Comments (0)
News |  01 Nov 2012 17:26 |  By RnMTeam

Artist Aloud pins hopes on 'LaunchCast'

MUMBAI: Constantly aiming at providing innovative content to audience and better opportunities to artistes, Artist Aloud has successfully initiated properties like TGIRF, Rockathon and New This Week. Having experimented with the property earlier, the digital platform is all set to unveil a new version of ‘LaunchCast’ today.

Speaking about the property with Radioandmusic.com, Artist Aloud associate VP Soumini Sridhara Paul said, “Earlier we were only launching the album as a promotional tool through the property, but the concept is different now. Apart from launching the album, we will be recording and presenting it at the same time. It was a  fun idea that we shared with the artistes and they were open minded and glad to come on-board for the same. Since we will be running it for a period of six months with a gap of a fortnight for each episode, it will give us more space to talk about an artiste individually.”

The property will feature Indie artiste who will release singles/albums by playing the record live on stage. The recordings of the same will be available for music aficionados on the portal. The artistes who will release their albums through online performances include Shefali and Joe Alvares, Shweta and Shraddha Pandit, Sid Coutto, Shilpa Rao, Ankur Tewari and Raghav Sachar amongst others.

Hungama is the only sponsor for the property and boost of a strong marketing plan to monetize through LaunchCast. They also aim to target relevant sites for advertisements unlike earlier and plan to enter in a revenue sharing deal with the artistes. Claiming to be an expensive property, Artist Aloud is striving hard and is considering viable options to get reasonable returns on investment. While Youtube garners them some relief, they are also in talks with TV channels for syndication through a revenue-based model, Tata Sky and in-flight entertainment to provide the content.

Paul stated, “I feel we are going backwards with the launch as there are no sponsors, but looking ahead we have a strong marketing plan in place. You cannot build your revenue model on brands as they ride on your fame. What was important to us was that we believed in the property and created a space for new music to come out. Yes it is proving expensive but it’s a step towards growth, success and evolution. We are aiming to keep costs low and are exploring options to attain returns.”

Being a different experience with artistes doing a live recording of their soundtracks, Artist Aloud aims to extend the property in the second season with a line-up of bollywood singers who are not visible in the scene today.

Shweta and Shraddha Pandit said, “Launchcast is a great platform for both new and established artists, to showcase their talent. My sister and I were very particular about our first performance together and when we heard about LaunchCast, we knew it would be a perfect stage to launch our new album 'Sister Act' together.”

Sidd Coutto said, “There is so much talent in the independent music scene. LaunchCast showcases a live performance professionally recorded and shot. There's an audience out there that hasn't been exposed to live performances by a whole bunch of people who they now have an opportunity to watch. LaunchCast records and shoots a day's worth of performances. There's time to rehearse and rearrange songs and try something new. And an artist's performance is captured on video and audio.”

Having achieved substantial success with TGIRF season one on Big CBS Spark, the digital platform is in talks with more channels like 9XO and VH1 to expand its content across the television space. “If there is a revenue model we will consider the association. We don’t create content for others. With Big CBS Spark it was a marketing syndication but now we are looking at a revenue based model now. With 9XO and Vh1 nothing has been finalized yet as the monetary aspect is still in discussions,” she affirmed.

Moreover, Artist Aloud is building on a new WAP site and mobile application set to launch soon. It is also in the process to launch the second edition of Music Day, though the details are yet to be finalized.

Tags
Games