MUMBAI: Day two of the India Music Week at the True School of Music (TSM) highlighted the influence of technology on the music industry- whether it was sound correction, rectifying or controlling the sound of an instrument or in a recording room.
The first session featured elite panelists like EMB director- Arnaud Monner, Astrolabe programmer- Matthieu Daffand and TSM founder and MD- Nitin Chandy and was moderated by music composer and sound designer- Jelle Visser. The topic for the hour long discussion was the influence of technology on music composition and production. Topics discussed included various aspects like the usage of gate for drums and usage of a tape, pitch correction. But perhaps the most interesting aspect discussed by Visser was how technology quickened the production process by simply having to cut and paste parts that have been reworked.
Session two talked about the impact of new technology on music distribution. The panel discussion included Red Media Consulting product manager email and community management- Kristoffer Kinder Endressen, OML Digital director- Shreyas Shrinivasan and Blue Frog Media Pvt Ltd online communications and video content manager- Shadaab Kadri and was moderated by Sameer Pitalwala. The session talked about the importance of social platforms like Youtube, Facebook, Twitter and Spotify for promoting music. One of the most important aspects touched on by the panelists was the fact that artists cannot afford to post music on one of these social networking platforms as they need to build up an audience to promote their music. The discussion concluded with the fact that although the audience is open to new genres of music, it depends on how they connect with them.
The post lunch session was moderated by Sony Music India and Middle East President- Shridhar Subramaniam, and had a panel comprising SAKIFO Records label manger- Romauld Requena, Demonic Resurrection lead vocalist- Sahil Makhija and OKListen.com founder- Vijay Basrur. The panel discussed how technology impacts distribution and shed light on the problem of the abundance of music on the internet. Requena said, "You have so many people posting their music on social platforms. The more they post their music online, the more difficult it is for audiences to find it, leaving an artiste facing the problem of plenty." The panelists underlined ways through which artists could expand their fan base. These included staying in touch with the fans and interacting with them on a regular basis and being online to make your presence felt. Talking about the recent trend for bands Requena said, "Today a band cannot be someone who just plays an instrument. Most bands have a couple of web designers, person who can talk to people or who can communicate with them regularly and one who can handle the PR." However, the members also said that social networking will not help if the music fails to please audiences. One might have 5000 fans but how many of them actually view the content uploaded by the artistes? The 45 minutes discussion was drawn to an end by saying artistes need to rely on the audience for their success and need to bring in more people.
The last session of the two-day conference was more of a workshop for artistes on how to present a cutting edge performance. The speakers included La Vapeur Club-concerts director- Fred Jumel, Astrolabe director- Fredric Robbe, Fraca-Ma project manager- Jean Noel Bigotti and Matthieu Daffaud and was moderated by TBC. The panelists showed various videos of famous artistes who used different techniques on stage to deliver sound effects, which helped connect with the audiences better. Robbe said, "All you need to do is think out of the box and it’s up to you how far you want to go to connect with the audience."
The event concluded with a performance by Spik Mac K and a few other artistes.