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Tag: music

  • RahmanIshq music smartphones launched by Celkon Mobiles

    RahmanIshq music smartphones launched by Celkon Mobiles

    MUMBAI: Celkon Mobiles has unveiled its latest offering, ‘RahmanIshq’ series phone at the announcement launch in Kolkata. The highlight of the event comprised of the novel use of augmented technology with the very first of its kind 4D holographic launch of RahmanIshq smartphone-AR45. The event was graced by the Oscar winning music maestro, A.R. Rahman, Celkon Mobiles chairman and MD Y Guru and Celkon Mobiles ED Murali Retineni.

    Commenting on the launch and association with RahmanIshq Guru said, “We are committed to our promise of extending unparalleled services to millions of consumers across the country. Partnering with the ‘Mozart of Madras’ for RahmanIshq is a noteworthy achievement for the company. We are proud to share that our customers can also enjoy the special tune composed by the veteran himself for RahmanIshq that will be used extensively for the RahmanIshq smartphones. Affordable innovation is the genesis of RahmanIshq. We at Celkon Mobiles would continue to build on our promise to efficiently deliver to our consumers with novelties that directly cater to their needs.”

    Chief Guest of the event, A.R. Rahman said, “I always believe that technology is very important in the world of music. RahmanIshq stands testimony to this and is a concept dedicated to spreading awareness of how technology needs to blend seamlessly with music for optimum output.  It is wonderful to partner with such an innovative brand for my first road tour. Thank you for all the support extended.”

    Epitomising sleekness and simplicity with AR45 is one of the smartphones from the ‘RahmanIshq’ series from Celkon Mobiles. It supports 4.5 inch display with Android Jelly Bean 4.2.2 OS and 1.2 GHz dual core A7 processor. AR45 comes with dual speakers with K-class amplifier to give its users a never before musical experience.

    Equipped with a 5MP rear camera with a smile detector, AR455 promises the users an outstanding shooting experience. Another innovative feature is Shake & Transfer, which enables the users to experience the data transfer with just a shake in no time, could be the most fastest and smartest ever data transfer App enabled on a smartphone.

    Apart from 3G, video calling and 4GB ROM, AR45 supports the interactive gaming, in which two people can play games like Soccer or ice-hockey with each other. It also has a customised music player to give the user an enhanced musical experience with multiple preset equaliser option. Celkon Mobiles for the first time in India has leveraged on the customisation of Android O.S and built a new user interface to get a different look and feel to the way contacts, messages and call log are viewed and also many more features like power-saver, data meter and security center are added as a bonus feature. A variety of themes are enabled in the handset while unlimited themes are also available for download by the user.

    AR45 would be available October onwards for Rs 7,999 at all leading retail outlets.
    Elaborating on the product Retineni said, “With the launch of RahmanIshq series, we are raising the bar for affordable innovation especially for the music lovers. AR45 has a full display touch screen and a 5MP rear camera with a novel feature of smile detector. RahmanIshq smartphones are power packed with pre-installed A.R. Rahman’s chartbusters.”

    The series launch was to mark the commencement of the global tour of the music legend, A.R. Rahman, a unique road tour where music meets technology that the world icon will embark upon after 20 years.

  • Salman to launch Salman Khan Productions

    Salman to launch Salman Khan Productions

    Salman Khan is all set to take his stardom to another level. Word has it that he will soon launch his own production house Salman Khan Productions with a remake of Subhash Ghai’s Hero, which had launched Jackie Shroff’s career as a leading man.

     

    With this project, Salmaan would finally stem into independent production house separate from the film produced by his two brothers.

     

    We all are aware that Sohail and Arbaaz have their own production houses. While Salman would remain closely associated with his brother’s production, he would now launch his own production house Salman Khan Productions with a remake of Hero. Salman secured the remake rights from his friend Subhash Ghai almost a year back and confided in him that he would start this venture with Hero.

    Salman has also asked Subhash Ghai to compose the music of the new-millennium Hero. Ghai has agreed to officially turn composer. (A lot of Ghai’s music in the past was ghost-composed by him).

