In 2004, Steve Jobs made the world a promise. "Thousand songs in your pocket," he said, launching the iPod mini and paving the way for a digital revolution. The next year, the world got YouTube and then came more promises and promising stars. Today, one can only wonder how musicians navigate through an industry that seems so intensely saturated. A collective of artistes, performers and creators, Kommune, has a different kind of indulgence. It is not the beat or the rhythm that matters; words do.

With their latest vertical — a series called The Songwriters — the collective aims to expand the definition of storytelling. For Hari Sankar, director of the performing arts platform, the image of a storyteller is often restricted to the spoken word. Sankar, also the co-owner of Beatmap, a digital platform that connects musicians to venues in the city, noticed how difficult it was for independent artistes to get a start. "With The Songwriters, artistes will be routed to a channel and help bring them into the limelight," he explains.