IMX
Encyclopedia
IMX was an American music television program which aired daily on MMUSA (renamed Fuse TV
in May 2003) in the early 2000s. Described as a "fully converged music industry simulation game" and "part TV show, part Internet game," the program allowed viewers to register at the network's website and buy "stock
" in popular artists, songs, and albums. In dealing the "shares
", traders could use the fake cash to enter network-sponsored contests.
IMX featured three VJ
hosts, each representing different music genres, as well as a guest from the music industry. It debuted on January 20, 2003 at 6pm EST and would air live Monday through Friday with various encores throughout the week. The IMX studio, located in Penn Plaza
, was street level and therefore fans that couldn't get tickets were able to view from outside and would be visible through the window during filming.
In attempt to "extol the fun of the stock market
," players would sign up online and be given a set amount of "IMX dollars" in order to buy stocks in artists, albums, videos, and TV offerings, which could be traded and sold short or for profit online. With such profits, players could win prizes like video game console
s, vacations, surfboards, or lithographs, all brought to them by Virgin Records
. Stock values would be influenced largely by Billboard
charts, concert sales, and other measures of commercial success.
Fixed to the bottom of the screen would be a market style ticker
, updating viewers on how each artist, album, or song faired during the day's trading. Users could voice their opinions on the online bulletin boards, and their messages would frequently be shown live on air. Through the website, they would also be provided with music video previews, music downloads, and a wide range of market research tools for the individual portfolios of game participants, including airplay stats and sales charts. The one-hour program would help recap the day's trading, the value of each featured artist and song, and speculate on the future of the market.
IMX utilized the interactive investment technology of Hollywood Stock Exchange
to allow web users to invest in real time. Marc Juris elaborated on the technological potential of the innovative format:
of Uranium
; Marianela Pereyra, who previously hosted Latin television's MHz HOT; and Steven Smith, formerly a VH1
personality. Dennis Da Menace (a.k.a. Dennis L.A. White) also frequently took up hosting duties in one's absence, usually Juliya's. Each host reflected different musical tastes with Juliya representing heavy metal
, Marianela representing R&B, Steven representing indie
/alternative rock
, and Dennis representing hip hop
. This allowed for frequent debate and friendly argument amongst the differing hosts. It was also during IMX that Juliya was confronted by her fellow hosts about false rumors that she might jump ship to MTV2
to host its revived Headbangers Ball
.
Joining the diverse trio each day would be a variety of music industry insiders, ranging from current popular musicians to record company executives to music journalists. The program would also feature live in-studio performances following an interview with the given band. One particularly memorable episode saw Amy Lee
and Ben Moody
of Evanescence
perform an acoustic
rendition of "Going Under
". Partly through the song, a string
broke on Moody's guitar and caused the song to end prematurely.
as hosts; however, the stock exchange aspect of IMX was removed in favor of a simpler interactive format. Daily Download served as a "live countdown show for the next generation," featuring the 10 most-downloaded songs in the country. It also offered free downloads
of each song provided by f.y.e.
as well as game cheats and movie trailers. The videos aired would include "Fuse Clues" that related to online puzzles of music and pop culture at the network's website, fuse.tv. Using a mobile phone or the Web, fans could solve the puzzles and be eligible to win prizes. Viewers also had the opportunity to talk to guest musicians appearing on the program.
Daily Download ran for about two years before ending in late July 2006. Marianela appeared on Get Malled Tour before ultimately leaving Fuse TV that year, and Dylan became the new host of GSN
's Chain Reaction
on August 1. Steven, however, would remain with Fuse TV and host other programs including Steven's Untitled Rock Show
.
Fuse TV
Fuse is an American national television network dedicated exclusively to music. It features original series and specials, exclusive interviews, live concerts and video blocks....
in May 2003) in the early 2000s. Described as a "fully converged music industry simulation game" and "part TV show, part Internet game," the program allowed viewers to register at the network's website and buy "stock
Stock
The capital stock of a business entity represents the original capital paid into or invested in the business by its founders. It serves as a security for the creditors of a business since it cannot be withdrawn to the detriment of the creditors...
" in popular artists, songs, and albums. In dealing the "shares
Share (finance)
A joint stock company divides its capital into units of equal denomination. Each unit is called a share. These units are offered for sale to raise capital. This is termed as issuing shares. A person who buys share/shares of the company is called a shareholder, and by acquiring share or shares in...
", traders could use the fake cash to enter network-sponsored contests.
Format
IMX was in development for nearly a year prior to its January 2003 debut. In a 2002 press release, network president Marc Juris discussed the inspiration behind the program:- "MuchMusic USA's mission is to provide its viewers with a real voice. What better way for a viewer's voice to be heard than by investing in an artist he or she loves? Our success and growth over the last year has occurred because we recognize that viewers want ownership and control of what they listen to and watch. We have developed technology that empowers our audience to create their own videos, select our video rotation, and even to host the shows we broadcast. Both the IMX program and game is the next step in this endeavor, by encompassing the technological advances of the web, the popularity of online games, and the potential of live television."
