Music flows with Dhadkan.com

Dhadkan.com is a brand associated with Indian music and has become a comprehensive portal and a one-stop access point for Indian music. The mission of the site is to bring together artistes, audio companies, and music lovers on a common platform and promote Indian music in all its
forms and genres globally with the support of the industry.

Currently the site has built significant depth in content ranging from Hindi film music and Indi-pop to Hindustani classical music as well as Ghazals. The site has information on albums, artists, issues as well as forums to discuss and exchange music with fellow surfers across the globe.
Dhadkan.com also offers audio clips, contests, countdowns and facts on instruments as well as providing answers to subtle nuances in music through its online Hindustani classical music glossary and an Urdu dictionary.

Dhadkan's business model is two-fold: digital delivery of music and artiste management. Dhadkan is taking both these activities online to leverage the strengths of the Internet of greater reach and wider distribution. Siddharth Taparia, founder and CEO,
Dhadkan.com said, "The Indian child grows up with three major influences in life--parents, school and the Indian cinema and these influences are equally applicable both to the urban and the rural child. One of the integral parts of Indian cinema; mainstream or off-beat; is the music, popular not only with Indians but also Non- resident Indians and a large section of non-Indians who are enthralled with the extravagance of Indian music."

Dhadkan has begun its endeavor of delivery of music with the launch of the Dhadkan E-Store. The site has partnered with
Indiaplaza.com and has launched e-commerce to deliver CDs and cassettes globally. With a catalogue of over 15,000 titles, warehouses in the US, UK, Singapore and Mumbai, India, and over five years of experience in e-commerce, the management of Dhadkan is confident that it has chosen the right partner to manage the logistics of delivery.

Dhadkan.com intends to launch secured digital distribution of music in the first quarter of 2001. Considerable work is being done in technology development and content creation along with the artistes the site has managed to tie up with for its artiste management.

Dhadkan has tied up with over 100 established names for managing them online. With the support of its board of advisory, which includes Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, Mehdi Hassan, Anup Jalota among others, Dhadkan is confident of creating a portal by the artistes.

The management is giving these artistes Web presence by January 2001 on Dhadkan.com and then managing events and concerts, selling merchandise and in essence creating an online brand with each artiste.

A formal launch of their homepages, which would have all information, would be done in January 2001. This would entail people actually booking artiste through Dhadkan, organizing concerts, selling tickets, creating new content (music) and secured digital distribution through revenue sharing agreements.

There would be considerable offline presence also--in terms of organizing events, creating fan clubs, concerts, selling merchandise at events. This activity is already initiated by Dhadkan, which is resulting in revenues.