MTI Countdowns

MTI Countdowns

Presentation
Hosted by	Various, 9 in total (excluding the producer)
Genre	Talk, Top 40 Music, J-Pop, K-Pop
Language	English
Production
No. of episodes	280+ on the MTI Countdowns 80+ on Japan Top 10 35+ on KTop 10
Publication
Debut	May 30, 2008 for MTI Countdowns^[1] March 1, 2013 for Japan Top 10^[2] June 25, 2014 for KTop 10^[3]
Website	Official website

The MTI Countdowns is a music podcast that features songs from the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s and current day.^[4] Along with music, the show is also presented with various hosts that announce each song and discuss various issues surrounding their lives. They also feature a side show called Japan Top 10, which follows a similar concept to the MTI Countdowns, however it features J-Pop music. With both shows combined, downloads average between 5,000 and 6,000 per day.^[5] Japan Top 10 has also ranked consistently in the top 100 music podcasts on the Japanese iTunes store.^[6] A show called KTop10 that features K-Pop music, was created in June 2014 and has been getting significant attention as well. MTI stands for "Maytable Inc", an organization name derived from previous works.^[7]

History

Late 2006-Mid 2008: Before the MTI Countdowns

Prior to creating the MTI Countdowns, Jack Shi (known as Producer Jack), the founder of the MTI Countdowns, was involved with making several YouTube videos under the name, Maytable Inc.^[8] With his friends at that time, the first video (called, The Who Didn't Like To Learn) was recorded on December 27, 2006 and released on YouTube in January 2007. Not much success was gained through uploading those shows and many comments about the first video was negative. However, the show continued on and videos were released throughout 2007 to mid 2008.

Around late 2007, there was the idea to shorten the organization's name from Maytable Inc to MTI and making it into an acronym so that it was easier for people to recognize their name.^[1]

During mid 2008, the group started having trouble finding time to meet with each other to create videos, therefore eventually the group separated and the video production stopped. Around 15 videos were uploaded in total, before the group separated.^[9]

May 2008-Summer 2010: The beginning of the MTI Countdowns

The MTI Countdowns was created in May 2008. The episode first hosted by Jack was released on May 30, 2008 and initially, the podcast did not achieve much success.^[1] One of the first guest host, Zilin Xie (or he went by the name of Petry back then) was a prominent member of the video team and the episode that he guest hosted in July 2008 was one of the last meetings for the video team. The podcast continued to be released on both iTunes and now defunct, mypodcast.com.^[10] Unable to retain any full-time hosts except for himself (about three guest hosts were featured between 2008 and mid 2010) and the lack of an audience, episodes were released only on a seasonal basis and ran into constant hiatuses.

When mypodcast.com experienced problems with their users in summer of 2010 (they ended up deleting many episodes of their user's podcasts), Jack Shi decided to move the podcast to Podomatic.

Fall 2010-Early 2012: The first full-time hosts and initial success

Once the podcast moved over to Podomatic, a few months later, 2 full-time hosts, Sandra Feng and Andy Lin decided to join, both of which are still on the show. Andy Lin originally left the show after early 2011, however he decided to come back in 2013. Sandra Feng has continually been on the podcast ever since she started. Initial ratings on Podomatic was moderately low, however with the addition of the third full-time host in September 2011, Alisha Lee, ratings started to climb.^[11] Episodes that were released within that time frame (late 2011/early 2012) all achieved heavy downloads.^[12] This led to the podcast being released every Saturday in March 2012. It also lead to a new logo design made by future host (at that time), Manjima Doha in April 2012.

Mid 2012-Early 2013: The continued success and the start of Japan Top 10

In mid-2012, the podcast started to achieve high ranks, normally within the top 10 music podcasts on Podomatic and top 10 podcasts in the Toronto community, defined by Podomatic. The show was also featured on their "Movers & Shakers" section on occasion.^[13] More hosts were brought in due to a demand for more regular release and fresh ideas. The hosts included: Manjima, Angela, Lara and Zoe. There were much more hosts but those weren't memorable for the podcast.

