Not much space for independent artists in mainstream media: Soumini Paul

Artist Aloud-talent first app, launched by Hungama Digital Media Entertainment, is a platform to showcase India’s raw talents on a global level. Launched in 2009 as a digital distribution platform for unreleased music created by artists, Artist Aloud has been a catalyst in changing the industry’s outlook on independent music and artists, bringing out some of the biggest names in music as we know them today. 

The platform offers multiple genres, languages and artists across the globe. The ArtistAloud.com music library can also be accessed through Hungama’s domestic and international digital distribution partnerships of mobile operators, Hungama.com, iTunes, Nokia, Rebeat, etc. 

It is also an interactive space for artists to collaborate with other artists, fans to interact with their favorite artists, artists to be booked for gigs, Audio Rooms and much more. Each artist has his/her/their own profile where the user can access songs, videos, wallpapers and playlists of their favorite artist. 

In conversation with Adgully, Soumini Paul, Vice President, Artist Aloud, spoke about the idea behind the app, the content offering, plans for the future and much more. Excerpts: 

What was the idea behind Artist Aloud? What is the content strategy?
As a platform, we have different mediums of offering for our artists and while we distribute the content through platforms which is partnered by Hungama Music, what we know for sure is that the consumer decides when he wants to consume the content, and he is really not coming to all these platforms to consume music. Hence, we felt that there is so much that we can offer and that’s the reason we built a standalone destination. Before we knew that we had the capability, we had both Intel and Microsoft who initially funded us to build an app for their store and that’s how the whole idea of making an app came out. 

The app has been built up with two philosophies. Firstly, we wanted to be able to create a destination for people who are interested in content which is non-Bollywood. When we started in 2010, we were the only players, but today there are lots of players. Talent-oriented content is also being put out on YouTube and several other platforms, but for YouTube, it more or less still revolves around people who sing cover songs. We wanted to promote content which is original and allows the talent to come out. The other philosophy was that though there always have been talented people, today they do not shy away from displaying their talent, hence if you believe that you have something you can do, then we want to be the final destination for people to showcase their talent. 

How has the business model evolved over the years for Artist Aloud?
Initially, we started with distribution as one offering. We basically wanted to give the artist a chance to have the same kind of distribution spread that any production house would have. As we kept evolving, we realised that mainstream media really doesn’t have much space for it. And that’s why we have evolved into on-ground and live events. Today, we are actually a platform across digital, social and on ground. It’s not just a dotcom, it’s a destination. 

What will the business strategy going forward for Artist Aloud?
There are three core areas. Primarily, it is service model, where we are building partnerships or alliances that we bring to artists. Thus, artists can look at the services that we bring to them for which they can pay a nominal fee and then we can execute what we have to offer – be it distribution or promotion. One of the biggest reasons for that is that we handpick every context that we get onboard and how we differentiate between two good content is only when one has paid for the content and the other has not. The other model is where we are booking artists for either for our own events or any other kind of booking requirement that comes our way. And that’s the reason why we don’t sign any artist exclusively, instead we represent the entire industry and based on the requirement, we get the best deal possible. 

How do handle copyright and piracy issues?
Artists are the only ones who give us the license. They have the complete ownership. When he/ she signs the agreement for the license, it eventually indemnifies us in terms of any copyright case. We don’t own any copyright of the content. We only acquire an exclusive license. 

According to you, how has the music landscape evolved in India over the years?
The quantity of content as well as talent has grown abundantly. There was a time in the late 90’s where we had seen restricted content, but now we cannot restrict any such content because we have several sources from where it can come out. Also, people are not looking at the content as original, but only as content. If you see YouTube, it has Sanam who has done ‘Gulabi aankhe’, which is such an old song, but he has been able to create enough traction just on that one song. 

But unfortunately, it is very sad to see that something very beautiful that began in the 90’s, died out by the mid-2000’s. The creators of content have had good support from the media, which also played a marketing role. But media today is not bothered about supporting the ecosystem, it is more into profit and loss. 

How has 2017 been for Artrist Aloud?
The last two years, including this year, have been just about being relevant. There have been some loses, but at the end of the day, the results say that we are still here. In 2018, we definitely aim to take some of the IP that we can start with and make them bigger and look at all the corners of the business. We intend to increase and further strengthen our partnerships and alliances in the coming years.