Live concerts: Now on your mobile phones

On February 9, music composers Vishal Dadlani and Shekhar Ravjiani are set to bring the first ever concert that will be streamed live to your mobile phones and PCs. The duo has collaborated with Hungama, Nokia and Airtel for the live mobile music concert for Airtel’s Talk2Me platform and a live web telecast on www.bollywoodhungama.com.

They are the first musicians ever to do a live concert that will simultaneously play on mobiles and the internet. “I don't know of any music show that reached to audiences over mobile and web only,” said Dadlani, adding, they were considering a series of mobile and web concerts in the near future. “Digitisation of music is already happening. Artists have to think ahead of pirates and deliver their content to users directly.”

Vishal and Shekhar are ready to do what they otherwise would not have done at a live concert, with the physical presence of thousands of music lovers. “We will keep a laptop on stage and perform songs that fans request us to perform over the mobile and web medium,” said Vishal.

Airtel’s Talk2Me, a platform for customers to dial, connect and interact with their favourite stars on a real-time basis, charges users a one-time registration charge of Rs 15 and call charge of Rs 2 per minute. The concept was as simple as dialing a number, listening and requesting the music director duofor songs, said Airtel.

The show is expected to be an hour-long event, where mobile subscribers can request songs to be played using the Talk2Me platform, a service that can be availed of by over 200 million Airtel customers.

Shireesh Joshi, chief marketing officer (mobile services), Bharti Airtel, said: “Not limited by location, mobile concert on Airtel will offer unique experience to our customers.” Viral Oza, head (activation, media, online sales and marketing) at Nokia India said: “With more and more young people listening to music on their mobile phones, this unique initiative is very timely.”

But, since it would be a concert on the web and mobile platforms, what would be the quality of sound? Will it be as enjoyable as watching a live performance? “We are confident that with the line-up of performances planned and the technology support, the experience will be seamless. As for the sound, since the performance venue is indoors, with just a handful of audiences in the studio, the quality will be maintained for the virtual audience,” said Dadlani.

Over the internet, Hungama, along with Nokia, will telecast the show as a ‘webcert’. Hungama COO Siddhartha Roysaid: “The last webcert we did on our website www.artistaloud.com was for ArtistAloud.com, where a band called Swarathma performed on January 18. The event witnessed over 18,000 people participating. But we expect the numbers to be even bigger this time as Vishal and Shekhar are mainstream music directors.”

Hungama, according to Roy, is exploring more such mobile music concerts. “While on web, we intend to keep the concerts free or mostly ad-sponsored, on the mobile, this will be a premium service as users get the chance to request and interact with the stars during the concert.”

Hungama believes, while web and mobile concerts may be a new concept, but their popularity is bound to rise quickly as youngsters are keen to experiment. “For those who can’t make it to live concerts, the web provides a platform to enjoy the experience within the comfort of one’s home or the workplace,” said Roy.