Logo for Japan Top 10 used between March 2013 to May 2014

A new site was created in February 2013, replacing the one used since mid 2010.^[14] Although the show achieved success on Podomatic throughout 2012 and early 2013, Jack Shi decided that it was becoming too costly to host the podcast on Podomatic, since many episodes were being released and a suitable storage plan was costly.^[15] Therefore, in May 2013, the show was moved to a new podcast company called Hipcast.

Also in early 2013, a new side show called Japan Top 10 was released.^[5] It debuted with its first episode hosted by Sandra Feng on Mixcloud and garnered little success. However, once Jack Shi decided to move the main podcast to Hipcast, Japan Top 10 slowly followed and episodes began to be released on that site and iTunes. The ratings were immediately successful once it was on iTunes, ranking consistently in the top 100 music podcasts on the Japanese iTunes store. Stats on Hipcast also indicated that Japan Top 10 was also getting on average 1500 to 2000 downloads per day. Almost after a year since the show's debut, it finally had its own website, separate from the MTI Countdowns.

A few more hosts were brought in during the first half of 2013 to fill in the void of a few hosts that left. They included Sigma (Paul) and in addition of a few other hosts.

Logo for MTI Countdowns used between April 2012 to March 2014

Mid 2013-Early 2014: Small adjustments to the shows

The podcast celebrated its 5th year anniversary in July 2013 and featured various current and past hosts through the presentation of the MTI Top 50 Countdown dedicated to the theme of 90's music.

In September 2013, the long time show, MTI Top 25 was discontinued because of duplication in music with the MTI Top 10 Countdown. Over 30 episodes was produced throughout the period it ran (2009-2013).

In December 2013, 2 brand new hosts, Tim and Simone joined Japan Top 10 and the MTI Countdowns, respectively.

In February 2014, the 200th episode was reached and many current and past hosts sent out a shout out for the milestone. A month after, the website, mymti.org was completely redesigned with a new logo for the podcast. Japan Top 10 also had its content moved over to a completely new site at jtop10.jp.

Mid 2014- Early 2015: Starting KTop 10 & Moving forward with the podcast

Current Japan Top 10 Logo

In April 2014, major changes were announced on the show's website that were to take place in June 2014. Many of these changes were to eliminate shows on the MTI Countdowns and focus on Japan Top 10. Shows that were cancelled included the MTI Top 5 CountUP's, MTI Top 3 Countdowns, the Unpredictable Artist of the Month and the Unpredictable Countdowns. This change allowed more focus on Japan Top 10. Angela also announced her departure in June 2014, with her very last episode in July 2014. Also leaving the podcast was Zoe, which also scheduled for July 2014. This allowed the arrival of 2 brand new hosts, Shane and Tauben, both of whom began in June 2014. MTI Countdowns, Japan Top 10 and KTop 10 was made available on TuneIn and Stitcher in early June 2014.

The MTI Top 10 Countdowns changed into a rhythmic Top 40 countdown starting in July 2014. 2 brand new shows, KTop10 (or as it was originally called Korea Top 10) and Les Decomptes MTI (eventually cancelled by September 2014) was debuted in late June 2014 and mid May 2014, respectively. KTop 10 has received quite a lot of attention after its debut, with averaging 800 downloads per day. As a result, Andy Lin, the host for KTop 10 departed from his position on MTI Countdowns and focus solely towards KTop 10 in September 2014. This brought forward a new host named Nicholas Wong who joined on the MTI Countdowns in September 2014, specifically replacing Andy on the MTI Top 10 Countdowns. Also announced was Simone's departure from the podcast, which led to the cancellation of her show, Les Decomptes MTI. Sam who came back from his hiatus during the summer of 2014; replaced Simone on the MTI Top 10's.

Korea Top 10 officially changed its name in November 2014 to its current branding, KTop 10.

In January 2015, the MTI Top 10 Countdowns were temporarily replaced with the monthly MTI Top 25 Countdown, the extra songs on every episode were separated onto a different show called the "Extras" and Tauben departed from the podcast. As well, the anime extras were started on Japan Top 10 in the beginning of 2015. This was also complemented by the new show, "Artist of the Month" on Japan Top 10.

