Andheri revolutionising music

The unfettered access to data has, overtime, led to many sceptical conservatives wanting to choke the endless flow ofunchecked information in the world today. Some of this has in fact led tolarger debates about the digitisation of music and its availability at the mereclick of a button. The evolution deepens further with the rhetoric about musichaving turned a new page: dubiously-endowed artists are now discovered onYoutube and other twerking experts even launch their albums online to gaugeaudience reaction. Then you have two Westcoast residents who have found outjust how to capitalise on that cell-phones-grafted-in-our-hands syndromewithout compromising on the musical essence that flows through their veins.
 

Bajaao: a matter of timingMeet Ashutosh Pande, the 35-year-oldAndheri resident behind www.bajaao.com. What started off as a "simplee-commerce company where musical instruments were sold", as Pande puts it, isnow a multi-million rupee company that has more than one vertical to prideitself on. Having worked for many years in the UK with Wrox, a publishingcompany, his love for music and his knowledge of e-commerce were amalgamatedinto one when he created bajaao.com. "Actually, I got back to Mumbai in 2005and started what I believed would be the perfect platform for people fromsmaller cities, who wanted to buy musical instruments," explains the young CEO.

From building on the Indian love for hymnsand rhythmic harmonies to eventually providing music-related services to athriving industry, Pande is far from being a new kid on this tuneful block. "Weadded recording equipments to our website because we wanted to feed into thatgrowing want of small-time musicians to set up their own studios and recordmusic," he shares. It does not end there: "As the brand grew further and bajaaowas acquired in 2010, we decided to diversify into two broad arms: consultingand entertainment," Pande elaborates. Consulting was, at that point, animportant need in the market, he believed; he sold equipment to recordingstudios, cinemas, auditoriums but the proficiency to put it all together iswhat remained lacklustre. "Walt Disney was our first project. We put together theirfirst recording studio," he shares. "On the other hand, when it comes toentertainment, we have supported local music, put together festivals such asRaagasthan, where we took care of the execution of the event. We have alsoorganised college festivals and designed the music set of Aashiqui 2." he goeson, chuckling away like it were a chancy affair. Clearly, it was not. Bajaao, to Pande,represents an open-ended concept that should attain Rs 50 crores on the tradingfront within a few years. All for the love of music, the new-age way.

Moojically-speakingKumaran Mahendran and Neha Behani are thebrains behind Moojic. Having studied at the Asian Institute of Management, theduo was keen on "disrupting the SoLoMo space." Raising our eyebrows at theacronym thrown at us, our curiosity deepens. "Social, Local, Media," theyexplained. "Inspired by old-age jukeboxes, we decided to put together a servicethat would allow users to view the catalogue of songs playing at a partnerestablishment, all while requesting songs and viewing the lyrics of those songson their smart phones," shares Behani. Their application only feeds into thatdigital age encroaching into our lives as they catapulted themselves into amusical microcosm where they feel "the future of content delivery is mobile,"and nothing else.

Their rationale is straightforward: to beable to play or listen to the songs we would like to connect with or that weknow would instantly uplift our spirits at the simple touch of a button. they said, "Think of it as a way to engageand interact with the patron of a bar or a restaurant in an innovative way! Weare just making people's lives easier!" They strongly stand by Moojic–"one ofthe many apps that will survive in the growing mobile app arena in Asia". Behani puts it as musical convenience at aseemingly affordable price in a country that is so "used to having things forfree". We would say Mahendran and Behani might just be on the right musicaltrack.