Last.FM – the biggest network of music fans

Last.fm is a popular Internet radio site and claims well over 30 million active users spread across the globe in over 200 countries. Last.fm builds a music profile according to the musical taste for every user by the recording details of every song the user listens to. This profile is stored in their database. The Last.fm service then serves music to the users according to taste and helps them make relationships with users of similar taste. For users outside UK, USA and Germany, the radio services are paid. Last.Fm also provides services for music labels.

Now, in addition to its service offerings Last.FM also provides services for Artists to publish their music and distribute it over the Last.FM network. As a consequence of its profiling system, the biggest benefit of publishing music is that it gets delivered to the right audience almost right away. Additionally, your music has access to a huge number of active users on the network. Last.FM also provides you with event management services so that you can organise and manage your own gigs. Add to this a detailed reporting system and a royalty program to share ad revenues generated through streaming of your music over the Last.fm network. Last.fm indeed makes for a very tempting platform for Indie Bands.

To begin your music career on Last.FM or for more details – check here: http://www.last.fm/uploadmusic

Grooveshark – for the traditional artist

Grooveshark is an online music search engine that also allows for streaming music and recommending music to your network. Even though its member-base is smaller than Last.fm (only about 500,000) and there is no profiling system in place, grooveshark still streams well over 50 million songs per month to its users. Groovesharks is a rich internet application with twitter like functionalities for following members.

Groovesharks also provides services for indie bands. As a Grooveshark Artist, You can upload your music and share it with the users on Grooveshark. In addition to its user base with features like TinySong and Twisten.fm you can share your music even across platforms. Additionally, Grooveshark provides licensing services so that your music is always protected, plus the ability to sell your own merchandise as well. There is an extensive range of services for Indie artists here – the ability to get your music studio mastered by Grooveshark, or get independent reviews, get remixed or distributed through RouteNote. Grooveshark, also, provides Bandcamp (our third tool) integration for selling your music. Another exiting range of services is to expose your music to the music industry through promotions, labels, contests and events.

To find out more about Grooveshark Services check out: http://artists.grooveshark.com

Bandcamp – set up your music store

Bandcamp is a service for artists and it helps you set up your online store. They have support for a wide range of audience, ability to sell music at a price of user’s preference, plus it provides a lot of sharing tools to users to share your music across the social media. In addition to these services, it provides teh ability to sell your music in physical units or virtual distributions, provide campaigns and download codes, industry analytics integration, multi-currency support, creative commons integration and many other services. Bandcamp is a fitting solution for artists interests in selling their music than focus on building a following and managing events.

Check out extensive details about Bandcamp features here: http://bandcamp.com/features

While Last.FM has the numbers in its favor, groovesharks has an excellent bundle of features best suited for an Indie artist, plus an increasing active user base.

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The store will provide access to over 3 Million DRMed Tracks for purchase and download to your Nokia devices. It is worth wondering why Nokia wants to keep Ovi and Music Store separate, as compared to its competitor iTunes.

When asked about this competition with iTunes, Jasmeet preferred to walk the diplomatic path by saying that iTunes caters to a different audience group.

When asked about the DRM on the tracks, there was an enthusiastic reply by Jasmeet that to keep it legit, we have to use some form of DRM. We went with the WMA Specifications. However, if the consumers want it and the labels are ready to provide it, we will certainly facilitate DRM-free music. Even though labels might not provide it ever, thats an encouraging statement coming from a leading company. But then, it can also be diplomatic.

The later half of the event was hogged over by the rock-fusion band Advaita, who performed some songs from their new album – Grounded in Space. The album is also featured on the Nokia Music Store. I must agree, they had some serious stuff going on there.

Look out for our upcoming reviews of Nokia Music Store and the album Grounded in Space.

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Kaminey is a tantalizing music album, which meets all expectations set for it with aplomb. The highlight of the album is the amazingly contemporary lyrics by one of India’s finest lyricist – academy award winner Gulzar. Gulzar is known to write songs not comprehensible by the masses (remember Dil Se?) and yet Kaminey comes out as an album that has ‘that’ play of words but still touches you deep to the core. Then, of course is the superb score by Director-Writer-Music Director Vishal Bhardwaj. He has already set himself  with music albums of the likes of Omkara. Kaminey is a continuation of that legacy. The music imbibes the spirit of India in itself. The best part is that it is not trying to represent a specific time-period, or a social strata, or some political ideology or something akin in its sound, but Kaminey is the bindas India expressing itself.

The first track in the album is ‘Dhan te Naan’. That’s not a word, that means nothing. Its just a sound used by old TV Commercials in the Doordarshan age. Vishal has given it a very energetic twist and Gulzar’s lyrics adds a whole new dimension to this highly energetic, buoyous song. The song is also good mood-setter for what to expect from the rest of the album and the movie.

The next track is the soulful ‘Pehli Bar Mohabbat’. Also deriving on Rock influences, the song well sung by Mohit Chauhan can touch you in deep. The composition is perfect, everything is done just perfect. Nothing more, nothing less. The balance is well maintained. Something that we find consistent in Vishal Bhardwaj’s music is this balance.

The next track is the bubbly, romantic ‘Raat ke Dhai Baje’. Sung by the energetic Sunidhi Chauhan and the pro singer Suresh Wadkar, ‘Raat ke Dhai baje’ can be in many ways the love anthem for the present day youth. The sparkling point for the track is its simplistic lyrics, which can still be very difficult to understand – establishing a direct connect with you. That’s the marvel of lyrics by Gulzar. It might use unconventional/offbeat vocabulary, but it will still be about you – and everyone around. It becomes the expression for India.

Then is ‘Fatak’, a song on AIDS awareness. Masterfully sung by Sukhwinder Singh and beautifully written by Gulzar, the track drives home the point in a very humorous way. Written in the dialect of the suburban India, using the metaphors from the same, the track is very popular amongst the suburban and rural areas in India.

The next track, the title track sung by Vishal Bhardwaj, in my opinion, is the best track of the album.It very well expresses the strife and struggles of the common man in their everyday life. The sadness of broken dreams, and the passion of aspirations.

Next is instrumental theme for the movie and two remixes that have been well done. All in all, the whole album is fun, well executed and very soulful. If you are interested in some good music, you will love the album.

Tracks:

1. Dhan Te Nan – Sukhwinder Singh, Vishal Dadlani, Robert Bob Omulo
2. Pehli Baar Mohabbat – Mohit Chauhan
3. Raat Ke Dhai Baje – Suresh Wadkar, Rekha Bhardwaj, Sunidhi Chauhan, Kunal Ganjawala, Earl E D
4. Fatak - Sukhwinder Singh, Kailash Kher
5. Kaminey - Vishal Bhardwaj
6. Go Charlie Go
7. Dhan Te Nan (Remix) – Sukhwinder Singh, Vishal Dadlani, Robert Bob Omulo
8. Raat Ke Dhai Baje (Remix) – Suresh Wadkar, Rekha Bhardwaj, Sunidhi Chauhan, Kunal Ganjawala, Earl E D

The music was released on July 6, 2009. Listen to all tracks at Last.FM