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Tag: Rajeshree Naik

  • Government & private initiatives required to achieve ambitious goal of Digital India

    Government & private initiatives required to achieve ambitious goal of Digital India

    MUMBAI: According to Akamai’s 2015 Asia Pacific Survey, India had the lowest average broadband speeds of 2.5 Mbps. As 3G speeds increase and 4G adoption is still nascent; the quality of internet access and affordability in terms of data tariffs and on 3G/4G enabled devices continue to remain a challenge to deliver consumer value. On the regulatory side, there have been a lot of discussions on net neutrality and licensing of OTT services. These will have a significant impact on how digital media evolves in the future.

    Sony Pictures Networks India Pvt Ltd. head – marketing & analytics, digital business Abhishek Joshi strongly believes that content is where you stream it and the government has the a say in it. “The OTT industry has graduated from the innovators stage to the early adopters stage within the innovation diffusion curve, based on distinguished product strategies by players in the market. However to cross the chasm to gain the majority market, policy makers will have to play a very big role. Infrastructure and regulatory policies are going to be the biggest differentiators for industry growth for the next 18 months.”

    While on the other hand, Ping Networks co-founder Rajeshree Naik is of the opinion that the government should not play any role in an individual’sprivacy. “That is a grey area. The government should rather focus on the infrastructure, companies coming up, partnerships, investments, etc rather than on content. Infrastructure does not bother pay because I know it is going to get better soon. The thing that scares me are the two terms related to digital i.e. no censorship and payment methods. Though, the beauty of digital is having no regulations, collective responsibility is to be taken ensuring that the government stays away.”

    Supporting Joshi on government interference was VOOT head, marketing and partnerships Akash Banerji. “Short form of content is not the solution. “These are early days for OTT in India. Players are either following the AVOD or SVOD model today. Both are profitable but for now what concerns me about the SVOD model is that why should a consumer pay for subscription when he is already paying a lot for mobile data. “

    Banerji adds, “There also is limitation of vast content on platforms. 80-90 percent of content is with the top players and a minuscule number of hours of great quality content is curated. For a new entrant for eg VOOT, it is difficult to drive money immediately after it rolled out.”

    Whereas Joshi thinks that even the consumers are not inclined to pay. “There is no inclination to pay. They will pay for content that has some value for them. They want quality content, expect HD, streamless service, etc.”

    Hungama.com COO Siddharth Roy opined that transactions have worked. “There is massive copyright infringement. The government needs to have a robust and strong IPR. Branded entertainment is the driver of this entire eco-system. Branded IP makes money.”

    “Value comes from the content and the way it is consumed. The business needs a lot of clarity. Government and all the players should work together to come to a concrete conclusion. In the end, crows is the king,” asserts Banerji.

    Naik believes that videos and original content will co-exist and that content will keep evolving.

    With global players like Netflix and Amazon Prime in India, the players present in the panel are looking forward to the global entrants. “If Netflix is a success in India, the creators will have more chance to put their content on the digital platforms. It is investing plenty on producing original content here and will be a good example. Viewers will love to pay for quality content that can entertain them.”

    Joshi is also excited with the entry of this global player and India and thinks that it is only going to be good for the business.

    Sharing his thoughts on the future of India’s burgeoning digital market, Technicolor’s country head for India Biren Ghose, in his valedictory remarks, said, “Content is assuming new life in the emerging digital economy. Technology enables innovations in imagery that could hitherto neither be produced nor consumed. FICCI and LA India Film Council need to be complimented on encouraging the conversation for the Indian agenda in this space.”

    Panelists at FICCI Knowledge Series 2016 for the Regulatory and Infrastructural Challenges for Digital Media, concluded that a combination of government and private initiatives would need to be rolled out to achieve the ambitious goal of a truly Digital India.

  • Government & private initiatives required to achieve ambitious goal of Digital India

    Government & private initiatives required to achieve ambitious goal of Digital India

    MUMBAI: According to Akamai’s 2015 Asia Pacific Survey, India had the lowest average broadband speeds of 2.5 Mbps. As 3G speeds increase and 4G adoption is still nascent; the quality of internet access and affordability in terms of data tariffs and on 3G/4G enabled devices continue to remain a challenge to deliver consumer value. On the regulatory side, there have been a lot of discussions on net neutrality and licensing of OTT services. These will have a significant impact on how digital media evolves in the future.

