The music platform VuHaus has migrated to NPR Music to give its station clients and the artists it supports a much bigger distribution point.
The nonprofit platform was officially launched in 2015 by Public Media Co. (with a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting) to create a coalition of public radio member stations from across the country to showcase professionally shot in-studio live sessions that highlighted local artists, introduced new music, and promoted up and coming artists.
[Read: VuHaus: All About Music Discovery]
According to an announcement by Paragon Media Strategies, a consulting firm that continues to work with NPR News and others, the video performances, interviews and live streams from VuHaus stations will continue as Live Sessions at NPR Music.
The news comes at a time when both public radio and television revenue have grown in recent years, according to a report by market consultant Public Media Co. For the first time in 2018, the report said, radio’s higher growth rate has led to public radio revenue overtaking public TV’s revenue.
While the consumer-facing name of VuHaus will dissolve with the integration, the name will remain as part of the organization’s B2B station network and operating group. VuHaus will also continue to handle curation, manage station involvement and grow sponsorship revenue for its stations.
The move had been in the works for more than a year, according to Mike Henry, founder of Paragon, in a statement on its website.
According to a statement by Henry, when Paragon began conceiving the concept of a national video platform for public radio music stations, the goals were simple: For public radio stations to retain the expensive video production investments they had made over the years. “Their internal investments had created phenomenal original video content in support of emerging, national and local artists, but there were very few eyeballs and even fewer dollars to cover production expenses,” Henry said in a statement. “After hearing the same concerns from multiple stations, the idea was hatched to aggregate all their video content onto one consumer-facing platform.”
Three years ago when Houston Public Media became an affiliate for the music discovery video platform, the broadcaster’s comments were similar to the assessment of many — the new platform was a means of both supporting its local artists, giving them greater exposure and also introducing audiences to new emerging artists across the country. In the years since its founding, VuHaus has grown to 20 public radio and TV stations.
The VuHaus platform can be viewed at the NPR Music platform.
