MUMBAI: National Geographic Ventures has formed a new music and radio division called National Geographic Music and Radio (NGMR) to reach people and inspire them to care about the planet through music and the power of radio.
The announcement was made by NGV president and CEO Tim Kelly. He also announced the appointment of David Beal as president to oversee the music labels, publishing and radio operations. Mark Bauman, currently a vice president of National Geographic’s Mission Programs, will serve as executive vice president and will spearhead radio and video production initiatives. NGMR launches with several distribution partners, including Clear Channel, Salem Communications and NPR.
NGMR will distribute and promote its music offerings throughout all of National Geographic’s media platforms, including the National Geographic Channels worldwide, National Geographic Films, National Geographic Giant Screen Films and National Geographic Kids Entertainment, as well as its magazines and digital media divisions.
In addition to its programming and music supervision responsibilities, NGMR will oversee the production of projects from today’s hottest artists who are actively involved in environmental and cultural issues. Artist performances and in-depth interviews will be filmed in HD and distributed through NGMR, offering artists a new option to promote and distribute music on multiple National Geographic platforms. Jack Johnson, Ben Harper and Peter Gabriel are some of the artists with whom NGMR has been working to date.
The Music and Radio group is focused on seven key areas:
Music Supervision Services — supervising music services for all National Geographic divisions, including feature films, giant-screen films and kids’ programming
Live Events — featuring some of the world’s greatest performers
WorldMusic.NationalGeographic.com — consumer music site offering 99-cent MP3s, media-rich features, breaking music news and celebrity DJ playlists
Radio — launching syndicated radio shows and HD/Internet channels
Record Label — investing in new projects with three imprints: artist releases, soundtracks and kids
Music Publishing — managing the music publishing assets of the Society, representing over 12,000 copyrights
Music TV — overseeing music programming for the National Geographic Channel
“National Geographic Music and Radio will engage listeners with great talk and sound, and also offer artists and experts who care about global culture and the environment an outlet to create awareness for important issues. David’s expertise working with world-class musicians and his impressive track record for integrating and distributing multimedia content are crucial to the success of the new division. We are very fortunate to have David Beal at the helm and Mark Bauman as part of the team,†said Kelly.
The music division is already in full swing, producing music programming for various National Geographic divisions, for films such as Arctic Tale and Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure, and for series television such as Mama Mirabelle’s Home Movies.
