LOS ANGELES (CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — Clear Channel and Front Line Management have pacted to launch a new company that will allow artists to produce their own digital radio shows. The channels will run 24 hours a day and feature content such as music, anecdotes, discussion and interviews all created by the artist.
The new venture, called a.p.e.(artist's personal experience) radio, is set to debut in July '09 and will launch with stations by the Eagles, Christina Aguilera and Weezer. The 'stations' will be integrated into each artists' website and be carried by Clear Channel's digital network, "iheartradio." Clear Channel's network also includes 850 local radio station web sites, the iheartradio iPhone & Blackberry application which has now been downloaded more than 2 million times, and widgets which listeners can place on their own sites.
Each station will include about 1,000 songs and other content and will be updated on approximately a weekly basis. Artists will share in the revenue generated by the station and an artist does not need to be repped by Front Line to be eligible for a station. Clear Channel estimates that they have about 22 million digital radio listeners per month.
"When you talk about an Eagles-hosted radio channel, most people would assume they're going to hear Eagles music all the time," Evan Harrison, president of Clear Channel's digital radio told Billboard. "The truth is, you'll hear an Eagles song every hour or so, with a story around it. But what's really exciting is that Joe Walsh will invite his friends to help participate, talk about destroying a hotel room or tell a more personal insight about where he was during the Kent State shooting."
Front Line's Irving Azoff sees the venture as a marketing strategy and a way to act as an entry point with the artist. Azoff told Billboard that the channel should act as "an entry point off of which you can go to the artist's Web site and buy tickets, merch … and hopefully engage them in some kind of social networking." – CelebrityAccess Staff Writers
