JOIN USApple Music doubles down on promoting local music artists in India
Last year, at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, Apple Music launched a novel initiative 'Stream Local' in several countries including India.
Due to the Covid-19 safety protocol, state governments across the countries announced lockdown. This caused hardships to several local musicians. Most of them faced the risk of job loss due to cancellation of corporate events. As a double whammy, they were not able to travel to and fro between home and the studio to continue their work, thereby unable to generate income.
Stream Local segment on Apple Music gave more space for the domestic artists to present their new songs on the platform, which gives them access to the audience not just in the domestic but also global markets.
Continuing the efforts, Apple Music now offers City Charts in India. It combines the number of plays and additional signs of local popularity to rank the top 25 songs gaining momentum with listeners locally.
It is updated daily and is featured on the Charts page, in Browse, Search and Siri. They can also be added to your Library, downloaded, and shared with friends.
For now, Apple Music covers three cities in India-- Bengaluru, Delhi and Mumbai. More will be included in the coming months.
Furthermore, Apple Music announced a new 'The Up Next Local Artist Programme', a monthly initiative with an intention to identify, showcase and offer a bigger platform for rising star talent.
Each month, Apple's editorial team selects artists to promote the artist to the global audience. KRSNA, Mali, Prabh Deep are amongst a growing list of artists from India.
"The team at Apple Music has been behind us since day one - we started with nothing and just had a vision to do things our way - they understood that vision and have extended their support wherever necessary. Being a part of campaigns like 'Up Next Local' puts us on the same footing as some of the biggest artists in the world. It is allowed me to expand my creative network as well my audience and has helped me evolve as an artist. When you're an artist that's going against the grain - it's important for platforms such as Apple Music to provide avenues of support so that we keep pushing boundaries. And now as well, being able to listen to my music in Dolby Atmos has opened up a whole new frontier for my creativity. The ability to visualise my sonic experience - having in-depth control over how it's experienced by the listener - is something that I've always yearned for as a creator. Once you've experienced music in Atmos, you'll never go back to just listening in stereo,” said Prabh Deep.
Prior to The Up Next Local Artist Programme, Apple Music used to feature 'Hear It Here. First' segment. Here, upcoming artists were offered a platform to release their music exclusively to reach their audiences more effectively.
Also, Apple Music editors curate over 30,000 playlists covering all genres of music such as Hollywood, Pop, Hip Hop/Rap, Indian Pop, Dance, and several more. In India, the playlists support eight regional languages such as Kannada, Telugu, Punjabi, Tamil, Malayalam, Bengali, Marathi, and Hindi.
Additionally, Apple Music features Listen Now. It is powered by an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based algorithm, which understands the subscriber's taste such as most liked songs, genres and other parameters to offer a custom-made playlist.
Apple Music is available Apple App Store and Google Play Store. It supports iPad, iPod, Apple Watch, Apple TV, Mac, HomePod, and CarPlay in addition to popular smart TVs, smart speakers, Android and Windows devices. Furthermore, Apple Music is natively available through built in-app in select Porsche, Mercedes Benz, and Volkswagen models.
In India, Apple Music can be subscribed Rs 99 per month after a 3-month free trial for an individual. There is Apple Music Family Plan, which allows the subscriber to share the account with up to five people and gives each member a personal account, which is just Rs 149 per month. For students, it can be subscribed for Rs 49 per month.
In a related development, Apple has updated the company's popular music creation app GarageBand. It is introducing new sound packs from top artists and top global music producers.
Now, users will be able to learn the art of remixing within the app by utilising two all-new Remix Sessions. They offer step-by-step video instruction and feature hit songs from Grammy Award-winning artists Dua Lipa and Lady Gaga.
With the new GarageBand 2.3.11 update, aspiring musicians can create songs with seven new Producer Packs. It comes with full of beats, loops, and instruments created just for GarageBand by some of the world’s top producers, including Boys Noize, Mark Lettieri, Oak Felder, Soulection, Take A Daytrip, Tom Misch, and TRAKGIRL.
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