    Sony Pictures Networks India Pvt Ltd. head – marketing & analytics, digital business Abhishek Joshi strongly believes that content is where you stream it and the government has the a say in it. “The OTT industry has graduated from the innovators stage to the early adopters stage within the innovation diffusion curve, based on distinguished product strategies by players in the market. However to cross the chasm to gain the majority market, policy makers will have to play a very big role. Infrastructure and regulatory policies are going to be the biggest differentiators for industry growth for the next 18 months.”

    While on the other hand, Ping Networks co-founder Rajeshree Naik is of the opinion that the government should not play any role in an individual’sprivacy. “That is a grey area. The government should rather focus on the infrastructure, companies coming up, partnerships, investments, etc rather than on content. Infrastructure does not bother pay because I know it is going to get better soon. The thing that scares me are the two terms related to digital i.e. no censorship and payment methods. Though, the beauty of digital is having no regulations, collective responsibility is to be taken ensuring that the government stays away.”

    Supporting Joshi on government interference was VOOT head, marketing and partnerships Akash Banerji. “Short form of content is not the solution. “These are early days for OTT in India. Players are either following the AVOD or SVOD model today. Both are profitable but for now what concerns me about the SVOD model is that why should a consumer pay for subscription when he is already paying a lot for mobile data. “

    Banerji adds, “There also is limitation of vast content on platforms. 80-90 percent of content is with the top players and a minuscule number of hours of great quality content is curated. For a new entrant for eg VOOT, it is difficult to drive money immediately after it rolled out.”

    Whereas Joshi thinks that even the consumers are not inclined to pay. “There is no inclination to pay. They will pay for content that has some value for them. They want quality content, expect HD, streamless service, etc.”

    Hungama.com COO Siddharth Roy opined that transactions have worked. “There is massive copyright infringement. The government needs to have a robust and strong IPR. Branded entertainment is the driver of this entire eco-system. Branded IP makes money.”

    “Value comes from the content and the way it is consumed. The business needs a lot of clarity. Government and all the players should work together to come to a concrete conclusion. In the end, crows is the king,” asserts Banerji.

    Naik believes that videos and original content will co-exist and that content will keep evolving.

    With global players like Netflix and Amazon Prime in India, the players present in the panel are looking forward to the global entrants. “If Netflix is a success in India, the creators will have more chance to put their content on the digital platforms. It is investing plenty on producing original content here and will be a good example. Viewers will love to pay for quality content that can entertain them.”

    Joshi is also excited with the entry of this global player and India and thinks that it is only going to be good for the business.

    Sharing his thoughts on the future of India’s burgeoning digital market, Technicolor’s country head for India Biren Ghose, in his valedictory remarks, said, “Content is assuming new life in the emerging digital economy. Technology enables innovations in imagery that could hitherto neither be produced nor consumed. FICCI and LA India Film Council need to be complimented on encouraging the conversation for the Indian agenda in this space.”

    Panelists at FICCI Knowledge Series 2016 for the Regulatory and Infrastructural Challenges for Digital Media, concluded that a combination of government and private initiatives would need to be rolled out to achieve the ambitious goal of a truly Digital India.

  • Address the advertising challenges in the digital world to convert the non-believers

    Address the advertising challenges in the digital world to convert the non-believers

    MUMBAI: What do you do when you have a discussion to moderate, a ready panel of speakers on stage, but your audience is even less than the number of speakers? Well, you take the mike and charge forward without a care in world – not to put on a show, but because some issues need a serious, straightforward and honest discussion. The audience will definitely follow.

    That’s exactly what the charismatic chairman and MD of Grey Group India Sunil Lulla did when moderating a session on day three at FICCI Frames 2016. The topic was simple and burning — The Advertising Challenge amidst disruptive technology, digital innovations enabling targeted and smartadvertising — and Taboola APAC VP Ran Buck set the tone of the discussion with his key note on the issue. Buck shared his experiences on how the digital world behaved internationally from his experience of working with the brand discovery platform Taboola that helps advertisers find relevant end users.

    Lulla took control of discussion and the first thing he did was to throw a question at the audience – ‘How many believed that the digital medium will be the largest advertising revenue driver in the coming years?’ — to which most of  the audience responded by raising their hands. Next, he relayed an objective to the panellists — to convert all the non-believers in the room to believers by the end of the discussion. What a way to get the audience involved right from the start!

    The quickest way to get the ball rolling was to go through the panel as each one pointed out opportunities or challenges in advertising in the digital world.

