MUMBAI: Singer-songwriter, Aanchal Shrivastava, releases her latest song “Punjabi Folk Recreation”.

“Laiyan Laiyan”. The campaign for 'Laiyan Laiyan' is to present folk music as raw as it is. It is not polished in its true form, so is the man who presented this folk song to the world through his basuri.

The “Chithi Khat Aur Tum” singer feels very close to this genre, and she wanted the world to feel connected, not just with this style but also these artists who are living through it. We all need to hear it in its purest form. She wishes to present more folk infused with contemporary style to make it reach a larger and wider audience and she wanted to continue to think of such simple yet powerful campaigns to announce the release of her song so that, there comes a time that everyone is thinking of heartfelt impact and not just one another gift.

Folk sangeet is raw, it has its own flavour of earth. When Aanchal was thinking of the ways for announcing “Laiyan Laiyan”, she revealed she only knew she wanted to present it as raw as a folk is. The singer found a basuri wala playing on the streets of Lokhandwala Market (a popular market in Mumbai, suburbs) she spoke to him and asked if he could play her song on basuri and he readily tried (there and then). “I was absolutely stunned”.

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Aanchal finds marketing extremely important for an independent song as it needs all the more thought through campaign. A product in itself can be brilliant, as per the maker, but the true sense of it is with the release, how the world reacts to it. And to make it reach the world is a marketing plan. “Today I am all that I am because of my brother Lakshya who plans and does marketing and PR for my songs”.

The talent called folk, must have come from such banjaras and artists like us today only polish it by re arranging it. She planned the whole campaign with her brother, Lakshya, who is the force behind her marketing campaigns and distribution. “We wanted this basuri wale bhaiya to go to the people we know, play “Laiyan Laiyan" to them live and hand over a basuri as a token of Love. We checked with him, he said a "YES" and our campaign was live. I know the times are tough, people hesitate, but trust me, when I spoke to him about his journey and his earnings, I realised, our times are not as tough as his and his family. Playing basuri is his only source of earning. With our campaign, we tried to help as much”, she adds.

Further, the “Din Shagna da” singer shared about how an indie artist puts their brains over money to create bigger and better impact for their song releases, “Honestly, I feel planning a song release by sending goodies is the most common practice by artists, that I have seen in recent times. Putting brains over money is a little that I believe and think of. One of the major reasons is "I do not have huge money!". As an independent artist, I have to begin from budgeting the making of a song first, and then move on to doing the marketing. We do not have investors or labels to back us. To package even non-expensive goodies is difficult for us. I do not have that money at all. My past agency experience says "Most inexpensive idea is the biggest of an idea" and I function this way, I try to put brains over money. Efforts that touch hearts, create impact, let the person and that day stay in the memory for years is what a true release or announcement would be”.