In March 2015, a new, full-time host, Zilin Xie, joined the MTI Countdowns. Guest hosting as "Petry" in 2008, Zilin was not completely a new host, however his full-time position was taken in March. This was also followed by the arrival of a completely new KTop 10 host, Elizabeth Fajardo, who began co-hosting with Andy. Also beginning this month, the rhythmic music lean on the MTI Countdowns was significantly reduced and the playlist was expanded to include various mainstream genres of Top 40 music.

Mid 2015- Current: Current Day

At the end of April 2015, a show debuted on the MTI Countdowns called MTI Acoustics, which features 10 to 15 specially themed acoustic songs. It was also announced that starting in May 2015, the MTI Top 25 Countdowns would be halted and the MTI Top 10 show would be brought back and released twice every month. The "Extras" episodes would continue the same format, except now with 10 songs and released simultaneously with the first MTI Top 10 episode of each month. Nicholas Wong also announced his departure from the MTI Countdowns in May 2015 and moved onto Japan Top 10, as a host there. Andy also announces a temporary hiatus from the KTop 10 podcast starting in June 2015.

Current shows

Today, the MTI Countdowns achieves small moderate success, with average downloads ranging around 300 per day. On the other hand, Japan Top 10, MTI Countdowns' side show has been immensely popular, compared to the MTI Countdowns, averaging downloads from 5000 to 6000 per day. KTop 10 downloads averages from 1000 to 1100 per day. Over 280 episodes of the MTI Countdowns have been released so far, the 100th episode was released in November 2012 and the 200th episode was released in February 2014. Japan Top 10 has produced over 80 episodes to current date. KTop 10 has produced over 35 episodes.

There are currently seven types of regular shows on the MTI Countdowns, Japan Top 10 and KTop 10 which are all released on various days of the week, month or year. They include:

MTI Top 10 Countdown, started during the inception of the podcast, features Top 40 music. Also featured is an additional extras episode which features a diverse set of 10 songs. They are released twice a month, once on the first Saturday and the other on the third Saturday. The extras episode is released simultaneously with the first MTI Top 10 of each month.
MTI Acoustics, started in April 2015, features acoustic music with a general theme. They are released once a month, on the last Saturday of each month.
MTI Discovers, started on February 2014, a show that is primarily hosted by Producer Jack and brings forward a list of songs that he wants to showcase. The show does not have a set schedule; rather they appear usually between regularly scheduled episodes such as the MTI Top 10 Countdowns.
MTI Top 50 Countdown, started in July 2012, 2 episodes gets released each year, once in the middle of the year that features an "important" theme and once in the beginning of the new year featuring music from the previous year.
Japan Top 10 Countdown, started during the inception of Japan Top 10, features the top 10 J-Pop songs according to official Japanese charts along with two J-Rock and J-Pop songs (known as the J-Rock Flashback and J-Pop Flashback) from the late 80's, 90's or 2000's along with a song from an anime, known as the "Anime Extra". They are released on a bi-weekly basis, on Tuesday's.
Japan Top 10 Artist of the Month, started as a special episode in August 2014 and as a regular feature in January 2015, features the top 5 songs according to official Japanese charts from a randomly selected or listener chosen Japanese band or artist. They are released on the first day of each month.
KTop 10 Countdown, started during the inception of KTop 10 (previously known as Korea Top 10), features the top 10 K-Pop songs according to South Korean music charts along with an extra song, usually a song from the past few years. It is currently released on a weekly basis, on Sunday's.

The hosts present each episode with various topics of discussion, including their life in post-secondary education, their achievements, etc.

