Download Music Channel
Sibila Tellio
If you're a subscriber to DirecTV in the United States, they've changed the service of their streaming music channels from Sonic Tap to Music Choice. A nice little feature of this change is channel 858 which is a 24/7 feed called "All Xmas."
They used to only play Christmas music during the holiday season (usually starting around mid-November) on a channel called "Holidays and Happenings" so this feed is a welcome addition to our holiday spirits.
I've been making music for a couple of years now, and I think my music has become good enough at least to post online. I always have this thought of starting a music channel where I will post my music and grow a fanbase. But I don't know why I just get anxious about what will the listeners say about my music and will they even find it online through search or recommendations. I have a ton of music ideas but no one is here to actually tell if they are good or not. The only way to find out is to post online and let the people decide.
The Cable Music Channel (CMC) was a short-lived American basic cable channel that was owned by the Turner Broadcasting System. The all-music video channel was created by Ted Turner and launched in 1984, providing the first national competition to MTV. Turner later stated that the channel existed at the behest of the cable industry as a defense mechanism against MTV's unsuccessful attempts to increase the fees that cable providers paid to carry the channel by twofold; Turner offered the channel without any carriage fees.[1]
The idea of music on television was nothing new for Ted Turner. In 1970, Turner's Atlanta, Georgia independent station WTCG-TV (channel 17), aired an all-music program called The Now Explosion at night and on weekends, airing up to 28 hours a week.[2] In 1983, Turner's superstation, which was known as WTBS at that point, launched a late night weekend music video block called Night Tracks. The success of Night Tracks led Turner to take on MTV with the Cable Music Channel.
CMC launched at 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time on October 26, 1984 with network president Robert Wussler at a podium in CMC's studios in Los Angeles introducing the network; "The Star-Spangled Banner" was then played (which was a tradition whenever a new Turner-owned network launched; that tradition would be eventually be broken when Cartoon Network launched in 1992). Afterwards, Wussler introduced CMC Vice-President and General Manager Scott Sassa to the podium.[3] Sassa quickly greeted the crowd and then introduced 13th District Councilwoman Peggy Stevenson to the podium. Stevenson presented Ted Turner a proclamation from the City of Los Angeles signed by Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley and Stevenson declaring October 26, 1984 as "Cable Music Channel Day." Turner then gave a brief speech stating that the network is "gonna play a wide arrangement of music. We're gonna stay away from excessively violent or degrading clips towards women that MTV is so fond of running." After he pushed a big red button on the wall behind him and exclaimed a defiant "Take that, MTV!", the channel kicked off with CMC VJs Jeff Gonzer and Raechel Donahue introducing the Randy Newman music video "I Love L.A.".[4]
MTV focused on album-oriented rock and the VJ segments were pre-recorded; CMC, however, focused on contemporary hit music (which enabled the channel to play soft rock, crossover country, dance, pop, and urban hits) and broadcast live VJ segments. CMC also provided news, sports and weather reports. Another difference between Cable Music Channel and its main competitor was that MTV's video jockeys were seen on-air; whereas CMC's video jockeys were just heard via voiceover. MTV's studios and offices were based in a New York apartment; while CMC's studios were located at The Production Group and offices were located in a Los Angeles house just down the street (as opposed to Atlanta, where the headquarters of Turner Broadcasting System are located).
CMC promoted itself as avoiding sexually and violently explicit music videos to capitalize on the perception that MTV actually played those types of videos. In fact, MTV had strict guidelines about the types of behavior that could be shown in videos and frequently returned clips to record labels for re-editing.
It quickly became clear that CMC was losing money fast, due to an inability to reach agreements with cable providers (many of which did not have the space necessary to carry another all-music channel, and some of which had organized an unofficial boycott at the Western Cable Show in retaliation for Turner's strong-arm tactics in the battle between CNN and the fledgling Satellite News Channel) or secure the rights to play top videos (MTV was accused of pressuring artists not to sell to CMC, citing "exclusivity" agreements). Despite an estimated audience of 2.5 million, on November 29, 1984, Turner decided to sell the assets of Cable Music Channel to MTV's parent company Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment (now Paramount Media Networks) for $1 million, with Warner-Amex agreeing to buy $500,000 worth of advertising for MTV on Turner's other channels (including CNN). WASEC used the channel (and its space on the Satcom satellite) to help form a new adult contemporary-focused sister network to MTV, VH1 (then known as Video Hits One, which featured a similar format as CMC), which launched just over a month later on January 1, 1985.
CMC's five-week run made it one of the shortest-lived channels in American cable television history. It was also the shortest-lived service under the umbrella of Turner Broadcasting until the company's eventual successor, Warner Bros. Discovery, shut down the streaming service CNN+, which lasted five days fewer than CMC, on April 28, 2022. CMC's background graphics were recycled for use on Night Tracks for five years after the channel's demise.
Whenever either our DVD or the auxiliary box gets tuned to a music channel, it gets stuck there. We enter a new channel, but the box stays stuck, even after resetting entirely. The only way we can get out is - sometimes - if we can use channel up or down a few times, then it lets us enter a new channel. So far, eventually we get out, but today it took 5 minutes before I finally was able to to get the channel changed. This happens accidentally sometimes. There is a delay when I enter the new channel numbers. Today that delay was so long that I thought I hadn't entered the final number. When I entered it again, the tv went to one of those darn music channels, and there I was stuck!
I am tired of doing that almost every time I use MC. It seems now it's part of one of the widgets. What did Verizon Fios change? Why don't they tell us how to exit to regular channels without disconnecting power? This is basic stuff. We are paying for decent service. Verizon, please tell us!
Stingray Music is curated for all the moments that matter to you. Create the perfect soundtrack for every occasion. Stingray Music channels on TV are offered through an immersive and interactive TV app or as audio channels with on-screen enhancement.
The 1999 Cricket World Cup was when our extremely middle-class, government quarters colony rose to the challenge of cable tv. Till then, we were happily adjusting our antennas and watching wholesome family entertainment on the two channels of DD1 and DD2. Then came the cable wale bhaiya, with his fancy earring, a few TV guides stacked under his arms along with long ropes of cable, promising unlimited entertainment for the entire colony. And just like that, we all got lured.
I still don't know what that channel was, who owned it, who paid for it, how they made money, or if it was even legal. All I know is, there was a channel, which ran 24 hours a day, playing songs. A phone number would be displayed on the screen. You could call that number. On screen, you will see categories of songs. You pick a category, scroll through it, while you are on the call and select a song and the song gets played. Simple. Spotify of the 90s.
That channel single-handedly introduced an entire generation of Indian middle class kids to Backstreet Boys, Westlife, Bryan Adams and Britney Spears. With a background noise of worried parents ordering for the channel to be changed, kids watched and hummed along.
This was also the channel that played full length versions of the Indian Pop songs, which was quite the rage those days. There was a good 2 year period, where the only songs that released were remixes of old songs and how they were lapped up. Request after request on iTV were for these songs.
On Aug. 3, 2023, SpaceXMania published an article positing that Jason Aldean, popular country music singer, had started his own music channel following a ban by Country Music Television (CMT). The article claimed that the independent channel would feature Aldean's music exclusively along with behind-the-scenes footage, interviews, live performances, and even a new reality show called "Living with Aldean."
This article was not a factual recounting of real-life events; Aldean has announced no such independent channel. The article originated with a website that describes its output as being humorous or satirical in nature, as follows:
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