MUMBAI: Pepsi MTV Indies is going all out to bring Indie musicians and independent music into the limelight. The channel has done it all, from creating unique content for the channel, to creating on-ground properties like MTV Ribbit, MTVi Xtreme, Spiro, and tying-up with music festivals like Hornbill, Go:MADras, Ziro, The New Wave and BIG69. During the channel launch, MTV Indies also put out an app.

However, over time, the MTV digital team realised that not many users get back to the app on a daily basis, which is why they decided to re-work the app to bring more traffic to it. Sharing the team’s concern, MTV India digital head Ekalavya Bhattacharya said, “Our aim was not to just increase downloads, but we wanted to increase the number of daily visitors to the app. One major reason that people do not revisit the app is because they are not exposed all that much to Indie music. People in India are more exposed to Bollywood because they have TV, radio, films and various apps like Gaana and Saavn giving them that exposure. Moreover, not many experiment much with music. Therefore, even if someone downloads the app, they might or might not like the music that they play at first. Hence, we reworked the app.”

The Pepsi MTV Indies App now has curated playlists, based on moods, and Bhattacharya revealed that they are working on changing the playlists every day. The current playlists include - Runners High, Off The Beat & Part, Grooves, Energy Bomb, Introspection, Anger Management, Indie Pop Rock, Indie Monsoon Ride and Just Chilling. In addition to these, the app also offers playlists specially curated by different indie musicians like Viveick Rajagopalan, Warren Mendonsa and Sahil Makhija. In due course, more indie artists will be brought in to create their own playlists for the app.

MTV Indies will soon push the mood specific playlists a step further by letting app users create their own playlists as well. However, the channel will not stop there. “We will play their playlists on our channel and give them a shout out,” revealed Bhattacharya.

In addition to making it a more interactive experience, the revamped app will also have a ‘Gig Guide’ now. And in the coming months, it will include additional features like a gig timeline, allowing users to go back and forth in time. Through this, users will be able to access various details about a gig, whether it took place a few days ago or a year ago.

The reworked app will also have a section called ‘Buzz’ that will update users on the happenings in the Indie space, and will offer ‘Social Feed’, which will list the social media feeds of musicians. Additionally, it will also offer artist interviews and videos for a more wholesome experience.

The Pepsi MTV Indies app is already available for Android, while the iOS version is currently being worked on, and is expected to launch in the first week of November.