Apple Music: A new global platform to boost Indian talent

“Music is a healer for today’s world and we share the same affinity and love of music with Apple Music.” These are the words that renowned music-man A R Rahman said when Apple Music and KM Music Conservatory announced the new Mac Labs in Chennai and Mumbai last year. Well, Apple did not pause there, and neither did it allow the ball to just keep rolling. Apple’s Gurugram office in India was recently flooded with a few new-age artists who were excited to know about Apple’s new ecosystem where they could now be part of — Apple Music.

Apple Music is now new — it has been around for quite some time, but was a place only for the elite to buy music. However, things are soon changing. With the Cupertino giant’s Apple Music, Indian artists and developers can take centre stage, globally, and rub their shoulders with international talent without many efforts. Apple Music takes a different route to be unique —Artist pages allows local talents and Indie artistes to showcase their worth might not otherwise get recognised or discovered as easily.

Apple Music establishes platforms to support local artists

Hear It Hear First (HIHF) is a programme that Apple launched where a launchpad is created for those who have a smaller budget, but dream of a big showdown. For entertainment houses, the platform is great too. For example, Apple Music Exclusive releases on a monthly basis like Taarefaan (Veere Di Wedding) with Zee Music on one hand and Lal Pari Mastani with Sona Mohapatra on the other. New Artist Spotlight is another example that is dedicated to launching atleast one new artist every month with an exclusive release. Examples include Prabh Deep, MADM, Sutej Singh among others. So far, Apple Music has supported over 40 exclusive releases across both programs in India. Apple is trying to help Indian artists feature themselves out there and give music lovers something that is not just plain old Bollywood or international beats.

Apart from this, Apple had also partnered with Radio City to launch the biggest Bollywood Chart Show in India called ‘Apple Music Top 25’ with Radio City. This weekly show is dedicated to Bollywood and plays the top 25 most streamed songs on Apple Music, every Saturday and also features local artists interviews.

With iOS12 launch in Fall, Apple Music will be introducing new features to make it feel, perform, and look even better. Some key features include:

Artists Pages: These pages are all about the Artist and their work starting with the new photo treatment. With the “Apple Music for Artists” program launched earlier this year, Artists will have the ability to control both their image and their career.

Top 100: Easy to view the top 100 songs are all over the world. In addition Apple Music will have playlists of the top songs for the top music producing countries. These charts will be available everywhere and are updated everyday. They can even be added to your Library like a playlist and will automatically update.

Friends Mix: Is located in the For You section of the app.  In iOS 11, Apple Music introduced a feature that makes it fun and easy to discover music with your friends. It’s really easy to set up — just create a profile and start following some friends whose taste you admire. And now, Apple Music will add an even easier and faster way to listen to what your friends are listening to:  it’s called Friend’s Mix, personalised to your tastes. Each of the mixes is updated once a week so you’ll always be in touch.

We bumped into a few known artists who marked their presence at the Apple head office in Gurugram, India, who were proud to be part of Apple’s initiative to boost the Indian talent and dreams. Speaking on their association with Apple Music, here’s what they commented.

Singer- Songwriter, Ankur Tewari: Since I’ve been in the industry for so long, I appreciate the personal touch and the human curation that Apple Music brings, rather than solely relying on algorithms.

My music ended up trending in Bulgaria, opening up a whole new audience! One of my songs was even featured in between Ed Sheeran and Justin Bieber on the charts, and I never thought it would happen.

Indie artist,Palash Bhise a.ka. Splash: Apple Music featured me on their New Artist Spotlight. It took my game up, and a lot of people have now reached out to me who would have otherwise never known about me.

Apple Music is a strong credible brand, and it raises your stature as you grow with it.

Music Producer and Composer, Qaran Mehta: I learnt a lot about Indian musicality working with Music Directors like Pritam, Shankar Ehsaan Loy. With Tareefan, it was risky to include R&B in a Bollywood track but it paid off really well and with Apple Music, it has helped me reached such a wide spectrum of listeners.

The Apple Music playlists and charts are my go to lists to know what’s hot right now. It really gives you the pulse of what our audiences are listening to. Even after 3 months of release, Tareefan is still in the top 5 and that’s been very encouraging.

Bollywood Playback Singer Nikita Gandhi: I’m really excited about my new single “Humshakal” which launches exclusively on Apple Music tomorrow (Friday, August 24)! Whats incredible is that Apple Music provides a level playing field for everyone - Indie as well as Bollywood artists.

We hope to see the platform grow and be patronized by budding artists from around the country. The platform is a great option for kickstarting one’s career in music, singing and alike.

Apple Music launched a little over three years ago in over a 100 countries. With 45 million songs, it has now surpassed 50 million subscribers around the world. Apple Music recently launched Music Videos, which is a big win for a market like India where music lovers love to watch music as opposed to just listening.

Apple Music comes with a three month free trial everywhere with no exceptions. In India, individual membership is Rs 120 per month, Family Plan at Rs 190. Apple Music Student Membership is for Rs 60 per month.

Apple Music is available on iOS and Android. You can download the Android version on the Google Play Store, and avail the same terms as the iOS user.