Where are you based?
Chennai, Tamil Nadu (India)
Where do you work? What do you do?
I work for Think Music (one of the biggest record labels in South India), I’m the Creative Head (for Movies) and A&R (Leader) for our independent division.
What are you listening to?
Tamil Film Music from artists like AR Rahman, Anirudh and Yuvan. I’m a huge fan of Eminem, Coldplay, Ed Sheeran, Foo Fighters and One Republic.
How do you discover new music?
I find new music from Spotify Charts. I have a habit of tracking Spotify Charts every alternate day to discover new music and breakthrough artists. Another added advantage is that we can analyze the consumption of different genres in different geographics.
What formats do you usually listen to? LP, CD, Cassette, Digital, Streaming Services? Why?
I’m a huge fan of Apple Music (the quality is unmatched) the ease of finding new music through playlists is another added advantage.
We recently released an album titled “Hridayam” on both CD and Cassettes as part of the marketing campaign for the film also because we wanted to bring back the magic of analog music to the mainstream.
“My favourite listening routine is looking at the night sky with my Beats Studios on.”
Where do you do most of your music listening?
To me, music is everything, While working out/running while commuting music is always there. My favourite listening routine is looking at the night sky with my Beats Studios on.
How do you find and listen to pre-release music?
Being an A&R, yes I mostly listen to scratch tracks/unmixed tracks from the artists either in their studios or mostly through SoundCloud private links they send us.
What are your frustrations with listening to music digitally? Any benefits?
Discovering new music has never been this easy, I would definitely say it’s this digital consumption of music that has transcended boundaries for our regional Tamil music.
How do you keep track of everything you are listening to?
I take screenshots of the track that I love and keep adding them to a separate folder in my phone so that I can go back anytime and re-discover them when I want to.
Do you tip other people off to new music? How?
Yes, I keep sharing new music/artists on my Instagram Story, I also regularly make Spotify playlists and pitch new tracks along with the usual fan favourites to reach the masses.
Anything you want to “promote”?
It was one of my long time dreams to create an independent revolution in a market which is still heavily dominated by Film Music unlike the West. We started Think Indie for this exact reason and we have launched close to 13 independent artists till date. Artists like Vaisagh, Asal Kolaar, ofRo and Paal Dabba will be the next big superstars from Tamil Industry. Think Music on YouTube.
