The pandemic is an unexpected blow to art. Cinemas were closed, musical performances went online, and cultural spaces had to reinvent how to attract audiences from a distance.

However, for the frugal independent musicians in India, this is a blessing in disguise.

“The pandemic has little effect on independent artists,” said Ashwin Gopakumar, lead singer of the Kochi band “Dang Chai Meets Toast”. “We know how to make music at home, and we can do that now and release it in a month.”

A similar story happened to Sanjeeta Bhattacharya, a musician in Delhi, whose songwriting originated from the loneliness and depression of the pandemic.Her single everything is fine? She said this was because it was deeply entrenched in the context of pandemics and blockades, so it took off on Spotify. She said: “The information from the audience suddenly flooded in.”

Music platforms such as Spotify and JioSaavn have also observed this trend. “This year, we have noticed an increase in the streaming of indie music released by independent musicians and regional language music,” Mukesh Ambani’s audio streaming platform owned by Reliance Industries A spokesperson for JioSaavn said. “We attribute this rise to two factors: the lack of people who release large budget movies, and the way people explore and participate in new music during the lock-in period.”

When Achyut Jaigopal, a member of the Chai Met Toast band, believed that Indian listeners are now more accepting of indie music. He said: “The past year has changed a lot.” “I think the gap between indie music and Bollywood music is also narrowing.”

Technical and audiophile music curators may eventually correct India’s Bollywood’s heavy, unbalanced music industry.

Rising independent superstar

As a teenager, Hari Tyagi often used headphones to plug in music while working on the farm with his father. At that time, he didn’t know what a note or chord was.

The 25-year-old musician said: “I was told to perform well in school and do something that would give me a name even after I died.” “And I know I didn’t do that.”

But now, his personal information on audio streaming platforms such as Spotify has allowed him to get rid of forgetfulness and enter the world-recognized music arena.

“Before the playlist on Spotify, I had only a few listeners every month,” said Tyagi, a resident of Yamunanagar in the northern state of Haryana. According to data shared by Spotify, when he was placed on the Radar and Summer Indie playlists of the audio streaming platform, the young independent musician’s monthly audience increased from 10 to 4,200.

The 16-year-old Kiara Chettri has also achieved a similar success story. His monthly audience has increased from 470 to more than 4,000, becoming a member of Spotify’s playlist of selected independent artists. “When I released my first single, You will seeOn Apple Music and Spotify, I hope that about a hundred people will listen. “The Gurgaon musician said. “Once I start seeing 3,000-4,000 streams, it encourages me to make more music. “

These young artists are now a growing part of the tribe of independent Indian musicians who have been discovered on audio streaming platforms and have created a niche audience for themselves. In the music industry led by big brands and Bollywood, independent artists are experiencing a certain democratization of this space. Chettri explained: “At first, I thought people could only release songs through music record companies.”

A small study helped her discover that artists can go to music distributors such as CD Baby and OK Listen. After paying a one-time fee, your music can be published on the music streaming platform. There is no middleman, no nepotism, and no traditional patronage. All an artist has to do is find a reliable music distributor and publish the music on popular streaming platforms.

From then on, the nature of the platform and its algorithms will take over.

For musicians, by musicians

For example, Spotify’s Radar is a show specifically for emerging artists. The audio platform pays close attention to upcoming musicians and organizes their music into relevant Radar playlists in various regions.

More popular independent brands like artists Ritviz, Divine and Prateek Kuhad have also benefited a lot from the launch of the Radar project in India in May.Coohard-former US President of Music Barack Obama agrees -When Spotify was launched in India, he had nearly 36,000 followers in the Spotify for Artists archive in February 2019. By September, this number had increased to 1.7 million.

“When we were creating music around 2017, Soundcloud and YouTube were the mainstream media that brought our work to the market,” said Gopakumar of When Chai Met Toast. But he said that even at the time, platforms such as Spotify helped the band spread music to listeners in the United States and Italy.

Today, most of the content (nearly three quarters) of “Dang Chai Meets Toast” comes from Spotify, and most of the rest comes from Apple Music and YouTube. Gopakumar said that Spotify’s algorithm is particularly useful. “If your song is good, it will enter the playlist.”

Newer artists will still be controlled by this popularity. “For artists, it is difficult to wander in this industry without a manager,” Bhattacharya explained. “You must know the right people, and your music must arrive in the right inbox.” She said that the responsibility for promoting music lies with the artist. “Sometimes, I just want to tell people,’Please gaana sunn lo yaar‘,” she joked. Please listen to my song.

Yagi agreed. He said: “I have written to countless music magazines and blogs, listened to my music, and no one even responded to those emails.” “These people will respond only when you have adapted to the music industry. However, For example, the Spotify editor will change according to your mood and the atmosphere of the song. They won’t read your name.”

Bhattacharya said that with an audio streaming platform, people can reach the audience directly. She said: “Not only India, but also on Spotify playlists and other things, it also attracts listeners from 25-30 countries/regions.” In turn, this helped her to establish contacts with other artists Cooperation on the project.

Similarly, JioSaavn also has an artist development program called Artist Originals, which also acts as a streaming media label. In this case, the artist will receive assistance in music distribution, such as service distribution and customized marketing plans. In addition to directing artists, Artist Originals also helped musicians such as Goldie Sohel, Abhijeet Srivastav and Chhavi Sodhani release their first independent track or album.

This may finally be the moment of indie music in the sun.

This article was first published on quartz.