Universal Music Canada first official music label partner to provide ongoing content and live experiences with its roster of artists
A.Side will celebrate today’s music and pop culture across digital publishing, social media and broadcast television platforms
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Toronto, ON (April 6, 2017) – Blue Ant Media and Shed Creative Agency announced today plans to launch a new, millennial-targeted offering, spotlighting today’s hottest music and culture trends. Launching this spring, A.Side will be a digital-first, multi-platform offering that will spark and feed conversation with fans through a digital publishing platform (OntheASide.com), social media (Facebook/Snapchat @A.Side) and a national television network. This partnership will see Blue Ant Media overseeing digital editorial and TV programming and Shed Creative Agency managing sponsorships and branded content for all platforms. With Universal Music Canada on board, A.Side will co-develop original content with UMC, via guest posts, social takeovers and live performances, for distribution across all of A.Side’s platforms.
“With A.Side, we are bringing music lovers everywhere access to trending news from across musical genres and artist-focused original content, all from a uniquely Canadian viewpoint,” said Jamie Schouela, EVP, Canadian Networks. “We’re excited to have Universal Music Canada on board as a partner from launch and look forward to working with other labels to showcase today’s best music talent, allowing both artists and brands to connect with fans in innovative ways.”
“A core part of Shed’s focus is to create unique and authentic, music based platforms for artists to connect with fans,” said Dave Harris, Shed Creative Agency’s Managing Director. “ A.Side gives us a national platform to tell amazing music stories and to bring this platform to brand partners giving them access to a targeted music consumer at scale!”
“We’re enthusiastically partnering with A.Side to create unique content and live experiences for our artists,” says Kristen Burke, SVP Marketing at Universal Music Canada. “Having a direct relationship with active music fans via our owned platforms as well as third-party partnerships such as this allows us to connect artist with audience with a clarity, creativity, and focus that engages all.”
A.Side will replace Blue Ant Media’s existing AUX brand via its digital and linear television platforms.
A.Side will offer marketers customized solutions to align their brands with a passionate group of music and pop-culture fans, skewing towards a core target audience of female millennials (A18-34), across its digital platforms and linear television. Sponsorship opportunities are also offered via A.Side’s short-form, social-first video and long-form content on A.Side TV.
OntheASide.com
A.Side’s editorial content will range from snackable lifestyle articles to pop-culture essays, paired with original photography, video content and guest posts from both emerging and established talent from across North America. Editorial will be conversational, approachable, fact-driven and injected with wit, with Tyler Munro overseeing the role as Editor.
@A.Side
A.Side’s social media platforms will live on Facebook, Snapchat (@A.Side) and Instagram. The brand’s Snapchat will give fans access to notable talent, where artists will take over the platform to give an intimate look at life on the road, in the studio or on the summer festival circuit. Each takeover is then compiled and packaged for distribution across A.Side’s other social media platforms, with a hosted broadcast segment sharing the artist’s history and influence via music videos, Snaps and archival footage.
A.Side TV
To expand the brand experience this spring, A.Side TV, broadcasting in HD, will offer curated music videos balancing some of the most groundbreaking visuals with today’s trending favourites. Playlist will serve as the ad-supported channel’s main video flow, grouping together videos from any genre or era under a unifying theme. The A.List will bring a weekly batch of the brand’s hottest selections. The schedule will also offer cult-classic movies, and their soundtracks, like Garden State, Drumline and The Beach. Full programming details will be unveiled in the short future.
Blue Ant Media is a privately held, international media company that creates and distributes content worldwide across streaming video, linear television, digital, magazines and live events. Global brands include Love Nature, an international linear and SVOD offering with the world’s largest library of 4K wildlife and nature content; and Makeful and Arcade Cloud by Omnia Media, a leading digital video network focused on gaming and maker lifestyles. The company’s broadcasting business offers a robust portfolio of Canadian and New Zealand-based media brands. Content distribution, lead by Blue Ant International, offers a catalogue of 2,300+ hours of premium, unscripted content worldwide, including the largest 4K natural history library on the market. Blue Ant Media is headquartered in Toronto (Canada), with offices located in Los Angeles (US), London (UK) and Auckland (NZ). staging.blueantmedia.com
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Universal Music Canada (UMC) is Canada’s leading music company, engaged in recorded music, music publishing, merchandising and audiovisual content. Home to the most comprehensive catalogue of recordings and songs across every musical genre, UMC is committed to artistry, innovation and entrepreneurship in broadening opportunities for our artists on both the domestic and world stages as well as creating new experiences for fans. UMC is a unit of Universal Music Group, the world leader in music-based entertainment in more than 60 countries.
Shed Creative Agency is a music-focused agency and production company. Driven by a passion for music and entertainment, Shed sits at the top of the culture space and is perfectly positioned to connect brands with strategy, unique live experiences and media & content solutions. Through a strategic relationship with Universal Music Canada, Shed has unfettered access to the biggest artists from around the world and the ability to translate that access to into unique, authentic platforms that entertain and engage a culturally active audience.
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