World Music Day 2023: 4 Indian Music Startups To look Out For On World Music Day, we look at four music startups based in India that are impacting the music scene in the country in their own unique ways.

By Kabir Singh Bhandari

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Photo by Wes Hicks on Unsplash

The Fête de la Musique, known more popularly as World Music Day, is celebrated every year on June 21. It is a day where both free and paid music concerts take place in neighborhoods, public spaces and parks.

The first time an all day music celebration was held to commemorate the day was by Jack Lang, then Minister of Culture of France, which took place in Paris in 1982. Currently, it is celebrated in over 120 countries all over the world. On this occasion, we look at four music startups based in India that are impacting the music scene in the country in their own unique ways.

1. Hoopr.ai: Hoopr.ai is India's first music licensing platform that's focused on solving a billion-dollar problem faced by content creators and businesses every day – discovering and licensing the right music for their videos. While Hoopr.ai is currently catering to the demand for licensed music, it will also be providing a massive opportunity for thousands of musicians to be able to monetize their music in a new way.

The company is looking to build tools and technologies that leverage data and consumer insights to provide intelligent recommendations, thereby making the search and discovery process super-efficient for its users. Co-founded by Gaurav Dagaonkar; an IIM- A alumnus and award-winning music director and entrepreneur with over 14 years of experience in the music industry, along with serial entrepreneur Meghna Mittal (ex- Hubilo, Yesssworks), Hoopr.ai is a funded startup with notable investors such as Venture Catalysts, 9Unicorns, Inflection Point Ventures, Ashneer Grover, Sahil Barua (Delhivery), Anshoo Sharma (Magicpin), Anuraag Srivastava, Pradyumna Agrawal, Giri Malpani and others.

The company is a part of GSharp Media - a content and technology company focused on creating media-tech platforms and content brands. GSharp Media also operates Songfest India, which creates music IPs with brands.

2. Damroo: Damroo, India's first regional and independent music streaming platform, intends to foster a 360 degree ecosystem for regional and independent artists, wherein they can earn, grow and own copyright of their music in a most transparent environment. Home to diverse musical genres, including folk, classical, devotional, contemporary etc, Damroo India is also functional in the domain of Sync License Rights. With the regional music industry currently holding over 40 per cent of the Indian music market share, Damroo has swiftly emerged as a game changer for scores of talented artists and localised businesses in the remotest parts of the country.

3. Represent: Represent is a music agency which works in the music domain to provide solutions to artists, platforms and the overall industry ecosystem. The agency manages a number of artist exclusively, consults some of the biggest businesses in the world for their music and artist strategy and acts as a support pillar for solutions for the overall music industry including labels, event promoters, digital streaming platforms, etc. From onboarding Shah Rukh Khan for Marshmello's Biba to helping Triller reach over 50Mn MAU in India, they have hit quite afew milestones till date. With clients such as Armaan Malik and DJ Chetas among others, some of their consulting clients are Coca Cola, JioSaavn and Snapchat.

Represent's founder is 29-year-old Mumbai based Aayushman Sinha. His journey began as a marketer and artist manager at the age of 18 whilst still in college and has grown to build 4 successful startups in varied fields. A firm believer that the Indian audience is ready to consume beyond Bollywood and there's immense potential in the overall pop ecosystem - he aims to build artists, creators, content, brands and products to fill this void. From co-creating IP's with Instagram to helping launch Triller in India, Represent has had an eventful journey.

4. Yours Eventfully: Yours Eventfully is a platform that nurtures artists and helps them grow in their respective genres while connecting them with the right audience base with the help of entertainment events. Their team helps in gauging the right talent and provides them a 360-degree support platform which enables them to grow as an artist. While they had a humble beginning with only a few events in their founding years, the team are now doing more than 1500 events annually across the world with their exclusive artists. They started off in 2015 by their CEO Vibhor Hasija, and manage artists such as Bismil, Suryaveer and The Storyteller.

Kabir Singh Bhandari

Former Senior Assistant Editor

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