I’m overdue telling y’all about this highly engaging new venture I’ve been involved with in my (not) copious spare time. You know perhaps that one of my favorite pursuits has been doing artist interviews for Music City Roots. And with that on hiatus until the Madison Barn venue is ready next year, I’ve been having on camera artist chats for a new music video subscription service called Real Music TV. They produce original content and serve it on demand via the web or video servers like Apple TV and Roku. RMTV is based in Nashville and has been streaming since June. It’s paywalled but highly affordable at $25/year or $3/mo. They’re fine folks with a commitment to capturing natural, unforced performance with top notch picture and sound. My series, shot in recording studios with no audience, is called Live With, while a series of shows in venues is called Live At (those are mostly on hold for the Covid time being). There’s also a music video block series called Jukebox Journey, with a variety of hosts. I’ve curated and hosted episodes on Elvis Costello, R.E.M. The Clash and Dire Straits. It’s like revisiting my high school MTV diet!
Founder David Pick spent most of his career in London as a major label music licensing attorney and executive. In 2010, he launched Vintage TV, an English cable network that started with oldies videos and broadened into a robust production operation. Good story about that here. Then Mr. Pick moved to Nashville and put together the startup Real Music TV to fill a void in the market. It’s mostly Americana, country and rock and roll, though I expect we’ll see some that widen more as time goes by. Artists are paid for the sessions and then given unlimited use of several of the video performances, so while I can’t link to any videos at the service itself, here are several of the songs posted by artists I dig. I hope you’ll come aboard and see where this goes.
Here’s Kelsey Waldon…
And The War & Treaty
And Seth Walker…
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