Tonic puts Music Choice greatest hits on the Web

Digital audio broadcaster Music Choice has unveiled a revamped website, www.musicchoice.co.uk, designed by London consultancy Tonic Design.

The move follows the broadcaster’s October relaunch of a series of ten music compilation channels, including Just Chillout and The Alternative, and reflects its desire to create a ‘sense of community with our television offering and our audience’, says Music Choice director of music and marketing Simon George.

He says the company’s original website, aimed at a business audience, was a ‘poorer offering’.

Tonic Design was briefed to create a ‘consumer-facing’ design that ‘was an extension to the existing digital TV service’ and simultaneously demonstrated to consumers how the compilation concept works, according to George.

He says Music Choice was also keen for the new website to be ‘interactive, with polls, charts and competitions’. ‘It also required editorial content about both Music Choice and the music. Television is not the best platform for that,’ George explains.

Tonic Design’s solution involved the development of a virtual Music Choice world, with ten homes – each representing one of the relaunched compilation channels – ranged along a street, explains consultancy creative director Ranzie Anthony.

‘The overall concept shows people using Music Choice in their homes,’ he adds. ‘As soon as one of the characters enters into his house and switches on the TV, the entire mood changes. The furniture changes and with Chill Out guy, for example, his girlfriend might come round.’

Anthony says the group opted for 2D animation to differentiate Music Choice’s Internet offering from the recent glut of 3D websites. ‘We wanted it to be jerky, humorous and quite fun, so people wouldn’t start worrying about the complexities of [Music Choice’s digital audio] technology,’ he adds.

Users can enter competitions, read features and vote in opinion polls on the website, which soft launched at the end of last year.

Music Choice provides 40 digital music channels, offering uninterrupted and regularly updated music, on cable and satellite platforms across 18 countries throughout the UK, Europe and the Middle East.

Tonic Design won the work, worth a five-figure fee to the group, in November after a three-way, unpaid pitch.

Group design director Jay Prynne was creative lead on the project.