CANNES – A year after creating a new division wrapping together its various content plays, Warner Music Group is also working on launching its own over-the-top (OTT) TV offering.
WMG launched WMX in November, transforming the former WEA (Warner, Elektra, Atlantic) division as a services unit, describing it as “a next generation services division that will connect artists with fans and amplify brands in creative, immersive, and engaging ways”.
In this video interview with Beet.TV editorial advisor Jon Watts at Cannes Lions, Maria Weaver, President, WMX, explains what is coming next.
WMG’s own Music TV
Weaver was asked about an OTT idea which WMX talked about during its first NewFronts presentation in May.
At the time, the division said it was announcing the “exploration of ad-supported, music and entertainment connected TV products, and is currently discussing this platform with potential launch partners”.
Weaver explains: “We have a whole division of Warner Music Group, which is Warner Music Group Entertainment, and they’re creating original content and we’ll be able to have that on our OTT platform. It’s really a music and entertainment destination that we know people will really love.
“Brands will be actively invited to participate in our OTT platform. We look forward to partnering them on this launch and as it evolves.”
WMX’s footprint
Part of Warner’s idea with WMX is to bolster WMG’s offering to artists, including a creative agency, merchandise, D2C sales, plus traditional streaming, vinyl, ticketing, fashion collaboration, gaming, social, experiential, and other fan experiences.
But it is also about creating, for artists, connections with advertising brands.
WMX’s owned-and-operated footprint is considerable. Aside from a sizeable audience on video channels, it runs its own properties:
- UPROXX, the Gen-Z youth culture and music site.
- Songkick, the live music discovery app.
- HipHopDX, the hip-hop media brand.
- Cover Nation, the largest community of cover song creators and fans.
- Premium artist YouTube inventory.
All-in, the unit claims 46 billion monthly views.
Brands and bands
“There’s a couple of things we can do for a brand,” says. “We can partner a brand with an artist, new release, with a new drop that’s coming out.
“We can create branded content for a brand that has an artist in it, or just has other editorial pieces in it that runs both on our platform as well as on YouTube.
“What makes it so unique is, we can distribute it across a wider breadth of platforms than some other people can.”
You are watching “Attention Matters: New Ways to Build Community & Drive Engagement”, a Beet.TV Leadership Summit at Cannes Lions 2022, presented by WMX in partnership with dentsu.
For more videos from this series, please visit this page.
Beet.TV is an official partner of Cannes Lions.
