Written by Tim Ingham — Remember The Stream – the Norwegian TV talent show backed by all three majors which promoted or kicked out amateur contestants based on their Spotify rankings?
It's coming to America. . . in a big way.
NBC has snapped up exclusive rights to the show, which it says will feature music industry titans working together to uncover the next superstar artist.
Question 1: Who are these televised ‘music industry titans’?
We don’t know yet, but going off the show’s Nordic forefather, it’s likely to be well-known A&R execs from Universal, Sony and Warner.
How does it work?
Explains an NBC press release: “Everyone will be able to upload their video to The Stream online platform, where it instantly becomes available to the public.
“Once the performance is online, it’s up to users to spread, share and stream their favorite music. All musical talent can participate – whether they are a solo singer, rap-duo or electronic group.”
From there, the 100 most streamed musicians are invited to a showcase where they perform in front of The Stream’s music biz judges – who then choose 30 acts to join them at an A&R bootcamp.
Out of the 30, each major label ‘titan’ will choose and sign their three favorite artists to a record deal – ie. nine record deals in total – before the live weekly shows begin.
The big twist: After these nine finalists perform on weekly live TV shows, audiences ‘vote’ for their winners and losers based on the total number of streams the acts receive.
The most streamed artists stay in the competition while the least streamed risk eviction.
These all-important streams will probably be collected on Spotify… but it’s no sure thing.
After our last story, the makers of the Scandinavian show were very keen to express there was no official link between their programme and Daniel Ek’s service – despite Spotify being explicitly featured in their pitch video.
A spokesperson for Norway TV 2 told MBW: “The deal with Spotify is a non-exclusive one in the sense that the music from the show can be made available through all streaming services, such as Apple Music and Tidal, as well as Spotify. This is up to each label to decide.
“There are nothing in the contracts between Spotify, broadcaster TV 2, production company Monster and the record labels that restricts where songs from the contestants can be made available.”
“‘The Stream’ brilliantly uses technology and social media to draw music lovers in and make them a part of the process,” said Paul Telegdy, President, Alternative and Reality Group, NBC Entertainment.
“We’re excited to discover talent in this modern way and connect the best artists with the industry’s top starmakers.”
NBC claims that the show ‘goes where no television talent competition has gone and speaks the language of our generation’.
Based on a successful Norwegian format, “The Stream” is produced by Universal Television Alternative Studio in association with Monster, TV2, Nordic World and Little Hill.
The deal was packaged by Steve Wohl at Paradigm.
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