Commentary

Contact: Filtering Through the Noise

The idea was the brainchild of Filter magazine, a discriminating new-music pub whose creators rarely hesitate to think outside the page, so to speak. "We'd been putting together music samplers for Urban Outfitters and Anthropologie," says publication cofounder Alan Miller. "Filter Magazine TV seemed like the next natural step."

The program of clips from new groups, which ran at Coldplay concerts before the opening act, came together quickly, owing to Miller's relationship with Coldplay's management ("We're friends," he says, shrugging) and to the enthusiasm-bordering-on-desperation of record companies hoping to get their fledgling acts in front of the band's multitude of fans.

For now, Filter Magazine TV remains commercial-free, though this could change in the near future. Like most other publishers, Miller claims that Filter's advertising is "seamless" and even appreciated by readers. Inserting ads into the preshow video presentations, however, could raise the ire of fans already bombarded with ads before movies and in other formerly ad-free venues.

"If done the right way, it would not be obtrusive," Miller promises, pointing to music, fashion, cars, and alcohol as ad categories that could prove a good fit.

Filter Magazine TV will air through the current leg of Coldplay's tour as well as during the band's spring excursion. Though plans have yet to be firmed up, Filter hopes to expand the program to include other artists in 2006.

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