Music Choice (abbreviated as MC) is an American television music service that digitally broadcasts audio-based music channels and video-related content to cable television providers in the United States. In 2019, it reached 65 million households in North America via linear television channels and TV-on-demand services. Music Choice is distributed nationwide by

Xfinity Comcast Cable Communications, LLC, doing business as Xfinity, is an American telecommunications business segment and division of the Comcast Corporation. It is used to market consumer cable television, internet, telephone, and wireless servic ...

Spectrum A spectrum (: spectra or spectrums) is a set of related ideas, objects, or properties whose features overlap such that they blend to form a continuum. The word ''spectrum'' was first used scientifically in optics to describe the rainbow of co ...

Cox Communications Cox Communications, Inc. (also known as Cox Cable and formerly Cox Broadcasting Corporation, Dimension Cable Services and Times-Mirror Cable), is an American digital cable television provider, telecommunications and home automation services comp ...

, Verizon Fios,

DirecTV DirecTV, LLC is an American Multichannel television in the United States, multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital Satellite television, s ...

and other smaller cable providers. Similar broadcast music services include DMX, Stingray Music (Canadian),

Sirius XM Sirius XM Holdings Inc. is an American broadcasting corporation headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, that provides satellite radio and online radio services operating in the United States. The company was formed by the 2008 merge ...

, and XITE.

History

Early development Music Choice (formerly known as Digital Cable Radio) was the first digital audio broadcast service in the world and, under its founder and CEO David Del Beccaro,

launched in

test market A test market, in the field of business and marketing, is a geographic region or demographic group used to gauge the viability of a product or service in the mass market prior to a wide scale rollout. The criteria used to judge the acceptability ...

s circa 1987. From its inception as an eight- channel audio service from

Motorola Motorola, Inc. () was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois. It was founded by brothers Paul and Joseph Galvin in 1928 and had been named Motorola since 1947. Many of Motorola's products had been ...

's cable group, Music Choice evolved into a multi-platform interactive music network based in New York that reaches millions of consumers across nationwide. Music Choice is a partnership owned by a

consortium A consortium () is an association of two or more individuals, companies, organizations, or governments (or any combination of these entities) with the objective of participating in a common activity or pooling their resources for achieving a ...

, including Universal's

Comcast Comcast Corporation, formerly known as Comcast Holdings,Before the AT&T Broadband, AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation, not th ...

, Charter Communications through its acquisition of

Time Warner Cable Time Warner Cable Enterprises LLC was an American cable television company. Before it was acquired by Charter Communications on May 18, 2016, it was ranked the second largest cable company in the United States by revenue behind only Comcast, o ...

in May 2016,

EMI Music EMI Group Limited (formerly EMI Group plc until 2007; originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records or simply EMI) was a British Transnational corporation, transnational Conglomerate (company), c ...

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

, Arris International (formerly part of

's cable technologies division), and Sony Corporation of America. Several of its stations are measured through Mediabase and its playlists are accounted for in weekly airplay charts in addition to traditional radio and

plays.

Platforms

Linear audio channels

Music Choice currently offers over 50 linear channels of various

music radio Music radio is a radio format in which music is the main broadcast content. After television replaced old time radio's dramatic content, music formats became dominant in many countries. Radio drama and comedy continue, often on public radio. M ...

formats through

digital cable Digital cable is the distribution of cable television using digital data and video compression. The technology was first developed by General Instrument. By 2000, most cable companies offered digital features, eventually replacing their previo ...

providers. The number of channels available varies by provider.

Music Choice On Demand

Music Choice offers free

video on demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos, television shows and films Digital distribution, digitally on request. These multimedia are accessed without a traditional video playback device and a typica ...

content, including hundreds of music videos from various recording artists, original programs, and artist features.