Notable past shows

There were many past notable shows that used to be featured on the MTI Countdowns. They include:

MTI Top 25 Countdown, produced between February 2009 to September 2013 and shortly revived from January 2015 to April 2015, the show's concept was similar the MTI Top 10 Countdown, except more songs were featured and released less often
MTI Top 3 Countdown, produced between August 2012 to May 2014, it featured music from the 80's and 90's that were on the Billboard Hot 100
MTI Top 5 CountUP, produced between November 2012 to May 2014, it featured music from the 2000's that received heavy airplay on the radio and was presented in a best to worst order
The Unpredictable Countdowns, produced between March 2013 to May 2014, it was a music countdown show that featured a random theme, host(s) and release date.
MTI Music, produced in the period of Fall 2008, featured various new songs
What's On, produced in the period of Summer 2008, general updates and upcoming guest hosts on the podcast
Les Décomptes MTI, produced during the Spring to Summer 2014, featured the top 10 francophone songs according to Western Europe and Quebec music charts along with an "Morceau rétro" or "A Retro Pick", which is usually a song from the past decades.

Hosts

There are currently nine full-time hosts on the podcast.^[16] They currently are:

Sandra Feng, host since October 2010
Andy Lin, host since October 2010 (with a hiatus between 2011 and 2012)
Paul "Sigma", host since January 2013
Sam Wang", host since June 2013
Tim Liu, host since December 2013
Shane Liu, host since June 2014
Nicholas Wong, host since September 2014
Zilin Xie, host since March 2015
Elizabeth Fajardo, host since March 2015

Notable past hosts

These are some notable past hosts that have made contributions to the podcast:^[17]

Lara Issac, host from May 2012 to July 2013. Was Sandra's third co-host on the show and appeared on over 30 episodes.
Alisha Lee, host from September 2011 to April 2013. Was Sandra's second co-host on the show and played a major role into the success of the podcast on Podomatic.
Angela Cheng, host from November 2012 to July 2014. Appeared on over 40 episodes and contributed heavily to the MTI Top 10 Countdowns
Zoe Foo, host from July 2012 to July 2014. Appeared on over 55 episodes and made significant contributions to the defunct show, MTI Top 3 Countdowns
Simone Santerre, host from December 2013 to September 2014. Started her own show called Les Decomptes MTI and was an active member on the MTI Top 10's
Manjima Doha, host from September 2012 to May 2015. Contributed heavily to the podcast including the MTI Countdowns and Japan Top 10.

References

1 2 3 "History of the MTI Countdowns – MTI Countdowns!". Mymti.org. Retrieved 2014-02-05.
↑ "About Us - KTop 10". Top10kpop.com. Retrieved 2014-11-16.
↑ "About Us - Japan Top 10". Jtop10.jp. Retrieved 2014-11-16.
↑
1 2 "About Us – Japan Top 10". jtop10.jp. Retrieved 2014-02-19.
↑ "iTunes - Podcast - MTI Countdowns「Japan Top 10 (日本のトップ10) JPOP HITS!」". Itunes.apple.com. Retrieved 2014-02-05.
↑
↑ "Our Video Page for 07 - Welcome to the official MTI website!". Freewebs.com. Retrieved 2014-02-05.
↑ "Our Video Page for 08/09/10 - Welcome to the official MTI website!". Freewebs.com. Retrieved 2014-02-05.
↑
↑ "PodOmatic | Podcast - MTI Top 25/10 Countdown!". Web.archive.org. Archived from the original on 2012-07-19. Retrieved 2014-02-05.
↑ "PodOmatic | Best Free Podcasts". Maytableinc.podomatic.com. 2013-05-18. Retrieved 2014-02-05.
↑ "PodOmatic | Profile - MTI Countdowns". Web.archive.org. Archived from the original on 2013-01-03. Retrieved 2014-02-05.
↑ "MTI Updates February 2013! – MTI Countdowns!". Mymti.org. Retrieved 2014-02-05.
↑ "May 2013 Updates! – MTI Countdowns!". Mymti.org. Retrieved 2014-02-05.
↑ "Hosts – MTI Countdowns!". Mymti.org. Retrieved 2014-02-05.
↑ "MTI Countdown Alumni! – MTI Countdowns!". Mymti.org. Retrieved 2014-02-05.

External links

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