IMX featured three VJ
VJ
A video jockey is an announcer who introduces and plays videos on commercial music television such as the United States' MTV, VH1, Fuse TV, non-commercial TVU, Canada's MuchMusic, and Asia's Channel V...
hosts, each representing different music genres, as well as a guest from the music industry. It debuted on January 20, 2003 at 6pm EST and would air live Monday through Friday with various encores throughout the week. The IMX studio, located in Penn Plaza
Pennsylvania Plaza
Pennsylvania Plaza is the office, entertainment and hotel complex occupying and near the site of Pennsylvania Station, between 31st and 34th Streets and Seventh and Eighth Avenues in New York....
, was street level and therefore fans that couldn't get tickets were able to view from outside and would be visible through the window during filming.
In attempt to "extol the fun of the stock market
Stock market
A stock market or equity market is a public entity for the trading of company stock and derivatives at an agreed price; these are securities listed on a stock exchange as well as those only traded privately.The size of the world stock market was estimated at about $36.6 trillion...
," players would sign up online and be given a set amount of "IMX dollars" in order to buy stocks in artists, albums, videos, and TV offerings, which could be traded and sold short or for profit online. With such profits, players could win prizes like video game console
Video game console
A video game console is an interactive entertainment computer or customized computer system that produces a video display signal which can be used with a display device to display a video game...
s, vacations, surfboards, or lithographs, all brought to them by Virgin Records
Virgin Records
Virgin Records is a British record label founded by English entrepreneur Richard Branson, Simon Draper, and Nik Powell in 1972. The company grew to be a worldwide music phenomenon, with platinum performers such as Roy Orbison, Devo, Genesis, Keith Richards, Janet Jackson, Culture Club, Lenny...
. Stock values would be influenced largely by Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
charts, concert sales, and other measures of commercial success.
Fixed to the bottom of the screen would be a market style ticker
News ticker
A news ticker resides in the lower third of the television screen space on television news networks dedicated to presenting headlines or minor pieces of news. It may also refer to a long, thin scoreboard-style display seen around the front of some offices or public buildings...
, updating viewers on how each artist, album, or song faired during the day's trading. Users could voice their opinions on the online bulletin boards, and their messages would frequently be shown live on air. Through the website, they would also be provided with music video previews, music downloads, and a wide range of market research tools for the individual portfolios of game participants, including airplay stats and sales charts. The one-hour program would help recap the day's trading, the value of each featured artist and song, and speculate on the future of the market.
IMX utilized the interactive investment technology of Hollywood Stock Exchange
Hollywood Stock Exchange
The Hollywood Stock Exchange, or HSX, is a web-based, multiplayer game in which players use simulated money to buy and sell "shares" of actors, directors, upcoming films, and film-related options....
to allow web users to invest in real time. Marc Juris elaborated on the technological potential of the innovative format:
- "IMX is like fantasy football, but with rock stars. The applications it can embrace are infinitely broad - from broadband and the digital set-top box to wireless devices and e-commerce. It's a new kind of entertainment experience that will captivate our tech-centric young viewers, and also cable operators who are eager to drive the demand for digital set-top boxes and high-speed services."
Hosts and guests
The show was hosted by Juliya ChernetskyJuliya Chernetsky
Juliya Chernetsky , is a television personality best known for her popularity on the music-themed network Fuse, formerly known as MuchMusicUSA. She is best known by her stage name Mistress Juliya. She hosted the heavy metal-themed program Uranium and a call-in and e-mail advice program called Slave...
of Uranium
Uranium (TV series)
Uranium is an American television program about heavy metal which aired on Fuse TV in the early 2000s. After establishing herself as the host of MMUSA's Tastemakers program, Juliya Chernetsky, along with network producers, created Uranium as an outlet for the broad range of heavy metal subgenres...
; Marianela Pereyra, who previously hosted Latin television's MHz HOT; and Steven Smith, formerly a VH1
VH1
VH1 or Vh1 is an American cable television network based in New York City. Launched on January 1, 1985 in the old space of Turner Broadcasting's short-lived Cable Music Channel, the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slightly...
personality. Dennis Da Menace (a.k.a. Dennis L.A. White) also frequently took up hosting duties in one's absence, usually Juliya's. Each host reflected different musical tastes with Juliya representing heavy metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
, Marianela representing R&B, Steven representing indie
Indie rock
Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...
/alternative rock
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
, and Dennis representing hip hop
Hip hop
Hip hop is a form of musical expression and artistic culture that originated in African-American and Latino communities during the 1970s in New York City, specifically the Bronx. DJ Afrika Bambaataa outlined the four pillars of hip hop culture: MCing, DJing, breaking and graffiti writing...
