About Songdew TV

Songdew TV is a first-of-its-kind platform for artists to collaborate, create, publish, promote and distribute their music. The channel is for the young and young at heart music lovers who can enjoy numerous private albums that are not available in the mainstream media. The company plans to grow the way people consume independent music in this country, especially with the closing of previous independent music channel MTV Indies.

We sat for a chat with Mr.Sandip Tarkas, Director, Songdew TV.   Follow our conversation below:

What is the Songdew TV content strategy?

Sandip Tarkas, "We would be playing all genres of independent music ranging from classical to EDM and everything in the middle. Of course day parts would also determine the genre choice. Though for the large parts, the focus genres are Indie Rock/ Indie Pop/ Indie Folk. We would play the content in different languages as well – so Hindi:English: Indian Regional Languages will be in a proportion of 50:30:20. This will be tweaked basis the response."

 Songdew has worked with a lot of brands, how do you plan on capitalizing this with the launch of Songdew TV?

Sandip Tarkas, Songdew TV in conjunction with songdew.com and the Songdew mobile App makes for a great synergistic ecosyetem to promote independent music. We would have cross-linkages across media and this would benefit both artists and clients alike. So content created for a client can also get promoted across platforms. For the artists we have a special mechanism whereby we will be able to source performances for them from across the country on the back of Songdew TV.

What kind of investments has gone behind building SongdewTV?

Sandip Tarkas, I am not able to disclose the financial figure but in terms of human capital we have spent nearly 4 years from the start of Songdew.com to the launch of Songdew TV – a lot of people have played their part in realising this dream. And even the thousands of artists who make up the Songdew community have contributed to bring this alive – Sunil Khanna, who is the founder and CEO of this venture, has been at it for almost 3 years along with Chinmayi Tripathi, who was the first employee. Along the way a lot of people have played their part in shaping the channel and what it would stand for, what it would look like, what it would sound like – so in short a huge amount of investment has gone into this, but it was all totally worth it.

What is the size of the library of Songdew?

Sandip Tarkas, We have over 28,000 registered artists from across India. The Website has over 60,000 songs and 20,000 videos that are published there. Plus we get 1000 plus new artists and 1500 new songs getting added every month. We also launch fresh music every other week under the umbrella of Songdew Fresh.

What are the other services offered by Songdew?

Sandip Tarkas, We offer our clients with Music Licensing, Original Music creation, Sonic identity creation, Music based ground events in addition to offering advertising opportunities on its various platforms. To the artists we offer opportunity to either monetise their services by giving them opportunities to participate in live events, in brand lead projects to create new music, or to get promotion by way of interviews with relevant media. To our listeners we provide opportunity to listen to some great music free of cost (as of now) and introduce them to new sounds and genres of music as well as new artists that they may find completely refreshing.

Who are your key competitors in the market?

Sandip Tarkas, We believe our model is unique and while different players may be offering one or the other services, nobody to our knowledge is offering the entire suite. More importantly the focus purely on independent music is the key differentiator that helps us keep our offering pure.

Which are some of the major artists that Songdew was a launchpad to?

Sandip Tarkas, The role of Songdew is not restricted to launching new artists , it adds value to the music of all musicians who invest time , energy and skill in their music. Hence, if you go on website you will see some of the most well known bands in India as well as some outstanding emerging talents.

What drives you every day at work?

Sandip Tarkas, When I was in a media agency, a client of mine used to say that a good media innovation is the implementation of a brand’s strategy in media. Today when we use music as a tool to help brands execute their strategies in a more effective way using music. Finding newer and more exciting ways of using music as a tool to either enhance experience or find a more effective communication expression for brands.

What is the "B'hag (Big Hairy Audacious Goal") for Songdew?

Sandip Tarkas, As music in India liberates itself from the clutches of the film industry – and there are many markers to this. The large no. of music events that thrive on non-film music, to no. of indie artists growing by a factor of 10 in the past 10 years, to declining importance of music in marketing of a film and many more – our objective is to be a dominant player in the Indie music scene – from having the largest library of artists (300,000 artists) and music (1 Million tracks), to having the strongest platform to cater to indie music artists and fans. Another objective is having the most relevant innovations using music and generally enhancing the quality of brand’s usage of music

What should the audiences look forward to on Songdew TV?

Sandip Tarkas, Songdew is a discovery platform unlike the other online publishing platforms that are essentially search platforms that play music. You go there with a list in your head and exit once the list is completed. On Songdew, the listener experiences new content that he/ she has not heard before – so they spend time experiencing that and then stay on for some more if they like what they hear. So we promise Freshness first! Fresh, new and beautiful music first and foremost. But also a journey of discovery that takes one to places not traveled to earlier. And experience new sounds and new expressions thus far unknown.

Which are some of your key partners?

Sandip Tarkas, "Videocon d2h is the distribution platform on which Songdew TV resides. Yupp Tv is an OTT platform that would also carry the content. We partner with various radio stations – that is synergistic for both. We partner with other media houses from time to time depending on the specific promotion. We help our artists find a place in all online stores. And of course we are partnered with over 30 brands that have used the service of Songdew for some activity or the other over the past one year."

Songdew's best brand partnership case studies [embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_KhL1nfzAU[/embedyt]

What is the procedure for content creators to get a chance to partner with SongdewTV?

Sandip Tarkas, "Musicians / Content producers can mail us on content@songdew.com and the team will get in touch immediately. Additionally the artists can upload their content on www.songdew.com where they are prompted to respond in case they are interested in publishing the video on TV as well."

  14. Any closing comments? Keep Songdewing - through the App, Web and TV and experience the best that Indian Indie music has to offer, for this is #WhereGreatMusicLives!