YouTube Creates Country Music Channel for Twang Fans

Yesterday, YouTube launched a country music channel.  Now, for many of you, country music is like hearing fingernails scratch a chalkboard, and even though I'm a Nashville native, it isn't my favorite type of music, either.  However, millions enjoy country music all over the world, and there was a void in the genre's online video market.  So YouTube banded together with Greenlight Media & Marketing to serve up a big dose of country on a site currently known for a lot of Fun, Gangnam Style, and Carly Rae Jepsen.  So, YouTube continues to try to be everything to everyone.  Let's take a look at Country Now.

Country Now: YouTube's Entry for An Underserved Audience

Country Now will be offering at least 8 shows dedicated to country music, or about 20 hours of original programming.  Shows offered will include "Country Download," which will be the channel's gossip/news source, "OMC" (or, Oh My Country) will take the fashion scene, animation will come with a comedy duo known as Jimmy Dale and Cleave in "I Love My Country," new music will be delivered via "Hear & Now," and the channel will in general serve up concerts and live music.

Here's a short trailer talking about the new shows:

This seems to be the model for any entertainment channel launch: get into the news, fashion, and gossip, and offer other programming around that, creating an all-in-one source for one brand of entertainment.  We saw a lot of the YouTube Original Channels launch with this in mind, so as there are a number of choices to watch, much like a regular channel on TV would offer.

The channel was launched, because, as Dominic Sandifer of Greenlight says (according to The Tennessean):

They’re really underserved. There isn’t one channel where they are getting their country music...We felt like that was really a huge, untapped opportunity here.

Part of being successful on YouTube is finding something that has an audience, but has a void of quality programming.  Country music is popular but it doesn't have a lot of representation on YouTube.  The video hub and Greenlight hope to tap into that audience and serve a relatively untapped market.