MUMBAI: Indie music’s popular portal Myband.co.in was recently in the news for tying up with leading venues across the country to launch MyBand Nights which aimed at promoting indie bands.
The website has now gone a step ahead and added a new feature which allows users to upload their tracks, price them, and sell. So far, some 800 bands have been registered at the site.
Speaking about the purpose of having started this service, Myband founder Debashis Dey says, “All bands aspire to cut an album, but in the present scenario which is dominated by bollywood music, indie bands can’t expect labels and radio stations to promote their music – our idea to add this feature was to get rid of all the mediators and let bands price their music and sell it online.” However, the pricing done by the bands have not been realistic with bands selling their albums for as much as $10. On this, Dey says, “We’ll soon be sending out mailers to our users and ask them to price it more realistically.”
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Myband would be utilising 5-10 per cent of the revenues they earn to maintain their secure servers and cover transaction costs. Bands can either sell their tracks as singles or compile it as albums. With phisical sales hitting an all time low, he is optimistic that digital sales are going to grow, “In Asia, so far, Korea has witnessed the largest number of digital music downloads, the next country will be India,” he says
The new feature is not an revenue earning stream maintains Dey, “We make money out of events, branding and other sponsorships,” he says. Without naming any brands, Dey says, “Key investors have been telecomm brands, top youth brands, beverage and mobile handset manufacturers.” Speaking exclusively about an upcoming project, Dey says, “We will soon be organizing a concert featuring top ten upcoming bands with headlining acts like Euphoria and Soulmate in Hyderabad this coming September.”
