RhythmRadio Eyes Global Pipeline

Brandweek, March 13, 2000 by Erik Gruenwedel

RhythmRadio.com, the Los Angeles-based, self-described "full-color, wide-screen, global Internet music mega pipeline," today goes live with a Japanese channel.

The new channel promises the same feel-good alternative, hip-hop, R&B, pop and blues mix as RhythmRadio's English, Spanish and German formats, but with a Japanese DJ. The goal is to popularize the convergence concept of "stimulating music without boundaries," said founder and radio and TV personality Shadoe Stevens.

"We are the first music company to treat the world as one audience," said Stevens, a 35-year radio veteran who is credited with creating the album-oriented and alternative-rock formats in the 1980s.

Launched last October on a budget of less than $1 million, RhythmRadio also features comedy, philosophy, contests, theatre and original animation by artist Tom Kidd. The site claims a library of thousands of original songs and audio features that can be played on a Windows Media Player plugin, Apple QuickTime or MP3.

With 12 full-time employees, including three-time Grammy Award winner and Golden Globe nominee Charlie Midnight as chief creative officer and president of music, RhythmRadio has been conducting a guerrilla campaign using viral marketing to expand its base of 120,000 unique users.

While the focus so far has been on developing music, and the limited use of "Hear Great Music Now!" blinking icons, Stevens said future advertising goals involve audio ads. "If you try and and copy radio advertising on the Internet, you're doomed," he said. "Nobody is going to put up with Sit 'n Sleep commercials and barking announcers for 16 minutes an hour." Instead, Stevens envisions 5-to-30-second ads with a musical base, either as a jingle or video. "Whatever the format, it has to have music at the heart of it," he said.