Many an invention takes place in the dorm rooms of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT),but it hasnt happened before that a group of music lovers from IIT came together to reinvent the independent music scene in India. Be The Change Radio or BC Radio,which went live on July 15,is an internet-based radio channel aiming to bring about a change in the Indian music scene. Four students from IIT-Bombay Kritin Joshi,Dhruv Joshi,Kaustub Pandey and Saurabh Agrawal say it is the lack of knowledge about laws and contract issues with regards to the independent music bands in India that has prompted them to put up music online,to be accessed by anyone. The current catalogue includes bands such as Parikrama,Something Relevant,Demonic Resurrection,Skyharbor,Noiseware,Swarathma,Baiju Dharmajan and Them Clones. There are few avenues to put up music for sale online,whereas offline distribution requires signing of exclusive deals,and that is why a majority of bands and artistes suffer, says Pandey,a final-year BTech student from IIT-Bombay. The website Bcradio.in looks sleek and no-nonsense. Theres a clear segregation of rock,metal and jazz music on the homepage. Unlike other channels,labels and studios,BC Radio will not fight for monopoly over the artistes. We have no intention of stopping them from exploring other avenues of showcasing their art or earning money. We do what we can do best with the technology weve learnt,and offer a flawless audio-visual experience, he adds. So how is the group going to achieve the change? Were working on some cool add-ons to enable people to share their playlists. We are also working to enable bands to have their unique URLs,which contain all their social media in one place,interlaced with the radio format, says Pandey.
