'There's a huge gap for more music TV programming, especially for upcoming artists'

Can a high-end production taking cues from a bygone era of music TV break through social media noise and help break emerging artists? That’s the mission for newly launched PGTV.

Put together by the teams behind London’s Pure Groove record shop and label Locked On Recordings, PGTV is billed as a “new, music zeitgeist live stream show for the next generation of music lovers” promising to showcase young creatives, “celebrating identity and self-expression through music, art and culture”.

Episodes air twice monthly on Instagram and TikTok before appearing on YouTube. The first two landed earlier this month, featuring London-based talents Deyaz and Baby Queen (pictured).

It’s early days, but numbers are already significant. Episodes one and two have garnered a combined audience of 25,000 on YouTube to date, and the brand has 24,000 and 45,000 followers on Instagram and TikTok respectively. That’s without mentioning PGTV’s host Simone Murphy, who has 115,000 followers on Instagram alone.

Speaking to The IMI, Locked On Recordings Label Manager Alexa Povey said she hopes the new programme will be a key part of emerging artists’ campaigns.

“It feels like there’s a huge gap for more music TV programming, especially for upcoming artists,” she said. “We want to bring that to the platforms that are used by fans to discover new artists – namely TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. We plan to showcase artists on the day or week of release. Hopefully we’ll be a key part in release schedules.”

Povey also said that, as a DJ and social media success story in her own right, Simone Murphy’s influence on the programme stretches beyond hosting duties, and the high-end production levels from the award-winning Pulse Films will help the programme stand out on platforms where music fans are having to filter through more and more content.

“Working so closely with host Simone Murphy, we’re hoping to grow via word of mouth once people see the production values of the filming and set, which we’ve put a lot of time into,” she said.

“One of the biggest challenges for new artists is to get noticed and heard as there’s so much noise out there. One of the primary objectives of PGTV is to provide a platform which cuts through that noise and lets music be heard and noticed. We want to help artists build their careers by providing a platform which people take notice of outside their usual niches and scenes.”