musifie Partners With DIVO To Launch National Music Talent Discovery Platform ‘SoundQuest’

Music creation platform musifie has partnered with DIVO, a Warner Music India company, to launch musifie x DIVO SoundQuest, a nationwide, multi-genre contest series aimed at discovering and promoting independent artists across India.

The strategic partnership will roll out six large-scale contests annually, each aligned with India’s key cultural and festival moments. Designed as a high-frequency discovery pipeline, the initiative seeks to identify emerging talent and provide a structured pathway from discovery to collaboration, release and promotion.

Each contest will culminate in the selection of winners across nine musical skillsets, who will collaborate to create an original single using musifie’s creation and collaboration tools. The track will then be mixed, mastered and released globally by DIVO across streaming platforms, supported by marketing and promotional initiatives.

The SoundQuest framework is built to function as a closed-loop ecosystem, spanning discovery, evaluation, collaboration, release and amplification. According to the companies, the objective is to move beyond one-off talent hunts and create a system where artists are able to progress meaningfully in their creative journeys.

The initiative is anchored around five core pillars: cultural relevance as a growth engine, holistic talent discovery across nine skillsets, a transparent and standardised judging framework, collaboration as the central reward, and festival-led marketing and amplification.

The six annual contests will be mapped to India’s cultural calendar, coinciding with Holi, World Music Day, Independence Day, Navratri/Durga Puja, Diwali and Republic Day. This structure is intended to drive large-scale participation and sustained audience engagement throughout the year.

Talent will be discovered across nine categories,Vocalist, Composer, Lyricist, Arranger, Guitar, Keyboard, Wind, Percussion and Bass, expanding the spotlight beyond singers to include the broader creative ecosystem. Submissions will be evaluated using a 100-point scoring rubric covering parameters such as technical skill, creativity, tone, groove and arrangement.

Instead of a single overall winner, SoundQuest will select nine category winners per contest, who will collaborate on one original track. The collaboration will be managed through musifie’s Projects feature, which includes version control, stem sharing, contracts, credits and split sheets. DIVO will support the release with global distribution, PR, influencer marketing, campus outreach, editorial pitching, paid campaigns and audience engagement initiatives.

Anil Joseph, Founder of musifie, said the partnership aims to address long-standing gaps in India’s talent discovery ecosystem. “India has extraordinary talent, but discovery has often been fragmented and inconsistent. This partnership creates a year-round engine where artists collaborate, create, release and gain visibility, rather than just winning a contest,” he said.

Shahir Muneer, Founder and Director of DIVO, said the collaboration allows the company to scale its long-standing focus on independent talent. “Six cultural moments, nine categories and a collaborative single each cycle make this a powerful structure for artist development,” he said.

Soumini Sridhara Paul, Strategic Consultant at musifie and Founder of Gatsvy Media LLP, described SoundQuest as a culturally tuned framework designed for sustained artist growth. “By combining musifie’s creation workflow with DIVO’s release and marketing strength, we’re building a talent ecosystem that delivers real industry outcomes,” she said.

The initiative is designed with a pan-India, multilingual and multi-genre approach, targeting college musicians, independent artists and creator communities across metros as well as Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. Each contest will follow a 12-week campaign arc, ensuring consistent engagement and positioning every festival as a national moment for discovering new voices.