MUMBAI: The live music industry joined hands with mobile during the last panel discussion on day one of MixRadio 6th Music Connects. The panelists for the session was Viacom 18 Media Pvt Ltd integrated network solutions business head and SVP Jaideep Singh, Hungama Mobile COO Albert Almeida, MARD initiative co-founder Anurag Rao and Akamai Technologies country sales head Sidharth Pisharoti and was moderated by Indian Television.com Group’s CEO and founder Anil Wanvari.

During the session, ‘Tech Meets Live’, Almeida stated that Hungama’s key pillar is technology. “We deliver good quality music to our consumers,” he stressed. Hungama en-cashed the social media opportunity that was available during the time business through social media was minimal. Since then, live music space and technology has changed.

Talking about changes in the live space, Singh said, “The whole strategy in the live space has changed as demographics of people have been changing in the past few years.” He further added that the ticket prices have gone up and the approach to get free tickets for live gigs have fallen, which is a positive sign in the live space. He also mentioned the first edition of Supersonic which attracted more than expected audiences has helped them to have a profitable second edition. This year there were about 60 events under the flagship of Supersonic so far.

Singh stated that there has been four- five per cent jump in terms of brand association. Viacom 18 has 12 IPs which started generating revenues for the company in the present year. He further added, “International music can also have good business model.”

Pisharoti, talking about the technology, said that business has become complex but there is a market if you want to reach-out to the audiences.

Meanwhile, Rao said that Farout Media, which has already brought on board Shruti Hassan, is looking to create avenues that can be helpful to various artistes. “We want to be a support system to the artistes.” The company will be responsible for administrating rights for artistes. Their recent MARD initiative, which is about spreading the message of equality through music, has received encouraging responses.

Rao also showed concern about artiste managers who failed to educate artistes about the changing music eco-system which is why they fail to add value to their songs.