CHENNAI: Lyricist Madhan Karky and his friend Kauntheya have now come up with an innovative music portal called ‘Doopaadoo’ through which independent musicians can showcase their talent and also be rewarded for their efforts. The platform, many say, is one that can bring about a revolutionary change in the way independent Tamil music is created and patronised.
Talking to City Express, one of the founders of the platform, Madhan Karky, who is also the son of six-time National Award winner Vairamuthu, said, “The term ‘Doopaadoo’ is derived from the word ‘dopamine’ which is a neurotransmitter. It is responsible for the happy centres and releases ‘happy hormones’ in the brain when one enjoys music. So, we wanted to name our platform and app after it.”
The duo plans to launch the portal and the app on April 20, and have collected songs from around 50-60 composers like A R Rahman, Santhosh Narayanan, Imman, Karthik, Anirudh and Andrea. So what’s special about Doopaadoo? “Firstly, the songs that people find on this platform will be exclusive. This means, the songs will be available only on Doopaadoo,” he explains. “Next, the songs are owned by their creators and not us. They give us a licence to play their songs and we share our revenue directly with the creators. They get directly paid from the very first release. And lastly, we pay our listeners to listen to the music.”
But where does the money come from? Says Madhan Karky, “From advertisers, of course! Every time a user plays a song, an ad appears. From the sum the advertiser pays, 40% goes to the creators and 10% to the listeners. The reason we pay listeners is to help us fight piracy and to actively discuss our songs and give us feedback.”
The way songs are chosen to be a part of the platform also seems to be different. “All the songs that we receive are put through a review process. They are sent to a critique board that follows a blind review system. By this, we mean that those on the board will not know who has composed the song and will only go by its merits. Their review is attached to the song and sent back to its composers.”
The idea for Doopaadoo came from this growing need among the music community to find out why non-film music was not doing well. Says Madan Karky, “Due to factors like piracy, the music community has not been happy creating songs. We did research to find out why non-film music was not climbing the charts, or even getting favourable audiences. We tried to identify the gaps and plug it and that is how we came up with Doopaadoo.” Once the website is launched on April 20, Karky and team will go with Tamil music. “From next year, we will look at accommodating other language music and subsequently go international.”