    The panellists –  POKKT Video Ads CEO and founder Rohit Sharma, Zapr Media Labs co-founder Sandipan Mondal, Ping Digital Broadcast co-founder Rajeshree Naik, Vidooly founder Subrat Kar, Yahoo India MD and VP Gurmit Singh, and Adsparx CEO Kunal Lagwankar.

    Mondal, seated on the extreme end of the panel, pointed out the obvious and very straightforward reason to believe in the digital advertising boom. “It’s digital where the eyeballs are, and where more eyeballs will shift to. And advertisers follow eyeballs.” Gurmit Singh went into the details when chalking out the opportunities the digital age posed for advertisers and other stakeholders in the business. “If you follow the rate at which digital startups are being acquired by the big players and notice the value at which the deals happen, it gives you the idea how much the market analysts and value setters are betting on the digital platforms.”

    “Going forward,” Singh added, “Mobile will be the biggest traction driver and it is already going big in India. There are several stats and data to showcase the tremendous growth of the smartphone penetration in India. This will be followed by the huge video boom that again poses an awesome opportunity for brands to tap into. The other trend that will have a strong impact onadvertisers and will open up new vistas for them is native advertising.”

    Privacy right, Kar said, was currently a big challenge for digital advertisersand policy makers needed to come together and educate and come up with solutions for advertisers on this front.

    Having worked closely in the video advertising space on digital media, there was no one better than Lagwankar to shortlist the hiccups in the business currently. “Firstly,” he said, “it is a major challenge to retain the TV experience of seamless transition between content and advertising on VOD platforms. It’s not a bandwidth issue, but a design and aesthetics one.”

    “Secondly, ad-blockers take away a major chunk of the advertising revenues from publishers; and thirdly, content providers and distributors need to come up with a way to give seamless streaming of content between all platforms or screens, and address the needs of each screen individually,” Lagwankar stated.

    Being the optimist that she is, Naik stated, “Any barrier is dwarfed by the opportunities the medium offers for advertisers.” As the need of the hour was to state the barriers, Naik listed out a few as well. “We need a clear understanding of the medium. Lack of understanding such as equating views as metrics to measure reach and visibility by advertisers will set the industry crumbling faster than anything.”

    The often abused term ‘digital video measurement’ was tackled by the panel with a fresh perspective.  Advertisers have been heard citing the lack of a standard measurement of eyeballs on the digital platform as an excuse to not spend as much advertising dollars as they do on traditional media. Newspapers have distribution and sales count; TV has got BARC; what has the web got?

    “Perhaps web doesn’t need a ratings system,” came Singh’s head turning answer. “Web metrics at a large work differently, even within the different digital players. Some sites and apps use cookies and adtags to monitor and record consumer behaviour.”

    “There is also SDK code in apps that can be used to track how consumers interact with ads or record other analytics for the brands,” Sharma further accentuated the point. Hence the traditional concept of ratings might not be required for a vibrant medium like the web that has other powerful technological tools to fulfil the same need for advertisers.

    While the discussion on the stage covered everything including whether long form television ads would work on digital platform and content branding, a member from the audience got up and pointed out the ‘Skip button’, which was a problem of mammoth proportions.

    “While we all are banking on digital videos to drive ad revenue, what are we doing about the ‘skip ad’ button that is also the second most clicked button?” the panel was quizzed.

    Agreeing that traditional form of advertising would need some heavy tweaking to survive and coexist with ad blocking, Singh stated that digital medium empowered the end users to skip the ads, and further encouraged people to stay in the medium.

    It ultimately came down to how an ad was relayed to the consumer, whether it was in the viewer’s face, or packaged as good content with a value addition. After all, for a viewer, a good story was a good story, be it an ad or entertainment content.

    By the time the finishing bell rang, Lulla and the panellists had a hard time reaching the exit, as a sea of people hounded them for ‘one last question.’

  • Address the advertising challenges in the digital world to convert the non-believers

    Address the advertising challenges in the digital world to convert the non-believers

    MUMBAI: What do you do when you have a discussion to moderate, a ready panel of speakers on stage, but your audience is even less than the number of speakers? Well, you take the mike and charge forward without a care in world – not to put on a show, but because some issues need a serious, straightforward and honest discussion. The audience will definitely follow.

    That’s exactly what the charismatic chairman and MD of Grey Group India Sunil Lulla did when moderating a session on day three at FICCI Frames 2016. The topic was simple and burning — The Advertising Challenge amidst disruptive technology, digital innovations enabling targeted and smartadvertising — and Taboola APAC VP Ran Buck set the tone of the discussion with his key note on the issue. Buck shared his experiences on how the digital world behaved internationally from his experience of working with the brand discovery platform Taboola that helps advertisers find relevant end users.

