The recording
industry is coming out of the closet. Sony Music on Tuesday
said it was launching the first major music label dedicated
to nurturing lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender
artists. The label, Music With a Twist, is a joint
venture with Wilderness Media & Entertainment, the
company led by Matt Farber, who founded Viacom Inc.'s MTV
Networks' new gay and lesbian channel, Logo, which is
available in an estimated 20 million homes.
The label also
comes as Wilderness Media plans this weekend to launch a
syndicated national radio show called Twist, targeting gay
and "gay-adjacent" communities, debuting on FM
stations and the Web. The weekly two-hour radio show
will feature music, celebrity interviews,
entertainment reports, and relationship and lifestyle advice
and news in a "morning show" format. "It's an idea
whose time has come," Farber told Reuters, referring
to the expansion of gay-themed media properties. "Only
now are media and entertainment brands being created
for the gay and lesbian audience following the success of
brands for other minorities," he said.
Farber noted that
the success of brands dedicated to African-American and
Hispanic audiences have also helped talent in these
communities cross over well beyond their core
audiences. Likewise, Music With a Twist's roster will
feature gay artists who have mass appeal and hit potential
across all musical genres. The label will collaborate with
Sony Music's other U.S. labels and divisions,
including Columbia Records Group, Epic Records, Sony
Nashville, and Sony Urban Music. Sony Music is part of Sony
BMG, a joint venture of Sony Corp and Bertelsmann AG.
The label also
plans to release various compilations geared toward gay
and bisexual audiences, as well as music fans everywhere,
featuring hit songs by established artists that have
been embraced by gay, bisexual, and transgender
audiences as well as tracks from emerging gay artists.
The first of these compilations will be released in June
2006 during National Gay Pride Month. (Sue Zeidler,
Reuters)
