An interesting press conference was held today by MTV, who officially unveiled the oft-talked-about launch of M2 Europe, the overseas answer to our own M2. Not that we're huge fans of MTV or anything, but this could SERIOUSLY be a good thing -- click read more to find out why!
M2 Europe will be available on-line via streaming RealVideo 24 hours a day when the network launches on August 3. And from the look of the website, it COULD very well be over 50% indie-geared.

A one-hour video teaser is currently on the M2E site, which spotlights what watching M2E might be like. On that teaser, Primal Scream and the Verve make appearances within the first 10 minutes alone. Also, there will be a page on the site where viewers can submit pre-programmed hours of videos for potential airplay, as chosen off of a list that's on the site. This list, currently online, is comprised primarily of UK-Indie-related artists, from mainstream acts like Blur and Radiohead to more eclectic artists like the Bluetones, Boo Radleys, New FADs, the Undertones, on and on. If M2E plays its cards right, we could very well have a commercial-and-VJ-free Indie MTV within one month.

Here's what M2E's Managing Editor Peter Good had to say during today's press conference:

"M2 is what we call a freeform music channel, which means it doesn't apply any of the set rules or policies that you'd normally associate with music on a television station or on a radio station. What we want to do on M2 is actually to give the whole channel a hand-programmed feel.

Musically, M2 differs from other stations because we're not concentrating on charts, music research, or any one particular market, so we're looking for music and videos that are on the cutting edge, innovative and creatively trying to do something different. I think a good example of this is an artist like the Beastie Boys are the equivalent of the Spice Girls for M2, which I suppose makes Money Mark our version of Geri Halliwell.

M2 will also differ from other music TV stations by the fact that we will not be having presenters on the channel, or at least not using them in a traditional way. What we're trying to do with M2 is to get back to the idea that whoever's made what you're about to see will be the people who talk about it. For example if an artist like Pulp comes in and programmes their hour of music that they'd like to see on M2 they will be the ones that you hear talking about it. The fact that we're not going to be traditionally presenter or VJ-led means that language becomes less of an issue. I also think the kind of people who will watch M2 in Sweden will be just as interested in seeing a German band like Mouse on Mars as they would be seeing one of their local grown acts."

M2 Europe will be available beginning on August 3rd at their on-line home of http://www.m2europe.com