    Lulla took control of discussion and the first thing he did was to throw a question at the audience – ‘How many believed that the digital medium will be the largest advertising revenue driver in the coming years?’ — to which most of  the audience responded by raising their hands. Next, he relayed an objective to the panellists — to convert all the non-believers in the room to believers by the end of the discussion. What a way to get the audience involved right from the start!

    The quickest way to get the ball rolling was to go through the panel as each one pointed out opportunities or challenges in advertising in the digital world.

    The panellists –  POKKT Video Ads CEO and founder Rohit Sharma, Zapr Media Labs co-founder Sandipan Mondal, Ping Digital Broadcast co-founder Rajeshree Naik, Vidooly founder Subrat Kar, Yahoo India MD and VP Gurmit Singh, and Adsparx CEO Kunal Lagwankar.

    Mondal, seated on the extreme end of the panel, pointed out the obvious and very straightforward reason to believe in the digital advertising boom. “It’s digital where the eyeballs are, and where more eyeballs will shift to. And advertisers follow eyeballs.” Gurmit Singh went into the details when chalking out the opportunities the digital age posed for advertisers and other stakeholders in the business. “If you follow the rate at which digital startups are being acquired by the big players and notice the value at which the deals happen, it gives you the idea how much the market analysts and value setters are betting on the digital platforms.”

    “Going forward,” Singh added, “Mobile will be the biggest traction driver and it is already going big in India. There are several stats and data to showcase the tremendous growth of the smartphone penetration in India. This will be followed by the huge video boom that again poses an awesome opportunity for brands to tap into. The other trend that will have a strong impact onadvertisers and will open up new vistas for them is native advertising.”

    Privacy right, Kar said, was currently a big challenge for digital advertisersand policy makers needed to come together and educate and come up with solutions for advertisers on this front.

    Having worked closely in the video advertising space on digital media, there was no one better than Lagwankar to shortlist the hiccups in the business currently. “Firstly,” he said, “it is a major challenge to retain the TV experience of seamless transition between content and advertising on VOD platforms. It’s not a bandwidth issue, but a design and aesthetics one.”

    “Secondly, ad-blockers take away a major chunk of the advertising revenues from publishers; and thirdly, content providers and distributors need to come up with a way to give seamless streaming of content between all platforms or screens, and address the needs of each screen individually,” Lagwankar stated.

    Being the optimist that she is, Naik stated, “Any barrier is dwarfed by the opportunities the medium offers for advertisers.” As the need of the hour was to state the barriers, Naik listed out a few as well. “We need a clear understanding of the medium. Lack of understanding such as equating views as metrics to measure reach and visibility by advertisers will set the industry crumbling faster than anything.”

    The often abused term ‘digital video measurement’ was tackled by the panel with a fresh perspective.  Advertisers have been heard citing the lack of a standard measurement of eyeballs on the digital platform as an excuse to not spend as much advertising dollars as they do on traditional media. Newspapers have distribution and sales count; TV has got BARC; what has the web got?

    “Perhaps web doesn’t need a ratings system,” came Singh’s head turning answer. “Web metrics at a large work differently, even within the different digital players. Some sites and apps use cookies and adtags to monitor and record consumer behaviour.”

    “There is also SDK code in apps that can be used to track how consumers interact with ads or record other analytics for the brands,” Sharma further accentuated the point. Hence the traditional concept of ratings might not be required for a vibrant medium like the web that has other powerful technological tools to fulfil the same need for advertisers.

    While the discussion on the stage covered everything including whether long form television ads would work on digital platform and content branding, a member from the audience got up and pointed out the ‘Skip button’, which was a problem of mammoth proportions.

    “While we all are banking on digital videos to drive ad revenue, what are we doing about the ‘skip ad’ button that is also the second most clicked button?” the panel was quizzed.

    Agreeing that traditional form of advertising would need some heavy tweaking to survive and coexist with ad blocking, Singh stated that digital medium empowered the end users to skip the ads, and further encouraged people to stay in the medium.

    It ultimately came down to how an ad was relayed to the consumer, whether it was in the viewer’s face, or packaged as good content with a value addition. After all, for a viewer, a good story was a good story, be it an ad or entertainment content.

    By the time the finishing bell rang, Lulla and the panellists had a hard time reaching the exit, as a sea of people hounded them for ‘one last question.’