  • Shuddh Desi boy to now play lead in YRF & Shekhar Kapur’s Paani

    Shuddh Desi boy to now play lead in YRF & Shekhar Kapur’s Paani

    The hunt for the male lead in Paani is over! Close on the heels of his outstanding performance in Shuddh Desi Romance, both Shekhar Kapur and Aditya Chopra had no hesitation in confirming Sushant Singh Rajput to play the lead in their upcoming flick Paani.

     

    According to Kapur, Sushant is one of the most inspiring young actors to emerge out of India. “It’s going to be exciting director-actor collaboration with him in Paani.”

    The film is based in a future world where war over water has broken out. Water is now owned by international corporations who use thirst as a weapon of control. In one such future city, a young love story breaks all the rules and in the ensuing war, water flows back to its people.

     

    The film will have a strong Indian and western star cast. Sushant will be joined by a young leading actress from the west.

     

    The film, produced by Aditya Chopra and directed by Shekhar Kapur, will be shot in India and overseas. Music will be by A. R. Rahman.
    Paani goes on floor mid-2014.

  • YouTube signs international licensing deal with PRS for Music

    YouTube signs international licensing deal with PRS for Music

    MUMBAI: The multi-territory license covers the use of music by the 100,000-plus musicians represented by PRS for Music in videos streamed on the platform. This includes official music videos, live footage, soundtracks and user generated content.

     

    The license also includes the rights to tracks available through PRS for Music’s pan-European licensing initiative, the Independent Music Publishers’ European Licensing (IMPEL).

     

    Artists available through the IMPEL initiative include David Bowie, Justin Timberlake, Lou Reed and Goldie.

     

    The new license agreement is one of the most extensive yet, covering more than 130 territories across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

     

    PRS for Music first licensed YouTube in 2007, one of the first copyright collection societies outside the US to do so.

     

    This initial license finished at the end of 2008, with a new deal not being signed until September 2009 due to lengthy renegotiations between the companies.

     

    Disagreements during negotiations resulted in YouTube blocking UK viewers’ access to thousands of music videos on the site between March and September 2009.

     

    PRS Music chief executive Robert Ashcroft said: “Streaming is a key growth area for PRS for Music, helping drive our online revenues to over ?50 million in 2012. YouTube’s vast reach around the world offers our publishers and songwriters a unique stage and music lovers’ access to millions of songs.”

     

    “The issue of remuneration from streaming services remains a key one for our members, and the further evolution of our licensing relationship with YouTube will help ensure continued growth in royalties for our members from one of the world’s leading video platforms,” Ashcroft added.

     

    In July, statistics published by PRS for Music and music and entertainment strategists FRUKT revealed that big brands invested a record ?100 million on music in 2012.

     

    Artist endorsements, such as Mastercard and Emile Sande at the Brit Awards, brought in ?4.5 million, a 33 per cent increase in brand spend from the previous year.

     

    Digital spend reached ?10.4 million thanks to campaigns including YouTube’s LoveLive channel and the launch of the new Spotify app.

     

    Live music sponsorship, meanwhile, accounted for the largest share of the market at 35 per cent, netting over ?33 million.

  • Smartube Entertainment launches trendspotters.tv

    Smartube Entertainment launches trendspotters.tv

    MUMBAI: Now track trends across all genres online with www.trendspotters.tv. This online channel launched by Smartube Entertainment comprehends trends from fashion and lifestyle to business, politics, sports, music, gadgets and much more.

    The inauguration took place at APREE 2013 at Riviera De Goa, a three day event which kick-started today and will be on till 25 August. APREE is an annual interactive knowledge exchange platform that brings advertising, PR, entertainment and event management companies together on one platform for social and business networking.

    www.trendspotters.tv founder Kunal Kishore Sinha elaborated, “APREE has achieved immense credibility over the past few years and is a buzzing congregation of industry experts, marketing geniuses and thought leaders. We could not have asked for a better platform than this to unveil the first look of trendspotters.tv. APREE has always given special emphasis to emerging social media and we are confident of trendspotters.tv becoming a significant part of this social media gamut. ”

    The website is a medium for bringing the next generation trends and talents to light, especially for the upwardly mobile audience. It brings out a cluster of micro trends every day for the new age audience who take inspiration from out-of-the-ordinary discoveries.

