changed the format of radio over years, we need differentiation on that front.”

Speaking about the developments at Radio City, Kanwar said, “At the time of our launch, there wasn’t a dedicated portal for music, and as pioneers we wanted to create that space. The success of our web portal has led us to the initiation of Freedom Radio – a platform for indie music which has received half a million streams. The success has further inspired us to expose the theme ‘Unplug’ on the mother brand which airs on every Saturday between 5 and 6 pm. We also host several on-ground events offering a platform for independent artistes.”

Kenny divulged the on-going developments at VH1 that were initiated in 2011, he said “Although VH1 has been in the industry for quite some time, it has never claimed to be 100 percent music channel, the channel has been divided into a 40 percent music and 60 percent lifestyle channel. Whereas, 9XO is 100 percent music, there is no clutter on the channel which has helped us to grow. 9XO hasn’t been in the industry for too long, so it’s hard to exactly point the progress, but we are hoping for a positive response.”

Even though the channels and stations currently enjoy a fair share of success, they face challenges and problems, Varma said that there were initial difficulties that were faced without having an established infrastructure while launching an independent Bhojpuri music channel a few months back.

While infrastructure had been a challenge for HummraM, distribution has been the point of concern for 9XO. “Visibility is a bit of issue, but advertisers know about our existence. Advertisers are quite satisfied with our clutter-less musical offering which helps us in terms of ad rates,” Kenny added.

Adding to the list of challenges faced, Kanwar revealed, “We always wanted to be like radio in the western countries, but due to restriction like licensing imposed on us, the idea was quite difficult. It’s still a struggle as digital has always been muffled for media planners. We have ads on the mother brand, but we are struggling to put up ads on our other property.”