The Internet has fast grown as an alternative medium for artistes to showcase their music on, in an age when music channels play little music. Will the Internet outdo the TV in the future? Akshata Shetty finds out...

Surfing the Internet is just like switching channels on the TV. I was on a tweet and update spree on two of my favourite social networking sites recently, when I came across some real interesting tweets and updates —  they actually sounded more like ‘Breaking News’. And indeed, they were!

“PENTAGRAM’s PENTA TV! Episode 2 out now! head to http://pentagram.in/ to get the real deal!”

“Wow. RT @paperslut: 1234 followers on Wednesday. Fair enough. http://youtu.be/MeHNKTnYnh4”

“Awesome RT @V1SH4L: A fan-video of Pentagram's VOICE hit 100,000 views on youtube! youtube.com/watch?v=aCgIdK… Check it out!!” Awesomeness indeed!

These news definitely demanded some airtime on prime music channels. But wait, do music channels really play music anymore? So naturally, bands find themselves in a DIY (do-it-yourself) situation. In fact, most of the independent bands and musicians do turn towards the Internet for support. And are they getting the kind of response they have always wanted. Hell yes!

We spoke to some musicians to find out what they thought about the Internet as the new vehicle for their music. While some were gung-ho about it, others insisted that the traditional medium has more reach than the virtual world.

A taste of reality

‘TV doesn’t support if it’s not Bollywood’ — that has been the bone of contention for most music artists till date. But vocalist Sahil Makhija from the metal band Demonic Resurrection(DR) asks a worthy question: How many are really putting on the TV to watch music channels these days? “Today, music channels are all about reality TV. Only 10-20 per cent is music. When we released the music video of our song The unrelenting surge of vengeance, we were featured on a TV channel. But the song was inserted in between a Madonna and a Beyonce number,” he says.

Well, the video by DR may have been aired, but most people, including myself, caught the video online. In over a month’s time, the song has reached 34,000 hits!  “The Internet has no restrictions, no censorship and as musicians, we want to bring our fans together,” says Sahil.

But Mohan K and Koco, the guys behind the successful Hindi rock band Agnee believe that the real reason behind promoting a music video is to promote the song. They say, “Why would we spend money on a video and put it on youtube? It doesn’t make sense. You might as well give it to a film. You may be a Swarathma or a Tough on Tobacco, who are decently famous, but you are not Kailash Kher. So if you consider the Internet to reach audiences overseas, I suggest you conquer home first and then outside.” It’s music, not videos, that should reach out, they say.

However, Agnee, Parikrama, Brahma did get their share of limelight through their videos. John Ferns, lead guitarist of Brahma, shares the story of their much-acclaimed song Bomb, which was aired on Vh1 in 2005. “All bands promoted their music through MTV, Channel V. It was easier back then, as there were slots for non-film music, but today it is difficult to get airplay. You hardly get to see any videos. When our song Bomb was aired, I guess it was just played for about a month,” he says.

Ten years back, when Parikrama released the music video of But it rained, the only medium to get it visible was the television. Vocalist of the band Nitin Malik, shares, “Back then, Youtube and Myspace didn’t even exist in India. So the only way to promote your music was through the channels. To be honest, even in those days, Indian artistes who made Hindi songs still had a chance, but English songs — well, nobody would air them. But today, reaching out to the world free of cost shows tremendous chances for artistes. Also, the marketing cost is zero online.”

But to get back to what Mohan said — why spend so much to put it online? Samira Kanwar, director of Babblefish Productions, thinks, “To a large extent, there is a mentality that TV has more value than the Internet. In the West, the film medium was once considered more valuable than TV, but with changing times, you have TV taking the spotlight. The Internet in India is growing each day. As creative people, the medium helps us explore a new space — and we don’t have that kind of creative liberty in TV.  As to how we benefit from it, well, when we uploaded the video of Taxi Song, we received 2000 hits in 2 hours. It was a conscious decision to launch it online.”

Taxi Song by Tough on Tobacco did air on Vh1, but again, how many really watched it there? The Internet definitely had everyone raving about the video and the song. Samira reiterates the language bias in TV, “If it’s a Swarathma or a Raghu dixit, channels promote them, because they are Indian music, but if it’s English, they will think about it.”

Music and the mediums

Though the air time for Indian artistes is not as great as compared to International acts, Sidd Coutto of Tough on Tobacco and Surojit Dev of Themclones believe that you just can’t rule out TV completely. Sidd says, “Our song was aired on TV and I did get some calls from people saying they watched the video. The Internet too has been very kind. I think TV caters to those who don’t know the band. And at some point, if they like the video, they would go and google it, tweet or update about it. Fifteen years ago, when I used to watch music videos on TV, and if I liked the artiste, I would wait for music magazines to write about the artiste. But today it’s different, you get everything at a click. So, both the mediums go hand in hand.”

Surojit also believes that the traditional medium can’t be dispensed with. “Today, the Internet may be a vital medium. You don’t have to wait to watch your video come on air. Our first single My Life did get a fair airplay, when the video was out. And on the Internet, it was close to 20,000 views. But even today, watching a video on TV has a ‘wow’ factor. Like, people called me and said they saw it on TV.  Yes, the Internet will always be the alternative support for artistes.”

On the positive side, uploading your videos online eliminates the middlemen. When Pentagram decided to do PentaTV, an online TV show, Vishal Dadlani’s only aim was to let his fans into Pentagram’s life — not just into their music and videos, but also into the band. Says Vishal, “PentaTV is not applicable to the TV medium. It’s very focused and it’s made specially for our fans. TV has too manyguidelines and restrictions. Indie music is about promoting yourself and eliminating the middle man. So every episode on PentaTV will let viewers experience the  journey with us. Last week, we were in Chennai, we documented the whole trip. We shall air that soon.”

Looks like the Internet is catching up with music lovers pretty fast.  Will it leave TV behind? Only time will tell...