MUMBAI: MySpace unveiled Music Central – a social music portal in India for independent music genre.
This new portal has been designed to be a one-stop shop for discovery of all kinds of Indian non-mainstream music – including Rock, Pop, Classical, Electronica, Sufi, Folk, Heavy Metal, Bhangra etc.
While Music Central aims at creating a platform for the well known and the unknown musicians in our country, it eventually hopes to be seen as a bountiful resource that record labels can tap to discover fresh talent.
MySpace India country manager Hari V Krishnan says, "We are excited to bring this platform which is meant to exclusively promote non-film, independent Indian music. While we will continue to partner with Indian film-makers, we saw the need to create a one-stop-shop for all the other genres of music that Indians produce. With hordes of carnatic, folk, sufi, bhangra, jazz, electronica, rock and pop music on MySpace India already, we built the site to shine a spotlight on our domestic talent. This is for the world to see, enjoy and interact with. The site with all its "social" tools like sharable streaming music, exhaustive music event calendar, user uploaded concert pictures and more will be launched at our first Secret Show in Mumbai on 29 May."
The Featured Artist of the Month section showcases the big daddies of Indian alternative music. This monthly feature will let fans ‘friend’ and learn more about their favorite artist. At the same time, they give online support to the Featured Artist as well. The very first Featured Artist of the Month is AVIMA-award winning band MOTHERJANE (Best Asian Rock Act 2009) who will also be performing at the MySpace Secret Show in Mumbai.
To aid discovery of the up and coming local musicians, the You Oughta Know segment will introduce hidden talent from across the country to the world. Artists featured on You Oughta Know also get a chance to compete in the Secret Face Off arena- an online poll between new bands and artistes, where users get to select who they want to listen to at the next ‘MySpace Secret Show’ gig in India.
Users can also download wallpapers and other content from their favourite bands; stream and listen to music and share their most precious ‘music moments’ with fellow MySpacers through the "Upload Pics" option, thus making Music Central a true social portal. One unique feature is the users have the ability to add songs to their profile with the click of a button. This social sharing of music eases distribution of the streaming content, and is responsible for the runaway success of artists made big on MySpace such as Sean Kingston and Lily Allen.
Music Central offers a complete directory of Indian artists showcasing talent from all across India. True music enthusiasts will now get a chance to appreciate upcoming Indian music artists across a host of genres that are not easily accessible otherwise.
The music resource also shares tips and notes on how bands and artistes on the site can make the most out of their own MySpace experience. Profile creation is just the first step of gaining mileage; other options such as fan clubs, online music uploads at zero cost etc. make their MySpace profiles an indispensable tool in their pursuit of ‘making it big’.
