Today, I was at a shop in Adayar (near the Ananthapadmanabhaswamy Temple), buying books when I noticed this new state-of-the-art kiosk at a corner. I was clearly surprised. I didn’t expect a kiosk in such a small shop. I went over to it trying to figure out its earthly purpose in that shop. And guess what? It’s our own Indian version of Steve Job’s (read Apple’s) iTunes.

Just for some background on iTunes… It was a innovative business model for selling music introduced in the United States. This is how it works - If you own an iPod and liked a particular song in some album. You can go to the iTunes store and buy that song online. It gets downloaded into your music library and synced with your iPod. You pay for only the song downloaded and needn’t buy the entire album. You can even walk into a iTunes store and buy songs.

Now, the ADD (Anytime Digital Downloads) kiosk is just that! Only difference is that it does more than downloading to an iPod. It writes out a CD with the songs downloaded. So, this is how ADD works - You go to the kiosk. Check out the albums available. Browse through them, Search through them. Listen to the song and if its what you want, add it to your list. Once you have added all the songs, the kiosk will write out a CD of the selected songs in mp3 for you.



The songs are priced at attractive rates. The prices of some songs ranged from Rs 5.00 onwards. I think this is a wonder system. And its instant. You come, you hear, you buy and walk away! I can imagine many of you thinking - “So, whats the big deal? I download mp3 from the internet free of cost!” Well, this is LEGAL. All the songs are priced and copyrighted. You are buying the songs. This is not piracy. Downloading mp3 is. I guess that does make a difference! :) This is taking the music business to the next level.

And the icing on the cake is that the innovators behind such a beatiful idea are from Chennai - Giri Trading Agency Private Limited

Some FAQs from their site -
http://www.giritrading.com and http://www.addkiosk.net

Q. What’s ADDKiosk ?
A. addkiosk.net is part of GIRI network. As Distributors of various labels in India we are looking forward to distributing Indian Music all over the world and also distributing music from all over the world in India. We have also developed an innovative new concept called ADDKiosk (Anytime Digital Downloads - Kiosk). This Kiosk is installed in our showrooms and various musical cultural centres, and public places such as Airports, Cinema halls, Grocery stores, Shopping Malls etc. The response in India is already overwhelming for the ADDKiosk. You can download music, (videos, wallpapers and ebooks - coming soon) into CDs, Mobiles, USB devices and IPODs. We are in the process of exploring the possibilities of setting it up all over the world.

Q. What’s Giri Network?
A. Giri Trading Agency is a treasure house for Hinduism, Indian culture & tradition. Music Cassettes and CDs on various themes like Sanskrit, Vedic, Mantras, Tantras, Devotional, Carnatic Classical Music, Puja Rituals, Prayers and Religious discourses are released under the banner ‘Gitaa Cassettes’. GIRI has showrooms in various parts of India where you can find the ADDKIOSK too.

There’s always music happening in Chennai. Sometimes the traditional and more recognised forms. But on occasions, it gets experimental. Coming soon, on July 21 to be precise, is one such example.

A live performance of Vedanth Bharadwaj’s latest album. It feaures songs from the Bhakthi Movement by poets like Mirabai, Kabir, and Gurunanak amongst others. Arranged on a base of Hindustani classical music and overlayed with contemporary elements like African rhythms and country style guitar playing.

And if all that’s not motivation enough here’s another prod. The concert is free.

Don’t miss the Karnatriix concert this Saturday for anything. Their music is exceptional. It features John Anthony, a legendary guitar player from Chennai.
The link below will give you a profile of the man, and reasons why you must make it to the concert.

http://chennai.metblogs.com/archives/2007/05/one_of_chennais_little_known_g.phtml

This link will give you samples of what you will hear:
http://myspace.com/karnatriix

Click on image for an enlarged view.

On 7.7.07, at Bucks Theatre, YMCA, Nandanam. 5 pm. Passes available at Coffee Day and Landmark. Or call 9884608884, 24521471, 9380954420, 99400 32732.

For more on the bands:
http://karnatriixtheband.googlepages.com/
www.karnatriix.com
www.shoestringtheband.com

Date: June 24, 2007
Venue: Buck’s Theatre, YMCA Nandanam, Chennai
Musicians: Mademoiselle K from France and No Idea from Chennai
First notes at 7 p.m sharp.

The show is FREE. Passes, when I last heard, were available at Alliance Francaise.

The musicians: Mademoiselle K from France, and No Idea from Chennai

The venue: Buck’s Theatre, YMCA, Nandanam

The time: 7 pm

The date: June 24

Not a clue yet on ticket prices. But to hazard a guess, I’d say a 100 rupees.

Heard from a friend that the Pipers Band will perform in Chennai. Details below:

Date: Friday, April 20, 2007
Time: 18:30 hrs
Location: Unwind Centre, Gandhinagar, Adyar
Town/City: Chennai

Ref: The Pipers Band orkut community

The Mylapore Festival 2007 is on from January 4 - 7, 2007.

Mosaic of photographs taken in Mylapore Festival 2006
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… is how I would describe listening to a music concert. On the dais.

This year’s music season was a flurry of frenzied activity with people bustling about all over the place, clutching concert schedules and tickets and long sheets of LIC policy ads (nothing to do with the concert, just hand-outs) - and the paper of the season: The Kutcheribuzz.

I spent my evenings trying desperately to juggle concerts in this sabha and the other, wondering how best to utilize the three odd hours after 5.30 PM and yet manage to enjoy the talents of the cream of the dancing/singing/acting fraternity. It was the weekends that provided me with some much-needed time. And I spent the 30th of December at a crowded Bombay Jaishree concert. The venue: Narada Gana Sabha, TTK Road.
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Firstly, thanks to all of you who wrote detailed emails as well as comments on the Music season. Secondly, a look at what some of you had to say:

Nagesh Kumar thinks artistes perform to the point of exhaustion during the music season and that such commercialization takes away the shine from their performance

Most of the front-line artistes in Carnatic music nowadays are zipping from one kutcheri to the other on a continual basis in this month. Many of them sound strained and exhausted in some kutcheris these days. Believe me, I have attended many in this month.

Well, no one can sing for 3 hours daily for a month and not be exhausted too. That is exactly the point. Why should ‘all the sabhas have all the artists’ going round the season?

Look at the advts.

Karthik Fine arts, Music academy, Narada, Krishna, Thyaga brahma, brahma gana sabha etc etc .You have almost every frontline artist giving kutcheris at all the venues one day or the other in the same month.

It is simply very repetitive. You may say it gives more chance to catch one or the other kutcheri of the same artist if you miss it elsewhere.
That is the reason artistes sound exhausted and cannot do justice to the concerts. The vocal quality falls and variety suffers.

Many of you were irritated with the behaviour of the audience:
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