On a talent hunt MADHAN KARKY, 36
When the
restrictions of ‘catering’ to a mainstream music industry became more imposing than the joy of creating for it, lyricist Madhan Karky decided that there had to be a space where unrestrained independent music could be created. He declined “close to 50 projects”, in a little over a year, busy setting up this dream project with his friend Kauntheya, and called it ‘Doopaadoo’.
Being in sync
Doopaadoo is essentially a song bank, a portal where aspiring and established musicians can send their original, non-film music, which will then be shortlisted in a blind review by an expert panel and finally uploaded on to the website. Your music is up to be heard by anyone from around the world, and for every new listener you get, you get paid. “When we looked at what was working for independent music in the west that wasn’t working in India, a major problem that surfaced was piracy. Funnily enough, a music video that earned 10,000 views on YouTube, would still not be bought by less than half that number on say, an iTunes. We realised then that both the musician and the listener needed to be informed,” says Karky. He has also roped in celebrated names such as AR Rahman, Chinmayi and Santosh Narayanan to put up their own independent work on the portal.
“In the past few months, we’ve made five and a half lakh streams. We’ve lined up 200 songs for 200 days and every evening at 6 p.m., we launch a new song,” says Karky, who soon plans to bring his Doopaadoo musicians together for an online project from wherever they are, through which they can be talent-hunted by producers. All this of course, while he’s busy penning for Mani Ratnam, Shankar and SS Rajamouli’s next films.