MTV and MySpace have just announced a new joint venture to create a weekly TV show called “The MySpace Chart,” which will be shown on MTV2 in the UK. The videos appearing on the show will be decided by votes from MTV viewers on the site’s own website and by MySpace users on the show’s MySpace homepage. This collaborative effort between the two properties could help launch some new, undiscovered artists from the MySpace social network since there will be some room on the show reserved for new musical talent.
The vote list for “The MySpace Chart” will consist of 35 to 40 videos from the MTV2 playlist plus five videos from new bands and artists which will be promoted on the MTV2 web site and the channel’s homepage on MySpace. The web site and MySpace profile will go live on March 10 and the TV show will premiere on MTV2 on Sunday March 16.
“The audience for MTV2 and MySpace are incredibly similar,” commented Philip O’Ferrall, VP of digital media, MTV Networks UK & Ireland. “Not only are they both incredibly passionate about their music tastes but they are powerful advocates for the latest up-coming artists, which both MTV and MySpace have a history of showcasing.”
“The way that consumers are accessing music is changing. MySpace is the world’s largest online music destination connecting bands and their fans,” added Dom Cook, marketing director and head of music at MySpace UK.
This isn’t the first time that MTV and MySpace have teamed up. The two previously collaborated in the hunt for a news presenter.
The partnership shows that MTV seems to be more interested in partnering with MySpace now, than trying to create their own social network and content. For example, just last month, MTV closed their own user-generated content based channel, MTV Flux and is now in the process of integrating the content into other MTV-branded channels instead.
The only question with the new show, “The MySpace Chart,” is where is the U.S. version? The United States has more MySpace users and a bigger MTV audience…maybe the UK just has better music?
