MUMBAI: MTV Networks Music Group today announced the newly formed Creative Music Integration (CMI) team to oversee innovative integrations of music within all of MTV and VH1’s long form programming. The team, under the direction of Joe Cuello, vice president of creative music integration for MTV Networks Music Group, will work closely with established, independent and unsigned artists to provide fully integrated and innovative promotion programs across MTV and VH1’s on-air and digital platforms to drive music discovery for fans, and song and album sales for artists.
Cuello will report to both Amy Doyle, Executive Vice President of Music and Talent for MTV, and Rick Krim, Executive Vice President of Music and Talent for VH1, with oversight by MTV General Manager Stephen Friedman, as well as VH1 President Tom Calderone, and continue to be based in MTV Networks Santa Monica office.
“With the CMI team, we have been able to connect music in our shows to the overall music strategy by creating a trajectory for artists that can start with a high profile placement in ‘The Hills’ and lead to a performance opportunity on the VMA’s like we did with the Ting Tings and Katy Perry,” said Amy Doyle, Executive Vice President of Music and Talent for MTV. “With this new team in place, we have created more opportunities for emerging artists than ever before.”
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Rick Krim, Executive Vice President of Music and Talent for VH1, added: “VH1 has seen tremendous success in taking a handful of artists and tying them to specific on-air original programming. The CMI team structure gives us even more opportunity to expose our adult viewers to even more music and help elevate the profiles of new bands in a way that truly impacts their sales numbers.”
The Creative Music Integration team has already seen phenomenal impact with innovative in-show integrations that leverage the brands’ digital properties, including:
Artist: The Academy Is…
Creative Integration: Featured artist in Season 4 of MTV’s “The Hills” included: five song placements and identifications in five of the season’s episodes, a video premiere of “About A Girl” featured in the credit squeeze and on Soundtrack.MTV.com following the in-show integration, and online promotion.
Sales Impact:
— “About A Girl” single jumped from #98 to #28 on the iTunes Alternative
song chart two days following the in-show placement and video premiere, and another jump to #18 the week after.
— “Beware! Cougar!” jumped from #56 to #24 on the iTunes Alternative
song chart within two days of the in-show placement.
Artist: Little Jackie
Creative Integration: Featured artist in VH1’s “New York Goes To Hollywood” included: song placement as theme song to the series, song placements and identifications in several episodes, on-air and online promotion via Music.VH1.com, VH1 News, VH1 Top 20 Video Countdown, THE LEAK, free MP3 and ringtone offer, and an in-show appearance as New York’s vocal coach.
Sales Impact:
— According to SoundScan, Little Jackie’s album sales increased 100% the
week following the show’s premiere.
— Following Little Jackie’s appearance in the season’s fifth episode,digital single sales increased 94%.
— Throughout the series’ run, digital single sales for Little Jackieincreased by 1500%.
Artist: The Script
Creative Integration: Featured artist in Season 1 of VH1’s “Celebrity Rehab Presents: Sober House” included: song placement with accompanying tag in trailer, five song placements and identifications in a majority of the season’s episodes, and online promotion via Music.VH1.com and VH1’s “You Oughta Know” featured artist program.
Sales Impact:
— The song, “Before the Worst,” was featured in the trailer and show’s premiere episode and experienced an increase in digital track sales the week following by 230% and 135% respectively.
— Digital album sales for The Script’s self-titled album jumped 35% the week following the show’s premiere.
— The song, “We Cry,” was featured in the second episode and experienced an increase in digital track sales the week following by 50%.
— Digital track sales for the song, “I’m Yours,” increased by 169% following its placement in the fourth episode.
Artist: The Ting Tings
Creative Integration: Featured artist on MTV’s “The City” included: song placement and identification of “That’s Not My Name” in episode and credit squeeze, and online promotion via TheCity.MTV.com.
Sales Impact:
— Physical album sales and digital album sales increased by 23% and 45% respectively following the song’s appearance in-show.
— Digital single sales of “That’s Not My Name” jumped 77% following the song’s appearance in-show.
Artist: White Tie Affair
Creative Integration: Featured artist in Season 4 of MTV’s “The Hills” included: song placement and identification in episode and credit squeeze, band appearance in same episode, and online promotion via Soundtrack.MTV.com.
Sales Impact:
— White Tie Affair’s album “Walk This Way” experienced a 2000% increase in album sales after the band was featured in “The Hills.”
Further examples include a range of artists from Marie Digby to Plushgun, and Alter Bridge to People in Planes, among others.
In his previous role as Vice President of Creative Music Integration for MTV, Cuello launched several key music initiatives across MTV’s on-air lineup including MTV’s Guest Music Supervisor role, regularly welcoming established artists to score some of the network’s marquee shows (Dashboard Confessional, Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker in “Laguna Beach” and Pete Wentz in “The Hills”). He also created featured album tie-ins within specific programming (Rogue Wave for “Life of Ryan” and Santogold for “Exiled”). Prior to this role, Joe Cuello was music supervisor on numerous projects across MTV and VH1.
The CMI team is comprised of: Jennifer Stilson, Senior Director of Creative Music Integration for VH1; Louis Clark, Senior Music Supervisor for VH1; Rochelle Holguin, Director of Creative Music Integration for MTV; Allison Thiel, Director of Music Supervision for MTV.
