Hard Rock Café, which is a popular rock music venue, not just in the country, but around the world, has plans to branch out into dance music night once a month. The decision came after several brainstorming sessions were held. In an interview with Radioandmusic.com, JSM Corporation, associate vice president, marketing, Vikram Varma talks about expansion plans, single window clearances and much more. 

Excerpts: 

Recently, Hard Rock Café Pune and Mumbai opened its doors to EDM. How many more venues plan to play EDM? 

While we are known as a rock venue, today's youngsters are big fans of EDM, which is why we have introduced one night of EDM, once in a month. Except for the Worli venue, which is frequented by rock music lovers, I think most Hard Rock cafes in the country will have dance music night once a month. 

How did you decide to bring EDM to your chain of cafes, and how long did it take to implement the same? 

We started thinking about this at the beginning of this year, and brainstormed for about four to five months. We were contemplating whether or not the genre would workHard Rock cafes, but we finally implemented our decision. 

You received a lot of criticism for this decision. How did you deal with that? 

We know that there are some people who are not fans of this genre. But that is why we announce dance music events a few weeks in advance. So EDM fans can come to the cafe and rock music fans can stay away if they want. There are people who listen to both, rock music and EDM. Since weekends are the best time to have a good time with friends, the dance nights are held on Fridays or Saturdays. 

Will the decision of single window clearances help the live music space? 

Yes, it should. If you streamline anything and put a structure in place, it should definitely help the industry to grow. 

Any other expansions on cards 

For now its status quo, we are looking at the sites. Once the economy starts growing we will look at expansion. 

Hard Rock Café had tied up with Ola cabs for the IPL; will we see any such partnerships in the near future? 

These are strategic partnerships which happen when two likeminded companies come together. We are always looking at these kinds of partnerships, whether it is with Uber, Ola or any other company. We have a very active team which goes out to seek parties for our venues. This is when they get in touch with various marketing heads. We are in touch with the clothing brand Roposo, who has sponsored our dance music night called 'Insanium'. 

Are you planning to launch an app for Hard Rock Café? 

Yes we are planning to launch an app and are looking at the best solutions for that.