    Expressing excitement on the launch he said, “We are glad to launch India’s first digital TV which promises to be an exciting platform for next generation consumers. In the initial phase, we have launched trends for music, fashion and entertainment, and going ahead, we will be extending content pertaining to sports, advertising and consumer technology.”

  • Where Advertising Can’t, Content Can: Vinit Karnik National Director, Sports and Live Events of GroupM ESP

    Where Advertising Can’t, Content Can: Vinit Karnik National Director, Sports and Live Events of GroupM ESP

    Marketers for brands, consumer products, retail chains, media and entertainment are struggling to redefine and reinvent “advertising” for a new generation of empowered consumers.

    Media proliferation and fragmentation is making it harder to reach consumers with traditional formats of “interruption” advertising. New technologies, media platforms and consumer behaviors are affecting every aspect of traditional marketing and thereby dramatically impacting marketing effectiveness.

    There is a strong need to create “engagement” advertising models with digital at the core which will facilitate more sophisticated, powerful and profitable connections between brands, content creators and their target audiences….

    There is a strong need to create “engagement” advertising models with digital at the core which will facilitate more sophisticated, powerful and profitable connections between brands, content creators and their target audiences.

    Internationally, the content-commerce partnership evolution is gathering momentum. Brand entertainment partnerships are changing the rules of developing creative campaigns, marketing and advertising planning and production.

    In response to these challenges, GroupM India launched GroupM ESP to help brands harness the power of content based solutions by activating the power of movies, music, sports, live, celebrities and characters.

    GroupM ESP specialises in evaluating, negotiating, developing, activating and measuring strategic content platforms and partnerships around movies, music, sports, celebrities and characters. Uniquely positioned at the intersection of the media and the sports and entertainment industries, the ESP teams focus on developing innovative content strategies and solutions with a digital core that embed advertiser’s brands in consumer passion points using multimedia leverage and multifaceted partnerships.

    GroupM ESP also works closely as a high end consultant with clients and rights owners to help create and own multi-media content assets of long term value and their exploitation through media distribution, marketing, licensing and retailing to build deeper and more valuable connections with consumers.

    The Indian entertainment and sports market, the largest in the world by size, offers advertisers and their brands, unique and multiple passion points to reach and engage target audiences with profitable and proven content solutions, embracing all the learnings from traditional media and advertising. New technologies and new channels incorporating licensing need to be harnessed creatively using insights with marketing ROI rigorously quantified.

    The Indian entertainment and sports market, the largest in the world by size, offers advertisers and their brands, unique and multiple passion points to reach and engage target audiences…

    The GroupM ESP content team comprises more than 50+ specialists (the largest for any advertising or media agency in India) has been providing end-to-end solutions for over a decade now. Known for its transparent dealings, easy and preferred access to content and talent (International, National and Regional), GroupM ESP is also able to seamlessly deliver the benefits of parent GroupM media volumes, relationships and specialist units backed by robust systems and processes. All this has been recognised through more than 50 awards at various industry and company platforms.

    Through its high profile alliances and partnerships with content creators, rights owners and talent across every domain and geography, the GroupM ESP team is able to offer expanded capacity and capability to handle complex projects smoothly.

    As we move from a decade of “Airing” to “Sharing”, digital needs to be at the core of any marketing program and the GroupM ESP team is adequately equipped to impart a strong digital dimension in all its projects. An in-house ESP digital team backed by the parent GroupM resources ensures that solutions are digitally centered and executed.

    More than 100 advertisers in India have benefited from their association with GroupM ESP.

  • All Time Bollywood Hits Channel – 9X Jalwa and India’s first Marathi Music Channel – 9X Jhakaas, are now available on Airtel digital TV

    All Time Bollywood Hits Channel – 9X Jalwa and India’s first Marathi Music Channel – 9X Jhakaas, are now available on Airtel digital TV

    MUMBAI: 9X Media’s all time Bollywood Hits channel 9X Jalwa and Marathi music channel 9X Jhakaas will now be available on Airtel digital TV on channel number 389 and 547 respectively. Customers can easily subscribe to the channels by sending an SMS <ADD 389> and <ADD 547> to 54325 from their registered telephone number (RTN).

