Startups for the Independent musicians/artists - TempoStand,RadioVerve and Muziboo

Startups for the Independent musicians/artists – TempoStand,RadioVerve and Muziboo

If I were to copy/paste one US product from the west, AmieStreet would be it. AmieStreet is a place for independent musicians/artists to share/upload their music, and in return AmieStreet users vote on their music. All songs start free and, as they are bought [for as low as 50 cents], the prices keep increasing. So in short, the more popular your music is, the more money you make [you get 70% of the sales].
Amie Street also holds tours/events and can be a boon for music groups to market their music.

Given the frenzy and passion in Indian crowd to showcase their talent (haven’t you seen the long queue and flowing sentiments @ Zee/Sony’s music shows?), I see a huge opportunity in this virgin/untapped market.

Lets look at options Indian Independent musicians (even amateurs) have to promote their music:

RadioVerve : Started as an aid to promote Independent music (especially Rock music), RadioVerve has come full circle and their new avatar hosts classical/konkani/Metal/ Soft rock and folk music. RadioVerve allows Independent bands/individuals to submit their music, which if selected gets a place in their Internet radio channels.

RadioVerve has it’s own limitations as one can’t download the music and the site, in general isn’t too community oriented. I believe, they have intentionally kept the site this way to focus on their niche – i.e. be a place for Independent musicians/artists to be heard. In general, the quality of songs @ RadioVerve are outstanding, professionally done and surely deserves a listen.

Muziboo

The newest entrant in the market, Muziboo is aimed at attracting the amateur crowd. The site is a part time initiative by Prateek (and his wife), and they have built few cool features (read web2.0 type) in the site – for e.g. one can share their uploaded music using widgets (i.e. javascripts).

Given that most of the other sites are for professional bands (i.e. “un-amateurs“), I strongly see a need for a platform like this which basically can target the long tail. As Prateek mentions in his email:

Its a place for amateur musicians/music learners. If you see the webspace, most of the music websites are only for professional bands. However music learners is a big market. Much bigger than the professional bands/musicians. I wanted to create a place for amateurs to hang out and share their music, get feedback and improve.

The concept behind Muziboo is very simple – upload your music (of what’er genre) and get feedback from others. I do see Muziboo getting traction in the musically passionate Indian market (they already have content from Pakistan/Brazil) and do expect great stuff from these guys.

TempoStand

Tempostand, supported by creative commons license aims to be the platform to promote Independent musicians/artists in India. Tempostand is not at all restricted to any genre of music – they have all categories that one can think of (classical/rock/hindi rock/folk/psychedelic rock (the floyds!) and much more.

TempoStand, I believe in future will allow one to download and buy the music (they have already releasd their first album). I have been following TempoStand music for the last few weeks and am very impressed with the quality – very original.

Do rock along with these sites and share your comments.

What do you think is the biggest challenge in this industry? Streaming music (over the not-so-great-Internet connection)? Lack of professional recording studios?

tags: radioverve, muziboo, tempostand, indian independent music