TagMuse - Giving audience to indie artists

When Derek Sivers started CD Baby - a platform for independent music artists in late 90's, it became a favorite among all. But Indians didn't have anything to rejoice for. As the Indian music scene matured gradually, players like TunePatrol, Qyuki and others came ahead to support the Indian indie music industry. However, it is still in its nascent stage and needs more supporters as well as better exposure. And to serve the same purpose, TagMuse comes to the rescue.

The number of independent artists is significantly high and getting mainstream exposure is extremely difficult without financial assistance. This is where TagMuse comes into picture. It helps you discover brilliant indie music online. TagMuse is an aggregator for independent music artists, helping them promote and distribute their music through their and other third party platforms (both website and mobile application). Another USP of TagMuse is that users can tag their friends with the song they are currently listening to. If both of them have some memories to share with that song, or if you just want your friend to listen to that song, then you can bond over a shared love of music.

TagMuse was started by four friends- Paul, a drummer at heart who takes care of Artists Acquisition, Anuj Agarwal, the business guy in charge of generating finances, Akshay Jalan, responsible for marketing and overseeing the technical aspects of the company, and Rishabh Sharma who takes care of legal and funding parts of the company.

It all started when Paul went to Berkeley College of Music in USA. There he witnessed how enormously the ecosystem nurtured the local artists and how independent artists were thus able to monetize their music. He wanted do something similar in India. Paul had been in music scene from quite a long time, He started out as a drummer and had his own band ‘Rang’. When it comes to India, more than 80% of independent artists need to depend on the other jobs for their livelihood as being able to sufficiently monetize their music is not a pragmatic possibility. The ones signed on with record labels are hardly in a better position as they do not have sufficient bargaining power. To rectify this and help local artists, Paul teamed up with his friends to launch TagMuse.

To test their idea with the market, they took online survey route to check the interest level of audiences. The positive response received was a testimony to the fact that a market was indeed required for their services. Talking about where the initial funding came from, Akshay Jalan, co-founder, says -

"We went and presented our ideas at both national (e.g., IIM-A, IIT-B, etc.) and international platforms (e.g.: Stanford, Rice university, etc.) and won many accolades and prizes which helped us generate the initial round of capital needed to kick start our venture."

At present they have an ad based revenue model for own platform and sub-licensing for other platforms like iTunes, Google Music and others. TagMuse also provides band consultancy and analytics for musicians and events (which band is popular in which location). At present they have over 120 artists on board. Their app has managed to get over 3000+ downloads in play store and 2000+ unique visitors with around 15000 hits on their website in less than 10 days of launch without any paid-up marketing.

Click here to visit TagMuse.

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