    Launched on 25th February 2012, 9X Jalwa is the most preferred destination for all time Bollywood Hits. The Channel is widely available across cable and satellite homes and is also streamed LIVE across digital platforms including the Channel’s website – www.9xjalwa.in. 9X Jalwa promises the best of music, maximum nostalgia and maximum humor.

    9X Jhakaas is India’s First Marathi Music Channel airing the best of Marathi film and non-film songs. The Channel is streamed LIVE across digital platforms including the Channel’s website – www.9xjhakaas.in and on the Mobile platform; besides being available across the cable and satellite homes.

  • How T-Series hit a Billion views on YouTube

    How T-Series hit a Billion views on YouTube

    It’s India’s No 1 music company. Now it has also got the nametag of becoming a YouTube billionaire. T-Series‘ Youtube channel crossed the billion views milestone in just a span of two years since it took the digital route. Some 2.3 million subscribers helped it get there.

    So what is it with T-Series’ YouTube initiative that has struck a chord with the digital generation? Let’s take a look:

    It’s content, content, content

    For starters, its got the most massy content – music of the biggest films out there on its mainstream Bollywood Channel, Take a look at what visitors get to consume on the T-Series home page: the music, trailers of Aashiqui 2, Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, Fukrey, Lootera, Chennai Express, Policegiri and Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai Dobaara. Can you get more popular content than that?

    India‘s music king Bhushan Kumar has a billion reasons to celebrate

    T-Series has over the 30 years of its existence spent top-dollar to acquire the rights to the music of some of Bollywood’s biggest blockbusters. The music of this huge catalogue has also been ported on to its YouTube channels, making for a treasure trove for music lovers.

    Then the T-Series Youtube presence is marked by many sub-channels like Apna Punjab for Punjabi Pop, Hamaar Bhojpuri for Bhojpuri content, Bhakti Sagar for spiritual music, Pop Chartbusters for Indipop videos, Shabad for Punjabi Devotional content, Bollywood Classics for 1980‘s and 1990‘s content, regional music channels and channels dedicated to full length Bollywood movies and Indian classical music.

    Though some of these channels don’t get humungous views, they go to service the long tail of consumers and cumulatively add up to large numbers.

    “These are targeted at niche audiences and we are really happy the way they have panned out. Hamaar Bhojpuri has seen really exciting numbers and has been getting views from as far as Argentina, Brazil, Germany and Middle East,” explains T Series president Neeraj Kalyan who looks after the label’s digital initiatives.

    Ok, it’s not just the content, it’s what you do with it, that counts

    “We experiment with our content and try to learn from our audiences which in turn help us improve ourselves,” explains Kalyan. “Nothing is fixed like a normal brand page of a mobile company or a cosmetic product, our product is music which is very personal and has the highest level of emotional connect with the consumers. Content programming on social media is as important as it is for television or radio.”

    T-Series’ endeavor with YouTube has always been to improve consumer interaction and make it it more interesting and engaging. Hence, it has innovative concepts like Audio and Video Jukeboxes, Bollywood Twisters, Lyrical Videos, Song of the Day and Fan of the week, which lures consumers into coming back.

    What else does it focus on? “Metadata building, tags, annotations, SEO are all standard procedures and needs constant focus to succeed in this space,” says Kalyan.

    “These require tremendous perseverance and have to be build up step by step.”

    Ok, you have played with the content. Now you have to promote it like hell using other social media where you have diehard fans.

    T-Series has a strong presence on other social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter and G+. Its official Facebook page has 608,436 likes and hundreds of thousands of visitors at any time talking about the channel and its music. On Twitter, T-Series has around 19,627 active followers. @TSeries is buzzing with tweets and re-tweets every couple of hours. The numerous fan-driven handles of its popular movies are busy re-tweeting and sharing every update, thus adding to the social buzz – and the traffic thereof. Then it has 1.5 million people in its G+ circles, a sizeable number no doubt.