. This allowed for frequent debate and friendly argument amongst the differing hosts. It was also during IMX that Juliya was confronted by her fellow hosts about false rumors that she might jump ship to MTV2
MTV2
MTV2 is a cable network that is widely available in the United States on digital cable and satellite television, and is progressively being added to analogue cable lineups across the nation...
to host its revived Headbangers Ball
Headbangers Ball
Headbangers Ball is a music television program consisting of heavy metal music videos airing on MTV2, MTV Australia, MTV Two , MTV Adria , MTV Brand New, MTV Portugal, MTV Finland, MTV Arabia, MTV Norway, MTV Sweden, MTV Denmark, MTV Greece, MTV Türkiye, MTV...
.
Joining the diverse trio each day would be a variety of music industry insiders, ranging from current popular musicians to record company executives to music journalists. The program would also feature live in-studio performances following an interview with the given band. One particularly memorable episode saw Amy Lee
Amy Lee
Amy Lynn Hartzler , best known as Amy Lee, is an American singer-songwriter and classically trained pianist. She is co-founder and lead vocalist of the rock band Evanescence. She cites influences ranging from classical musicians such as Mozart to modern artists Björk, Tori Amos, Danny Elfman and...
and Ben Moody
Ben Moody
Benjamin Robert Moody is a singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, and actor. He is best known as co-founder, lead guitarist, and songwriter of Grammy Award-winning rock band Evanescence from 1995 to October 2003...
of Evanescence
Evanescence
Evanescence is an American rock band founded in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1995 by singer/pianist Amy Lee and guitarist Ben Moody. After recording private albums, the band released their first full-length album, Fallen, on Wind-up Records in 2003. Fallen sold more than 17 million copies worldwide...
perform an acoustic
Acoustic guitar
An acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only an acoustic sound board. The air in this cavity resonates with the vibrational modes of the string and at low frequencies, which depend on the size of the box, the chamber acts like a Helmholtz resonator, increasing or decreasing the volume of the sound...
rendition of "Going Under
Going Under
"Going Under" is a song by American rock band Evanescence. It was released on September 9, 2003, as the second single from their debut album Fallen. It was written by Amy Lee, David Hodges and Ben Moody, while production was handled by Dave Fortman...
". Partly through the song, a string
Strings (music)
A string is the vibrating element that produces sound in string instruments, such as the guitar, harp, piano, and members of the violin family. Strings are lengths of a flexible material kept under tension so that they may vibrate freely, but controllably. Strings may be "plain"...
broke on Moody's guitar and caused the song to end prematurely.
Daily Download
In June 2004, IMX was rebranded Daily Download with an altered format. This series took place in the same studio and maintained the same schedule with Marianela, Steven, and Dylan LaneDylan Lane
Dylan Lane is an American television game show host. Although he was born in Tyrone, he was raised in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Huntingdon Area High School in Huntingdon....
as hosts; however, the stock exchange aspect of IMX was removed in favor of a simpler interactive format. Daily Download served as a "live countdown show for the next generation," featuring the 10 most-downloaded songs in the country. It also offered free downloads
Music download
A music download is the transferral of music from an Internet-facing computer or website to a user's local computer. This term encompasses both legal downloads and downloads of copyright material without permission or payment...
of each song provided by f.y.e.
Trans World Entertainment
Trans World Entertainment Corporation is a chain of entertainment media retail stores in the United States. It currently operates just over 440 freestanding and shopping mall-based stores under several brand names....
as well as game cheats and movie trailers. The videos aired would include "Fuse Clues" that related to online puzzles of music and pop culture at the network's website, fuse.tv. Using a mobile phone or the Web, fans could solve the puzzles and be eligible to win prizes. Viewers also had the opportunity to talk to guest musicians appearing on the program.
Daily Download ran for about two years before ending in late July 2006. Marianela appeared on Get Malled Tour before ultimately leaving Fuse TV that year, and Dylan became the new host of GSN
Game Show Network
The Game Show Network is an American cable television and direct broadcast satellite channel dedicated to game shows and casino game shows. The channel was launched on December 1, 1994. Its current slogan is "The World Needs More Winners"...
's Chain Reaction
Chain Reaction (game show)
Chain Reaction is an American game show created by Bob Stewart, in which players compete to form chains composed of two-word phrases.The show aired three separate runs: Bill Cullen hosted the original series on NBC from January 14 to June 20, 1980...
on August 1. Steven, however, would remain with Fuse TV and host other programs including Steven's Untitled Rock Show
Steven's Untitled Rock Show
Steven's Untitled Rock Show was an American television program that aired on Fuse from December 2004 to December 2009, in which host Steven Smith interviewed rock bands and musicians while airing rock videos.-History:...
.