Corus Radio
This is a list of assets owned by Corus Entertainment.
Approximately 80% of the voting control in Corus is held by the family of JR Shaw. The same family also owns about 80% of the voting rights in Shaw Communications, for a list of Shaw assets ...
. It consists of a website, a syndicated radio show, and a weekly TV show that offers exposure to songs and artists with the vision of providing "context, perspective, recommendation and discovery of music that’s new (or new to you)." ExploreMusic achieves this through artist interviews, exclusive performances, music news, album reviews, and lists of recommended songs that are presented on a daily and weekly basis.
The program was first broadcast on 6 October 2008, and is heard on radio stations across
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
. It has a weekly audience of approximately one million. The program is also syndicated in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
. A television adaptation of the program currently airs on Aux.
Creation
Prior to the launch of ExploreMusic, there had been a number of discussions within Corus about the need to update the concept of the radio DJ as the trusted filter for new music. With online being the first choice of more and more people looking for new music, the decision was made to create a service where "real people, real passionate music fans, could recommend music to other real passionate music fans, without any sort of mechanical or electronic filters." The concept was inspired by the success of Pandora and
Last.fm
Last.fm is a music website founded in the United Kingdom in 2002. Using a music recommender system called "Audioscrobbler", Last.fm builds a detailed profile of each user's musical taste by recording details of the tracks the user listens to, e ...
. However, while Pandora and Last.fm work on complex algorithms, ExploreMusic was designed as a place where music fans could turn to discover new music and information about the artists involved, as well as be encouraged to make recommendations themselves with the goal of creating conversation and community. On 1 July 2008,
Alan Cross
Alan Cross is a Canadian radio broadcaster and a writer on music.
, the host of ''
The Ongoing History of New Music
''The Ongoing History of New Music'' is a radio program produced in Canada by Corus Entertainment and hosted by Alan Cross.102.1 The Edge, took the position of senior program director at Corus Interactive and Integrated Solutions (then known as Splice). Planning and development continued through the summer.
The program was first broadcast on 6 October 2008 on 102.1 The Edge in
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...
Hamilton Hamilton may refer to:
People
* Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname
** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland
** Lord Hamilt ...
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
Winnipeg
Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749, ...
Vancouver
Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...
Cornwall
Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...
Edmonton
Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...
Peterborough, Ontario
Peterborough ( ) is a city on the Otonabee River in Ontario, Canada, about 125 kilometres (78 miles) northeast of Toronto. According to the 2021 Census, the population of the City of Peterborough was 83,651. The population of the Peterborough ...
, with plans to branch out to more affiliates in the future. The program began syndication in the United States after ExploreMusic partnered with
Friday Morning Quarterback
''Friday Morning Quarterback'' (better known as ''FMQB'') was a trade magazine which covered the radio and music industries in the United States. Its coverage included programming, management, promotion, marketing, and airplay
Airplay is how ...
X103
Wolt is a Finnish technology company known for its delivery platform for food and merchandise. On Wolt's apps (iOS and Android) or website, customers can order food and other items from the platform's restaurant and merchant partners, and either p ...
in Indianapolis. An estimated one million people listen to the program each week in Canada.
Program
Five thirty-minute radio shows are produced and distributed each week. Meetings to determine the program content are held once a week. Each person attending the meeting brings a list of five songs, two that have been newly released and three that are a year or more older. They discuss the tracks and decide which ones to use on the broadcast, and which to add to the website. Cross noted that "we're appreciative of everybody's diverse tastes. The whole idea is to introduce people to music that is new and new to them." The programs are written and hosted by Alan Cross, and are recorded in
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...
,
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...
. The four pillars driving the show are context, perspective, recommendation, and discovery. Every song and story featured on ExploreMusic is created in accordance with those four pillars.
The typical show content includes the "Big new song of the day", "The Music News Countdown", which contains the program’s top five music stories of the day, the music recommendation "The Five Songs You Gotta Hear Today", and an abbreviated interview with a musical artist, which frequently includes an exclusive performance of a song.
In January 2009, ExploreMusic TV debuted on BiteTV, a Canadian digital tier channel aimed at males 18-34. Hosted by Cross, the programme is a weekly roundtable discussion on music issues with guests from various parts of the music industry. It currently airs on Aux, produced in cooperation with Corus Entertainment Inc. and GlassBOX Television Inc. The show is currently in its second season on the channel.
Web content
The topics and categories on the ExploreMusic radio show are also included on the website, often enhanced by links, images, additional text, audio, and video. The site is presented in blog format, with posts tagged as "News", "Reviews", "New Releases", "WTF", and other categories. ExploreMusic TV is seen through the website, as are audio and video podcasts of the previous shows. Every song featured on the website is linked to a sample of the track. The radio program is condensed into a daily podcast; music from the program is not included due to copyright restrictions, but the full interview with the musical artist is included. Web content is available on the
BlackBerry
The blackberry is an edible fruit produced by many species in the genus ''Rubus'' in the family Rosaceae, hybrids among these species within the subgenus ''Rubus'', and hybrids between the subgenera ''Rubus'' and ''Idaeobatus''. The taxonomy ...
and
Windows Mobile
Windows Mobile is a discontinued family of mobile operating systems developed by Microsoft for smartphones and personal digital assistants.
Its origin dated back to Windows CE in 1996, though Windows Mobile itself first appeared in 2000 as Pock ...
through an application developed by Viigo Inc. This application allows users to access the ExploreMusic website and Alan Cross's
Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
posts. Vice-President of Corus Interactive David Huszar noted that "People aren't buying radio receivers anymore but they're certainly buying smartphones... it's so important for all of our radio entities to be available on the appliances that people are using nowadays to engage with media."
Contributors
The ExploreMusic team currently consists of:
*Alan Cross (Host of ExploreMusic and ''Ongoing History of New Music'', curator, and interviewer)
*Mike Sullivan (Producer and interviewer)
*Adam Morrison (Writer, researcher, and blogger)
*Kelly Beveridge (Contributor)
*Andrew Dick (Video Producer)
*Jeff Woods (Host of ''Legends of Classic Rock'')
*David Huszar (Executive Producer)
*Ira Haberman (Creative Director)
*Peter Solala (Director of Sales)
*Michael Parrish (US Syndication)
*Andrew Dick (Video Producer)