GoanTimes May, 24 2019

06 Music
Friday, May 24, 2019 | www.goantimes.titosgoa.com | 12 Pages
Tiktok chooses different
road for Indian audience;
to launch music service
Whitney Houston
hologram tour
and new album in
the works 7 years
after her death
Vishal-Shekhar
surpass Coldplay and
The Chainsmokers
on a digital music
portal’s top
musicians’ list
Los Angeles: ByteDance Ltd., owner of the
popular video app TikTok, is developing
a paid music service that will challenge
industry leaders Spotify and Apple Music
in emerging markets, according to
people familiar with the matter.
ByteDance expects to introduce
the new app as early as this fall in a
handful of territories, mostly poorer
countries where paid music services
have yet to garner large audiences,
said the people, who asked not to be
identified because the plans haven’t
been announced. The company has
already secured rights from T-Series
and Times Music, two of India’s largest
labels, according to executives with
those companies.
While the new app isn’t named after
TikTok, ByteDance will try to convert
some of TikTok’s audience into paying
customers, the people said. TikTok and
Douyin, its Chinese equivalent, have
been downloaded more than 500 million
times and have become two of the most
influential apps in the contemporary
music industry.
ByteDance, based in Beijing, declined
to comment.
The new app will include a catalog
of songs available on-demand, as well
as video, and isn’t a clone of Spotify or
Apple Music, according to the people.
The app is far enough along that many
music industry executives have been
given demonstrations of it.
ByteDance’s plans for a paid service
were previously reported by the South
China Morning Post, but the story
made no mention of the timing of its
release or the rights deals.
ByteDance is already one of the
world’s most valuable startups, valued
at more than $75 billion in its most
recent round of fundraising. The
company’s first signature app was
Toutiao, a news aggregation app whose
name means headlines.
Seven years after her death, Whitney
Houston may be coming to a venue
near you.
The pop icon's estate has partnered
with BASE Hologram to produce "An
Evening With Whitney: The Whitney
Houston Hologram Tour," the company
revealed in a statement on Monday.
The announcement comes on the heels
of a separate deal between the singer's
estate and Primary Wave Publishing last
week, which is also expected to produce
a series of new projects, including a new
album, a possible Broadway musical and
Vegas-style spectacle.
"Whitney Houston was unquestionably
one of the most important singers of any
generation," BASE Hologram CEO Brian
Becker said in a statement.
The show will include master
recordings of the late singer and feature
a live band and backup singers.
In an interview with Billboard, Becker
revealed production has already started
and the singer is expected to reappear
before adoring fans longing to see her
once again, or for the very first time,
hit those stratospheric notes in "I Will
Always Love You," sometime next year.
In an interview with The New York
Times, Houston's sister-in-law and
estate executor explained that the
aggressive marketing push is part of
a strategy to monetize her legacy and
simultaneously redeem the singer's
reputation which suffered from stories
of drug addiction.
Vishal Dadlani and Shekhar Ravjiani’s
individual identity as musicians has
earned them fans across the globe. But
the kind of love they garner from music
aficionados when they unite as Vishal-
Shekhar is commendable. While they
make sure that they keep their solo
projects going, the Vishal-Shekhar duo
gets music lovers hooked every time they
release their new work. So much so that
they and their offerings are among the
most browsed and consumed in the world.
A US-based news portal reports that
Vishal-Shekhar have surpassed the
likes of Coldplay, The Chainsmokers
and Maroon 5 on the list of a leading
music portal, which features musical
outfits that are most listened to across
the world. Talking about it, an elated
Vishal says, “It’s a good feeling to be on
a list with major names from around
the world. It just goes to show the reach
of India’s music and the potential of
India’s musicians, worldwide. I’m
glad that digital music platforms
have no boundaries, because of which
their consumption charts are more
democratic and all forms and regions
are included. That adds global value to
our position on this list.”
Shekhar adds, “We feel proud to be the
only Indian musicians to feature on the
charts. It’s encouraging and gratifying
to know that our work is loved not only
in India, but across the world.”
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