    “Social media is not like old school media, it’s a more personal medium which is primarily driven by peer activities, their likes and dislikes and if one has to enter their personal space one has to become their friends instead of a brand page. The prime focus of our strategy is to make friends instead of likes, subscriber or followers on our social media accounts.” Kalyan reveals.

    Then the T-Series digital team changes its social messaging strategy as per its content offerings. And it uses the entire strength of its social media to promote each major piece of content. For example, for a Salman Khan film, the entire social plan revolves around Salman Khan. And the zillions of tweets, updates, pictures, videos all cumulatively work to create even more buzz adding to the views.

    Work with Youtube, and get it to push your content

    By virtue of its being one of the larger players on YouTube in India, T-Series content, from time to time gets the nudge from the latter’s content team led by Manan Singhi in India. What that means is that, when visitors log on to the YouTube home page they are given prompts to visit the T Series channel as it is listed as among the more viewed ones.

    Build a digital team

    Kalyan personally supervises T-Series’ dedicated in-house digital team – though small – of around eight to 10 people. The average age is about 25-26 years, while Neeraj is 44. Says he: “T-Series’ digital team has been the winning mantra for us and will always

    The T-Series digital team is constantly on the go to keep visitors and viewers of its social media outlets engaged

    remain at the core of this success. We have genre specific experts managing all our channels and are currently busy with audience building for the niche channels. Our team interacts with fans on an every day basis; gives regular response to their queries, accepts criticism. We reward fans and recognize them online, which adds to their pride and improves interaction and helps in building a strong brand – consumer relationship.”

    The one billion views achievement has already got him praise from an effervescent T-Series chairman & managing director Bhushan Kumar.

    T-Series‘ digital driver Neeraj Kalyan

    “I would like to dedicate this success to all our fans all over the world that have helped us reach this milestone. I would like to congratulate my entire in-house digital team and the YouTube team for this tremendous feat. We look forward to achieving greater heights with our dedication and passion to offer quality content and experience to our discerning consumers worldwide,” says he.

    Kalyan says the past two years of T-Series’ association with YouTube have been a great learning and he hopes to put those learnings to help T-Series leapfrog further. “We will get to our next billion in double quick time,” he says. “I am sure we will.”

    With that kind of confidence, he well might.

  • PK Online launches Hello1.in

    PK Online launches Hello1.in

    MUMBAI: Digital media company PK Online has launched Hello1.in, a content distribution product. The product which is accessible on multiple devices like feature phones, smart phones, PC and smart TV, currently features Live TV, Movies, Music, Apps, and Games. The portal in future will include eBooks and magazines.

    Hello1.in currently supports both, pay per use/download and subscription based services. This service is on self developed content delivery platform. PK online earlier has also been behind many successful content distribution products like Hello TV and also runs Adchakra which is a cross channel ad network.

    PK‘s ad network business complements this initiative by acting as the audience acquisition engine for the service. Their current content partner include leading players like Zee, Universal, UTV, Reliance and Times Music and is looking at adding more Indian and international partners. The real time and transparent revenue reporting feature enables content partners to stay updated on the performance of their catalog.

    Hello1‘s monetisation strategy is based on operator distribution and direct to consumer model. It is currently integrated with leading operators like Vodafone, MTNL and Idea as an off deck service and is open to license the platform to content owners who want to set up their own digital destination.

    The company is also looking to capture audiences using the social platform. Keeping this in mind, Hello 1 has its presence even on Facebook and users can directly register on Hello1‘s FB application http://goo.gl/V4okL.

    Other than this the company also plans tie ups with all leading ISPs, MSOs and Mobile operators to offer consumers to pay through operator accounts in coming months. The other important features about this new media innovation is that it is a one stop destination for all types of digital content with a single account and subscription for all devices, a digital cloud based Vault for re-downloads, an automatic device adaptation for seamless rendering across 7000 feature phone models and it is a native app for Android and iOS.

    Commenting on their latest project, PK Online co-founder and VP Cauvery Adiga said, ‘We are trying to bring all our learning in one comprehensive product which provides a good user experience and ease of payment to end users. Hello1.in aims to be the choice of destination for ‘legal and paid‘ consumption of digital content by enabling micro-transaction for Indian market.”