Online platform for indie musicians aims to democratise the industry

Pranoy Kanojia Dhananjai Sinha and Ayshwarya Sharma three of the people behind Instrupad PicShadab KhanThe indie music industry in India has its own caste bias metaphorically speaking That is to say the movers and shakers of a big city are far more likely to get bigticket gigs than those who havent played the market adequately This has led to a lack of democracy within the scene despite the Internet having levelled the playing field to some degree Instrupad a genre and bandagnostic play space for musicians seeks to change that But the website is still in its infancy taking baby steps towards creating an equal platform for indie artistesFidel DSouza in an Instrupad videoIt was conceived during a class project that two management students Dhananjai Sinha and Pranoy Kanojia had to undertake four years ago The idea is quite straightforward create a digital space that connects musicians to others invested in the art form including the lay audience and people who create custommade instrumentsSee you can break up the music industry into four parts composition production distribution and promotion Sinha 28 tells us What used to happen earlier is that because of the big labels distribution was centralised which is why they had a lot of say in how much money goes to the artiste But after the recent explosion of data packs and the Internet in tierII and tierIII markets distribution has become more decentralised So now you can compose produce and advertise your music yourself because of which a lot of independent artistes have started pursuing it fulltime he explainsThe basic aim behindInstrupad is to further that process of decentralisation The website calls for people to send in videos of their music good or bad but not ugly since there is an elementary hygiene check Someone making an instrument from scratch if thats his or her calling has an open door as well The makers hope that this will start a large enough conversation to attract an active audience And by active Sinha means listeners who actually go hunting for music themselves instead of passively waiting for those pulling the industrys strings to spoonfeed songs to themThere are other ways in which the Mumbaibased Instrupad team Chirag Mediratta and Ayshwarya Sharma apart from Sinha and Kanojia hope to democratise the indie industry They put up short documentaries that aim to place a finger on the pulse of the scene such as one on the evolution of hiphop in the country There is also a database they are building with short bios of musicians who want to contribute their story An accompanying YouTube channel is aimed at expanding overall outreach And all of this sounds like music to the ears of Fidel DSouza the bassist for Parvaaz a Bengalurubased band thats an indie biggieDSouza had contributed a bass playthrough which meansplaying a song from the beginning to the end on an instrument and he says I got my sister whos a food blogger to shoot a video and I sent it to them after they got in touch with me I actually found it really interesting because no one had ever asked me for anything like it And personally speaking I should be putting out more such playthrough videos I thinkNow if he and others like him do follow up on that thought it will eventually help Instrupad grow out of its infancy But the founders also need investor support Sinha tells us that the only financial help they have had so far is from a crowdfunding campaign and the prize money they got after placing third in an international startup competition The website is thus still largely a DIY venture with the four teammates pooling in their individual expertise But even as it remains a small step forward for Indian indie the best option for the quartet is to just keep walkingCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news current affairs from Mumbai local news crime news and breaking headlines hereDownload the new midday Android and iOS apps to get updates on all the latest and trending stories on the go