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In an effort to gain more attention from the demographic it’s been losing to web content and social networks, MTVN (MTV Networks) will be bringing in its heavy hitters to offer a new project that helps you find the name of that artist that sings the song you’ve currently got stuck in your head. Combining MTV, VH1, CMT and other channels will be used for the incorporation of programs that refocus back on the artist, getting to the heart of the matter–a song’s lyrics and the artists themselves. This includes a Name That Tune series. How retro.

To bridge these efforts with MTVN’s online reach, its web properties will be adding lyrical search data from Gracenote, the digital music database. There will also be trivia (coupled with purchasing options) for certain songs.

So what about mobile? there will be a search tool you can access using text messaging, which will spit back search results along with a mobile URL for additional information (there will probably be purchasing options on this front as well). Surely the relaunched Rhapsody will come in to play in a large way, too.

So what we’re seeing here is MTV returning to its roots, which would be music. It’s also pooling all of the resources it has access to, which is especially important to look at, because it is in fact leveraging every platform on which it operates in order to move towards a single initiative.

Over the past few years we’ve seen the separate development of web content and culture, while other areas slowly suffered and struggled to find a way to fit in with the new technology. And as will most new technology, its merely integrated into existing areas, instead of replacing them. So with this traditional media company pushing for something that’s resembling a mini-makeover, it’s got to go wherever its users are.

The best way to do that is in a unified manner, covering all your bases. What’s equally as interesting is the way in which it’s looking to engage users, with games and content surrounding the naming of “that song.” How long will this novelty last, and how can it be turned into cash, as MTVN is hoping it will? By connecting trivia with links for purchasing a song, the efforts may be far too transparent.

And based on the type of games we already see for “naming that tune” on television and the radio, there’s only so many songs (that people will want to buy) at any given time, to be popular enough to include in such a game. There are also other web services, like iden.tify.us and watzatsong, that are building communities around the concept of naming that tune” without the historic powerhouse pushing content to end users. It will be especially interesting to see in what other ways MTVN will be promoting its new efforts, and if this can reel in the youngsters once more.

[via webware]

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