TV Everywhere App

Starting in July 2008, Music Choice released iOS and Android apps. The app requires login with a participating provider's

TV Everywhere TV Everywhere (also known as authenticated streaming or authenticated video on-demand) refers to a type of American subscription business model wherein access to streaming video content from a television channel requires users to "authenticate" ...

authentication credentials to use, and the same access is available on traditional desktop/laptop web browsers. Each Music Choice channel is distributed in a freeze frame television format, where still slides appear on screen while the audio plays. These slides typically display: • Banner advertising, which is the only form of advertising shown on the service, as the audio programming remains commercial-free. • A looping carousel of “Did You Know?” factoids, usually paired with file photos of the featured artists. In the past, the on-screen trivia factoids have drawn criticism for occasionally presenting grim or morbid content. A May 2017

HuffPost ''HuffPost'' (''The Huffington Post'' until 2017, itself often abbreviated as ''HPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and covers p ...

article highlighted that some slides featured details about illnesses, homicides, and suicides involving musical artists and their close relations, describing the tone as unusually dark for a music platform. Music Choice also uses color-coded themes that vary by daypart, with schemes such as blue, pink, green, or yellow backgrounds depending on the time of day. In 2021, a new photo slideshow interface was introduced. It retained the freeze-frame format but added dynamic transitions—changing the artist image while the music plays. Track metadata (artist, song title, and album) began appearing either at the top or bottom of the screen, depending on the design in use. Another major design update took place around October 18, 2024. This redesign introduced: • Rounded screen corners • A shift from the original Graphik Compact font to the more modern Poppins typeface • Enhanced UI layout for better readability and aesthetic consistency These visual and branding updates reflect Music Choice’s efforts to modernize its interface in line with current design standards.

SWRV

In February 2010, Music Choice launched SWRV (pronounced 'swerve'), a 24-hour

interactive Across the many fields concerned with interactivity, including information science, computer science, human-computer interaction, communication, and industrial design, there is little agreement over the meaning of the term "interactivity", but mo ...

music video cable channel. The network struggled to gain momentum and was eventually rebranded to Music Choice Play on October 15, 2013. Music Choice Play was phased out by the start of 2016.

Subscription services

As of Fall 2021, Music Choice offers several subscription services which are available through the extended Internet-connected services of cable set-top boxes.

Music Choice Karaoke

A domestic karaoke service providing access to instrumental versions of popular songs sorted into playlists with sing-along lyrics.

Music Choice Relax

A service providing calming instrumentals and soothing nature imagery for the purposes of relaxation.

Music Choice+

A service exclusive to

, and

providing immediate access to any song and/or album in the Music Choice library, along with playlist creation, device downloads, and song skipping abilities. As of April 29th 2025, Music Choice Plus is shutting down.

Legal issues

Stingray

In June 2016, Music Choice filed a lawsuit against Canada-based

Stingray Stingrays are a group of sea Batoidea, rays, a type of cartilaginous fish. They are classified in the suborder Myliobatoidei of the order Myliobatiformes and consist of eight families: Hexatrygonidae (sixgill stingray), Plesiobatidae (deepwate ...

over patent infringement. The lawsuit occurred one month following the announcement that Comcast, half-owner of Music Choice, had chosen instead to offer Stingray Radio. Music Choice drew criticism with the lawsuit; Stingray responded: "Given the significant inroads that Stingray has made in the U.S. market omcast expansionwith its industry-changing technology, Stingray believes that Music Choice’s complaint is without merit and primarily motivated by competitive concerns rather than a desire to protect its intellectual property." Music Choice's lawsuit against Stingray disputed a number of U.S. Patents pertaining to the on screen formatting of Stingray Digital's music channels. On August 29, 2016, Stingray countersued Music Choice calling the patent lawsuit a "smear campaign".

Music Modernization Act opposition

In 2018, A2IM CEO Richard James Burgess accused Music Choice of trying to solicit artist and label support to deceive Congress into reducing artists royalties paid by Music Choice. The criticism came as Music Choice publicly opposed the passage of the

Music Modernization Act The Orrin G. Hatch–Bob Goodlatte Music Modernization Act, or Music Modernization Act or MMA (, ) is United States legislation signed into law on October 11, 2018, aimed to modernize copyright-related issues for music and audio recordings due ...

, which ultimately was signed into law on October 11, 2018.

SoundExchange

On April 10, 2019,

SoundExchange SoundExchange is an American non-profit collective rights management organization spun off from the RIAA in 2003. It is the sole organization designated by the U.S. Congress to collect and distribute digital performance royalties for sound r ...

filed a lawsuit against Music Choice for underpayment, following an audit of Music Choice's royalty statements.

References

External links

Music Choice Official website
{{Sony Corp Cable radio Video on demand services Music television channels Television channels and stations established in 1987