[App Fridays] How Artist Aloud helps upcoming musicians hit the right note to find their fanbase

After operating for six years in the music space, Artist Aloud launched a mobile app to help aspiring artistes and producers reach out to customers who want to discover music and musicians before they are famous.  

“Today, nobody supports or promotes the independent artiste and, as a consequence, good talent suffers,” believes legendary singer Asha Bhosle. Hence she is happy that Artist Aloud, a platform for upcoming artistes exists and gives them her ‘aashirwad’ on the company’s testimonial page.

Here is the story of Artist Aloud, which aims to help aspiring artistes reach the big leagues.

Story so far

ArtistAloud.com was launched in 2009 as a digital distribution platform for unreleased music created by upcoming artistes. The mobile app and website currently houses original music from over 300 new solo artistes and bands and has music from several genres, ranging from alternative pop, fusion, English and Hindi rock to Bollywood pop and classic Indi-pop. The content is available in languages like English, Punjabi, Gujarati and Bengali.

The venture is funded by Hungama Digital Media Entertainment and is a wholly owned brand under it.Talking to YourStory, Soumini Paul, Vice President, Artist Aloud, noted that while a decade ago people were new to the concept of buying music online, the scenario has changed drastically now. Rise of music streaming apps have given users access to a wide variety of music. Artistes, on the other hand, have more avenues to get discovered and build their fan following.

Soumini noted that over the last six years, Artist Aloud has been working on creating digital properties and also popularising offline events, like music festivals and events. But the main goal is to be a launchpad for upcoming unsigned artistes to gain a footing in the industry and also get feedback on their music.

Artist Aloud currently has a six-member team that takes care of end-to-end operations. The venture aims to bring out upcoming talents, promote and distribute their music digitally and also across offline platforms through strategic partnerships with brands like Hard Rock Cafe, LA Calling and events like World Music Day. The platform also releases original works by already established and popular artistes like A.R. Rahman, Sonu Nigam, Salim–Sulaiman, Kavita Seth, Parikrama, Euphoria, Neeti Mohan, Tochi Raina, etc.

How Artist Aloud works

Artist Aloud’s objective is to be a freely accessible platform for independent artistes to showcase their talent and create visibility for themselves, without losing the copyrights. So, the platform plays the role of a curator and handpicks the best content for the fans.

With features on their app and website customised to serve fans, artistes, producers and labels, it aims to serve all parties involved, from music creation to consumption.

a)Artistes can

-Create a fanbase and update them about their latest releases and gigs

-Get featured and get discovered amongst the best talent.

-Collaborate – A feature that enables an artiste collaborate with other artistes and producers for projects.

-Get booked for gigs- Artist Aloud functions as an in-built booking agent in this regard.

-Create ‘Audio Rooms’ and invite fans to explore their latest releases.

b)Producers too have similar abilities as artistes, and can-

-Upload their content catalogue without losing exclusivity and avoiding documentation hassles.

-Create visibility for their artistes and content under their catalogues.

-Discover, follow and book other independent talent for events.

-Create Audio Rooms and invite fans to explore their library and personalised playlists.

c) The end-user experience

Artist Aloud lets users stream and download music and listen to them, online or offline and discover new handpicked artistes every week.

Some of the other features include

-Tune in to Audio Rooms hosted by artistes and also set songs as caller tunes

-Stay updated with gigs around their city.

-Connect with artistes and follow their latest activity.

-Create events and book artistes to perform at local events.

Artist Aloud’s user interface isn’t as sleek as some of the mainstream players like Gaana, Saavn or its own parent, Hungama. The quality of content and curation makes up for it though. The explore and Top 20 sections are a good way to start exploring non-Bollywood music initially. One can also use the search bar to search for specific artistes and albums.

Sector overview and future plans

With rapid adoption of smartphones in India and highly competitive data plans, music streaming services are more popular. Coming to platforms for upcoming artistws, Artist Aloud competes with Gaana Originals, which was launched recently in 2017 as a specialised platform dedicated to independent music, uninfluenced by Bollywood.

Soumini noted that the short-term goal is to reach out to more consumers and increase their user base. Users can stream music for free and also download songs for Rs 10. The platform also earns revenue from artistes who upload their content on the platform. Artist Aloud app is available across Android, iOS, Windows phones and a website. The platform has close to 25,000 installs across Android and iOS. Going forward, Soumini aims to add more features to the platform and also get more artistes and end consumers, to keep the platform growing.

Website- Artist Aloud