Finally...a "unique sonic brand" from USA Networks

Thank God it's finally here: USA Network's "unique sonic brand." This thanks to a deal between Yahoo and USA Network in which the two companies will join forces to promote emerging artists and share in resulting revenue. According to Chris McCumber, USA's senior vice president of marketing and brand strategy, this "innovative partnership has the potential to create a new model for the way musical artists are discovered and developed." (note to Chris: sonic branding refers to audible brand signals like the 3-note Intel sound or AOL's "you've got mail.")

In this arrangement, Yahoo Radio will identify unsigned artists with high listenership and pass them on to USA where they can be signed by NBC Universal (what NBC Universal will sign them to I can only guess; they don't have a record label. Did I mention most musicians want recording contracts?). While this is no doubt an oversimplification of the process, you can see why it's so important; it's not enough that consumers have already identified these artists as being relevant by listening to their music and, most likely, shared their selections with their friends and cohorts.

No, to really work, it has to make some uninvolved third (or fourth or fifth) party money. Only in this instance, the uninvolved party is making it's money on the backs of the consumers who have taken over the role of the traditional record company A&R guy (again, I haven't been able to track down the record label in this mix; the relevance of record labels will be a post for another day).

Yahoo Radio is a great offering; it's easy to find and easy to use. You can listen to a lot of music, create your own station, see videos (already better than MTV) and share the things you like. There are lots of artists, both well known and not so well known so it's pretty obvious why USA/NBC Universal would want to hop on this bandwagon. And the promise of creating a "unique sonic brand" is so enticing.

But for the consumer and the artist, what's the upside to a "sonic brand" from USA? Are they going to distribute music? That's already going on. Are they going to become a label? That business is proving less and less relevant. Are they going to put these artists on TV? Well, it won't be the Monkee's but TV distribution is ultimately what the end game probably is.

So, in a round about way, USA/NBC Universal is telling the audience of Yahoo Radio to get the hell away from that computer and get in front of your TV! Which is a further round about way of saying what you want to do is not as important as what we want to do: make money off of you.

I just can't wait until we start getting some unique visual brands for radio.