MUMBAI: The Indian music industry is constantly undergoing change with the help of its audience who is now open to consuming new forms of music.
As the music scene expands to incorporate more newer music and expose the Indian audiences to innovative content, most players are now aiming to expand their footprints in the business with new channels. Also amongst them is MTunes, which is slated to release around four channels in the coming year to cater to a wider range of audience.
This in turn has also provided fodder to the music television channels that are making changes in their content offering accordingly. Aiming to stay ahead in the race, pure bollywood music channel MTunes is also experimenting with its content in 2013.
Keeping in tune with its music offering philosophy, the channel recently unveiled new properties like ‘MOriginals’ and ‘Off The Record’. While MOriginals features hit bollywood songs performed in unique styles, the latter is a biopic series with a unique perspective on the life of singers and music directors. It also launched two break-free segments titled ‘Zero Break’ and ‘Back to Back’ (B2B), and is further stated to be unveiling more unique properties like MBio’, ‘MTrivia’, ‘MShots’ and more.
Speaking with Radioandmusic.com on the channel’s new offering, MTunes HD group creative director Sunil Sahjwani said, “2012 has been a creatively fulfilling year for us at MTunesHD. In the new year, fresh renditions of these existing properties and exciting new properties such as ‘MBio’, ‘MTrivia’, ‘MShots’ and ‘Back To Back(B2B)’ that deliver music like never seen before, will add spice to the channel and make the competition feel the heat.”
‘MOriginals’ commenced with the A Cappella version of the popular song ‘Ek Main aur Ek Tu’ and is set to create waves with its next – ‘Khwabon ke Parinde’. The show also aired a reprise version of the popular youth track ‘Dil Chahta Hai’ where they shot a new music video and the next track to be featured on the channel will be ‘Yunhi Chala Chal’ from the movie Swades.
On the other hand, ‘Off the Record’ kick-started with experimental composer who has attained numerous accolades recently – Amit Trivedi. The show shot on the beaches of Goa featured the composer talking about his life journey with his popular tracks running in the background. It comprised of five segments of two and a half minutes each and is roping in another popular composer Ram Sampath for its next episode. Other musicians in the fray include Vishal Dadlani, Ash King and Vishal Bharadwaj amongst others.
With so many new properties kicking in, the channel also refreshed its playlist with two break-free segments. The morning segment ‘Zero Break’ airs from 8-10am, while the evening segment ‘Back to Back’ is on from 5-7pm.
The past year too witnessed several musical initiatives being unveiled by the channel, which catered to a differentiated audience across the country. Some of its most successful shows included ‘AlterNative’, ‘On the Streets’, ‘and Trending20’, ‘AsliVoice, ‘Gig Guide’ and ‘Bollywood Top 100 of 2012’ amongst others.
“In ‘AlterNative’, we aired Gangnam Style exclusively in India. ‘On The Streets’ went on to make the common man have fun and dance to popular bollywood tracks. ‘Trending20’ is the only countdown show formulated using viewership data, while ‘AsliVoice’ introduces the video by a tete-a-tete with the singer and a few lines sung by them. We rounded up the music scene from across the country with ‘Gig Guide’ showcasing music events in key metros and a tribute to the ‘Bollywood Top100 of 2012’,” elaborated Sahjwani.