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Tag: Satya Raghavan

  • Qyuki and A. R. Rahman launch Jammin on YouTube

    Qyuki and A. R. Rahman launch Jammin on YouTube

    MUMBAI: YouTube is a global platform for independent media artists and many have achieved star status driving millions of views everyday. In India, Qyuki a leading creator focussed multi-platform media company today unveiled Jammin’, a unique digital collaboration between YouTube’s leading music creators and bollywood’s iconic composers including Grammy and Academy Award Winner A. R. Rahman, Salim-Sulaiman, Clinton Cerejo and Mithoon.

    Jammin – presented by Airtel and Signature, will bring together YouTube’s top musical talent SANAM, Shraddha Sharma, Siddharth Slathia,Jonita Gandhi, Arjun Kanungo, Maati Baani, Sanah Moidutty, Raaga Trippin and Mumbai’s Finest collaborating with four of Bollywood’s most accomplished music composers to create ten original soundtracks and music videos.

    The first music video is scheduled to release on 19th August, with a new original music video releasing every week thereafter, culminating into a mega live concert at the NSCI Dome in Mumbai on 11th November. All the music video’s will be curated on the Jammin’ channel on YouTube.

    Speaking about Jammin’, Co-founder and MD of Qyuki, Samir Bangara, said, “Jammin’ represents Qyuki’s vision of empowering creators to challenge the status quo. We are super stoked to launch the first ever mega collaboration between the world of Bollywood and YouTube stars and are grateful for YouTube’s backing to make this one of the biggest musical properties to be launched in India”

    Speaking at the launch of Jammin’, co-founder of Qyuki and India’s music maestro, A. R. Rahman said, “YouTube has created an amazing platform for artists to reach their audiences, and independent creators need the backing of a partner to bring discoverability and scale to their talent. Through Jammin’ I am glad Qyuki is being able to be that true partner to creators and bring them on a level playing field with mainstream music.”

    Speaking about Jammin’, YouTube in India head of entertainment Satya Raghavan said, “There has never been a better time to be an Independent artist on YouTube. Some of these artists posted their first video from their bedrooms and today it’s really exciting to see Qyuki bring India’s most popular music composers to work together with these talented creators on a canvas as large as Jammin’. We hope this will inspire many more talented artists in the country to start their journey on YouTube and find success.”

  • Kyoorius Designyatra kicks off with IAA Kyoorius Digiyatra, 2015

    Kyoorius Designyatra kicks off with IAA Kyoorius Digiyatra, 2015

    MUMBAI: Kyoorius Designyatra being held from 10th until 12th September, 2015 concluded the first day dedicated to digital – IAA Kyoorius Digiyatra, 2015.
     

    The third edition of IAA Kyoorius Digiyatra brought together some of the world’s most influential experts to showcase the future of digital and explore this year’s theme, ‘What pumps your heart’.

     
    As digital marketing has grown to be one of the most effective platforms to create brand awareness and brand engagement, this day dedicated to the digital age brought together industry stalwarts who participated in talks, workshops and breakout sessions.
     

    Moderated by Laura Jordan Bambach (Mr President) and Kevin Finn (TheSumOf), the day of talks explored the immense and untapped possibilities in the digital space, and many of the speakers touched on ways in which it can touch people’s lives and make them a little easier. Nick Law kicked off the day, explaining R/GA’s model of combining narratives with systematic thinking, or data and story to create impactful campaigns. Daan Lucas and Mike Pelletier (Random Studio) wowed the audience with beautiful imagery and installations created for brands that combine art, technology and design. Laura Jordan Bambach followed with her philosophy on how to keep work interesting rather than following the norms. She touched on Mr President’s take on social media through the Bacardi campaign.

     
    Satya Raghavan (YouTube) entertained audience’s post-lunch with his insights into what people are really watching online. In a special session called “What can digital do?”, Mukesh Jha and Janardan Prasad, co-founders of Autowale, showed us how an app can provide a sustainable income to rickshaw drivers. Nishant Patni, founder of CultureAlley talked about his app, Hello English, which is teaching millions of Indians how to speak English by localizing the experience for different languages and contexts. Lydia Winters from Mojang, makers of the incredibly successful game, Minecraft, talked about how the game is building communities online and effecting change in real life, through their collaboration with UN Habitat, Block by Block.
     

    John McHale took the audience through his journey from college football to band member to designer and the four pillars that keep him inspired.

     
    IAA Kyoorius Digiyatra will be followed by Kyoorius Designyatra from 11th and 12th September, 2015, which culminates with the 2015 Kyoorius Design Awards on the 12th evening.
     

    Rajesh Kejriwal, Founder CEO of Kyoorius, commented, “We had a packed house on the first day at IAA Kyoorius Digiyatra, both intellectually and at the conference. Delegates will hopefully leave today with many ideas and insights on how to make the most of digital, and one of the themes today was the need to humanize it and bring it into the physical world. I’m looking forward to the next two days ahead, with many more great ideas to come as we continue our 10th Anniversary festivities.”

  • 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”.

     

  • Star Gold announces social project ‘Rang De Basanti Salaam’

    Star Gold announces social project ‘Rang De Basanti Salaam’

    MUMBAI: After last year’s Project Swades, Star Gold has announced its flagship social initiative for the year, Rang De Basanti Salaam. The project is aimed at rewarding those ordinary people, who might be strangers to us but have kept the spirit of heroism alive.

    Rang De Basanti Salaam will honour those unsung heroes who have risen above and beyond their everyday lives. It will honour individuals whose actions have impacted their community at large. The initiative salutes individuals who reached out to touch another person’s life and unknowingly changed it forever, states an official release.

    Star India, Marketing, Satya Raghavan says, “India in the last year has faced a number of catastrophes. The country has emerged as a winner against terror and attacks. We have proved to the world that we as people have enough of compassion and humanity to wash away the trauma and suffering. All of this would not be possible without the support of fearless and undaunted people, which Star Gold acknowledges though the Rang De Basanti Salaam.”

    Kicking off the initiative, Star has invited entries from individuals who know of unsung heroes under the age of 30 from 22 August 2006. Entries can be sent in by telephone Landline BSNL- 1255578, Mobile BSNL – 127827, or by logging on to www.Indya.com. The last date for entries is 3 September 2006. A panel of judges will select 10 most impactful entries, informs the release.

    Star Gold will telecast a special episode narrating these 10 stories. Viewers from all over the country can give their respect to the unsung heroes via SMS. The money collected from all the SMS received will be equally divided between the 10 heroes. The initiative will culminate with the telecast of Rang De Basanti on the channel on 2 October.ks India (SPN) realigns key portfolios