  • Ping & One Network Entertainment partner to power digital video creators

    Ping & One Network Entertainment partner to power digital video creators

    MUMBAI: PING Digital Network has inked a strategic alliance with multi platform network of online video content One Network Entertainment, with a focus on the comic genre.

    As part of this alliance, the two companies will be launching a first of its kind ‘Creators Collective’ to provide creators everything to become successful publishers.

    The Creators Collective is an initiative designed for creators to produce content, collaborate with other creators and learn the art to becoming a publisher. With regular workshops by experts, sessions by and for brands, advertisers and creators, this will become a vibrant content creation hub.

    One and Ping now boast of about 10,000 sq ft of studio cum office space in Mumbai comprising creative teams, equipment with live broadcast and production facilities, and edit suites along with all the resources that creators require to showcase their talent. Inspired by the YouTube Spaces, The Creators Collective will enable talent to hone their skils & collaborate with other talent to create break through content.

    PING Network co-founder and director Rajeshree Naik said, “We are delighted to partner with One Network Entertainment to  further strengthen our proposition of being a one-stop shop for the best digital video creators in India. This alliance is also a testimony of our own DNA as creators making us the preferred platform for the creator community. Through this partnership we also add the much sought after genre of comedy to our exisiting content making it more attractive for brands & advertisers. We now become a network of over 550 channels with close to 85 million views a month bringing huge scale to the both creators & advertisers.”

    One Network co-founder Abe Thomas added, “One Network with over 70 million views and a distribution network across 20+ global video platforms, is very enthused with the synergies that we can jointly exploit with an MCN like Ping Network. We believe that through this partnership we will be able to collaborate with brands and advertisers and provide them with opportunities to interact, collaborate with a wider range of creators.”

    Ping Network co-founder & vice president  talent and acquisitions Anagha Rajadhyaksha added, “We have already had some great brainstorming sessions and look forward to the possibility of jointly creating some exciting and engaging formats. We are also looking at getting at least 100 new premium talent on line over the next six months.”

  • YouTube to launch ad free subscription based model in India

    YouTube to launch ad free subscription based model in India

    MUMBAI: Google’s popular video hosting platform YouTube has been a boon to independent content makers as it enables them to exhibit their talent to a worldwide audience. Now, in order to enhance user experience, YouTube is all set to launch a subscription based ad free model in India. According to sources close to the development, YouTube is planning to launch the innovation around mid June for Indian consumers.

     

    While viewers are offered a wide range of content on the platform, almost all content on YouTube starts with an advertisement wherein the option of skipping it is sometime available and sometimes not. Ads often pop up in the middle of the content too, which interrupts the flow of the viewers.

     

    The new subscription based ad free platform will ignite the long sustaining debate of the whether a video on demand (VOD) platform should follow the advertising or subscription based revenue model. Advertising revenue mode is directly proportional to rating and when it comes to YouTube, its views. It is often very difficult to satisfy both consumer and advertiser at the same time and hence the content and root idea behind it gets compromised.

     

    Subscription based model also has its own drawback, poor online payment infrastructure, lower number of credit or debit card holders are a few of them.

     

    Times Network CEO and MD MK Anand is of the opinion that though subscription model has a lot of positives, India is not yet ready for it. “Consumer behaviour is the biggest challenge besides payment gateway and card penetration. A huge part of digital savvy young population refrains from using card transactions for various reasons and hence at this moment advertisement revenue model is the only option. Going forward, if the number of card holders increase and the consumers behaviour towards e- transactions becomes friendlier then we may see a new revenue model emerging.”

     

    YouTube’s new offering will enable a consumer to either choose the ad free platform or stick to the available one. From content creators’ perspective, Ping Network co-founder Rajeshree Naik asserts, “The new innovation from YouTube will cater to the growing need of sophistication of a consumer. We can take example from the newly launched HD channels, the same content is available on the SD platform too but consumers are paying to get quality content. The innovation will help us satisfy more people with the content we are offering.”

     

    When asked if Ping Network will create fresh content exclusively for the paid platform, Naik adds, “Not at the moment. For now the platform will only provide better and uninterrupted viewing experience to the consumers. But going forward if the platform makes a sustainable impact creating exclusive content can be an option.”

