MUMBAI: CA Media Digital’s first venture, Fluence - India’s leading celebrity digital network which connects celebrities with their fans and brands through their online presence, has gone musical by signing India’s most prolific, versatile and renowned singer Shaan. VP digital and business head Ashish Joshi talks to Radioandmusic.com’s Dhairya Ingle about the association.

How has the year 2013 been for Fluence?

I think the year has been amazing for us, starting with Amitabh Bachchan and then we got Salman Khan. With these two film stars we have grown the space and have learnt a lot and are planning to implement the learnings on artistes we sign now, be it Sonu or Shaan. Since we are leading the space, we are setting an example for the people to follow us.

What are your plans for the year 2014?

We plan to acquire more and more celebrities beyond Bollywood and are in talks with a few sportsmen for the same. We intend to create a nice bouquet of 30- 40 people from various genres, which is our first aim. We also intend to launch a couple of properties around video services as we have not experimented much on Youtube. We will focus on Youtube and video services this year.

How different are the strategies for Sonu and Shaan?

Sonu and Shaan are two different personalities. Since Shaan was not actively involved in social media, our primary aim was to build a platform for him and then explore the peripherals. So we launched Shaan with a video, which was never done before. Contrary to that Sonu was super active on social media thus he already had that kind of a following. Also Shaan is a very different personality altogether and so you build your strategies suiting the personality.

Which are the other musicians or artistes that Fluence is in talks with?

We already have the best people on board. From the female perspective we would like Shreya and Sunidhi to come on board. We also intend to get people like Vishal Shekhar.

What are the criterions for selection of the artistes?

I think it is the number of years that they have given to the industry. When Sonu and Shaan are on stage they are not just singers but also performers, with a huge fan following. These are the things that inspire us to get them on board.

How different is it to handle a superstar like Amitabh Bachchan and then singers like Shaan and Sonu?

We just started building the Facebook page for Shaan and within a couple of months we have already got a couple of million likes and since Sonu was already here in the social media space, he has that fan following. Bollywood and the music space already have a reach. The only difference is that Bollywood stars are more exposed to the media, fans and consumers. The only scope for musicians to get connected to fans is through live shows. At times image management could be a little challenging with the Bollywood stars, but for the artistes it is the sheer love for their music that pulls a fan. They do not look for style, appearance or anything; it is just the music that is loved by the audiences.