Coke Studio: A new Road for Music

I have often written and believed that music is a platform that can unite and has the power to serve a motive (Highway 61, Rock On) . We have had a plethora of realty TV shows from Indian Idol, Sa Re Ga Ma Pa to a number of regional ones. This has certainly been instrumental in bringing out talents like Shreya Ghosal, Abhijit Sawant and many more, but what has worried me over the years is the dominance of Bollywood music over independent albums. Though I have great respect for Bollywood music but somehow feel that there exists a lot of talent outside that industry that needs to be brought out.

Music Entrepreneurship/Management and Sports Management are perhaps some things that have not caught up in India as yet, but I am a strong advocate of such concepts in India.

Some of the reasons for the rather slow growth of the independent music label industry:

1.     Lack of a proper professional and organised mechanism to market independent music labels.

2.     Lack of professional approach of bands or individual artists as they lack the necessary PR skills.

3.     No one buys music!! Though the internet has been instrumental in allowing artists to have a greater reach, but piracy has been killing the industry.

4.     The concept of live shows has picked up over the years but the consumers are still not ready to give it the same status as other entertaining forms like movies and eating out. With places like Hard Rock Cafes, High spirits in Kolkata, Curve in Pune etc. have surely been a platform for live musicians but still not a sustainable business opportunity for a band.

This brings me to the show that I wanted to share with you “Coke Studio” a show that has entered into its season 3. The underlying ideology of the show is to bring people closer, bridge gaps between societies through powerful music.  

It encompasses the concept of live recordings and performance so that consumers can have a sense of involvement in the process of making music rather than just consume it.  The music evokes a gamut of feelings with music ranging from traditional eastern, modern western and regionally inspired music. The platform has been provided by Coco Cola with the philosophy of peace an harmony which I feel is a great branding activity in a county like Pakistan.

Concepts like these can revolutionise the music industry in South Asian countries and replicating a similar model in India would perhaps take the industry on a new route or form a successful industry parallel to the existing Bollywood.

Facebook: Coke Studio

Highway61 will take Indian Rock to another level IF...

I had earlier blogged "We need music to spread its tentacles and serve a bigger responsibility in nurturing the minds of the people, the youth and foster a sense of awareness for the problems that have wrapped the nation." And this band was perhaps, exactly what I was referring to then.

I have been following Highway 61 a Pune based band for a couple of years now. Their music can be categorised under Hindi,Sufi, Urdu and Ethnic Rock. They have risen by playing at various college fests. Recently they won the Battle of Bands at SCMHRD and they would also open Bryan Adams on the 11th FEB 2011 in Pune.

This band has almost the right mix that is required for a band to be commercially successful. This band has risen purely on the basis of their music. They have the ability to take Indian Rock to another level if marketed properly. 50% of the Indian population is below 25 and considering the fact that they sing in Hindi there is a huge audience for the kind of music that they produce.

Their compositions are strongly rooted to what they stand for, they believe that they are the voice of the resurgent youth and it is necessary to make their voices heard, their song Jagoo Zara tries to capture just this essence.

Not too many music band in India have had really great commercial success, may be they have always been overpowered by Bollywood music. I believe that this kind of music has great potential to be commercially successful and give the Indian Rock a new definition. It would be interesting to see how these bands market themselves and what opportunities and business models come up so that bands such as these have sustainable commercial growth. 

Follow them on Facebook and download their music: Highway61