     

    According to the 2014 KPMG report, 12 per cent of the digital ad spend mix is acquired by videos and the spend on digital video has increased by five per cent compared to 2013. When questioned whether the ad free platform from YouTube will impact advertising, Maxus South Asia head of digital Unny Radhakrishnan says, “There will not be any significant impact on advertising immediately. As per the news reports, YouTube has said that advertising will still be their core revenue. The share of consumers who will go for paid subscription will be very small initially. In the long run, this would perhaps lead to more investments and therefore increase in the quality of content and in turn paid subscription. An India roll-out of this is not expected in the near future.”

     

    It remains to be seen if the new initiative from YouTube breaks the mould and creates a new sustainable revenue model, which will satisfy both producers and consumers.

     

  • YouTube is the platform to be on, says AIB’s Tanmay Bhat

    YouTube is the platform to be on, says AIB’s Tanmay Bhat

    MUMBAI: The 6th edition of MixRadio Music Connects provided a pivotal platform for the discussion of Indian multi channel networks (MCNs) and how YouTube has helped artists in building a strong viewership, new content and audiences.  When it comes to MCNs, India has a large digital video market and the younger audiences today are more likely to watch digital videos than television.

    Moderated by Music Matters president and Branded co founder and CEO Jasper Donat, the panelists included All India Bakchod (AIB) co founder Tanmay Bhat,  Qyuki Digital Media co founder and managing director Samir Bangara, Ping Network co-founder and director Rajeshree Naik,  Digital Quotient (HT Media) business head entertainment Parmeet Lamba and YouTube India head of content operations Satya Raghavan. The session discussed the advent of MCNs and the rising players who are creating content online.

    As the co-founder of one of India’s leading YouTube channels, Bhat spoke about how it all began for him. He said, “Well, we began as a comedy podcast and then sometime last year, we started doing sketch comedy on YouTube. Our YouTube channel became the fastest growing channels in India. We now also make content for brands”.   

    Raghavan expressed that he was delighted with the fresh content emerging on YouTube. He commented, “Earlier, I used to only watch YouTube for movie trailers but all of a sudden I am finding myself watching unique content on channels like AIB. It’s truly been a fascinating year for YouTube”.  

    Speaking of the business model of YouTube, Raghavan further elaborated, “YouTube is platform where you see online videos. Advertising is our primary source of revenue and we share more than half of that with the creators”.

     
    Bangara added on the role of MCN in today’s market, “We are like the new-age label. We do what record labels did for musicians in the traditional market. Today, you do not have to be in a bar to discover new music talent. YouTube does that for you”.

    Talking about the rise of MCNs, Donat pointed out, “This is an area where there is some serious money. Companies are being bought for hundreds of millions of dollars. One of the biggest MCN deals had Disney acquiring Maker Studios for $500 million plus $400 million earn out”.

    Bangara responded, “We are in the broadcast network creation space and monetization on that is two-fold. Ad monetisation on YouTube is not sufficient. As a MCN, we bring a lot of branded content to the table. We take talent, package them and promote them to brands. Our business model is a mix of brand monetization as well as CPM ad monetisation”.

    Naik agreed with Bangara and further added, “This business is eventually going to be based on relationships. The technology platform is YouTube but the MCN is purely a service business. It’s all about understanding the ecosystem and helping the artists benefit”.

    Parmeet Lamba commented, “It is also important that we help individual artistes in monetizing and distributing their content.  In the regional space, a lot of Punjabi music has been coming up. We build talent and they become popular. There are a lot of deals and collaborations happening in the market. A lot of brands are approaching us to feature their products for the artists’ next videos. The brands offer to sponsor these artists. And with the gained popularity, these performing artists get more live gigs”.

    Elaborating on how YouTube helped him in his popularity meter, Bhat said, “When we attended the YouTube fanfest this year, it was a very overwhelming experience. People were watching us on their phones. It was a different level of engagement altogether. YouTube is the platform to be on!”

    Adding on to that, Raghavan added, “There are a lot of cover singers who are becoming popular. We also get to see original content in the music space. Being on YouTube definitely gets you more gigs and it is an amazing platform for the common man to express himself. However, one needs to constantly put up content. Fans love to see the passion you have for your craft and the engagement level needs to be high. The creator needs to be disciplined and also focus on interacting with his or her fans. 2015 is going to be the year of music!”

     While speaking on the potential of YouTubers breaking into the mainstream music scene, Naik opined, “If you were a musician about 20 years ago, you would have sung for about 5 years and then made a video. Today if you want to be a musician, you need to begin with the video. Today, you have that platform that can help you get noticed. That pretty much sums up why digital videos are so important for musicians”.