In times of COVID-19, artistes can record music in a studio setup without going to a studio

For the music industry, web concerts are the new normal in times of COVID-19. But there are challenges when it comes to streaming live concerts and one big challenge is sound quality.

Unclear sound of vocals as well as instruments can be a deal breaker for any live music event. And this is an issue which many artistes have faced while performing live online.

But there is now a solution to this problem.

Nikita Gandhi, who has given her voice for many Bollywood songs, including Aao Kabhi Haveli Pe from Stree, title track of the film Raabta starring Sushant Singh Rajput, recently performed for a live digital event which introduced her to a new app.

“I recently used Dolby On for an online concert and have been using it since then for many events. For us artistes, sound is number one concern because if sound is not clear the output is not great. But Dolby On’s interface is such that you can modulate the extent to which you want the app to enhance your sound and die out the background noise. Plus, streaming via the app is easy which is need of the hour for artistes who are stuck at home and digital is the only outlet.”

So, what is Dolby On and what it offers?

Dolby On is a free music and video recording and streaming app.

But recording sound and video can be done on any phone. So why use Dolby On?

When it comes to the sound aspect, the app listens to the sound coming in and automatically applies audio effects like compression, limiting, noise reduction, stereo widening, de-essing, among others.

In addition, artistes can edit the sound with sound styles like photo filters in Instagram, which allow users to apply sonic profiles to the recording.

This means that artistes can record music in a studio setup without going to a studio.

Gandhi pointed out that not just in the current times, but artistes do record songs on the go many times.

“There are times when big Bollywood songs have been recorded on iPhone. But not everyone has an iPhone and other phones do not have great sound quality and this is where such an app is a big help," she said.

Also, iPhones do not help in live streaming.

“An artiste can live stream through indigenous Twitch integration and second through RTMP (real- time messaging protocol). With the latter, one can live-stream to more platforms like YouTube, Vimeo, among others and here one has to choose ‘Custom URL as the connection option’, then copy and paste the platform’s streaming key and RTMP link and go live,” explained Ashim Mathur, Senior Regional Director, Emerging Markets Dolby Laboratories.

The streaming feature did come handy for the live concert organized by JioSaavn and Dolby On for which music artists including Ankur Tiwari, Nikita Gandhi, Taba Chake, Tejas Menon came together.

“Over the entire series, 3,000 people were streaming in real-time. Viewers watched the event after live streaming as well. On Facebook, each video saw around 5,000 to 6,000 views after live streaming. And when it comes to revenue, around 3.2 lakh has gone to artists who were part of this series,” said Akhila Shankar, Director, Brand & Communications, JioSaavn.

She added that live online events are giving artists more coverage.

“Many artists because of digital events are going live regularly because of which they have become household names. With live events artists are able to make money even during lockdown. And now brand interest for such events is also increasing.”

She added, “IPRS (Indian Performing Right Society) has figured out how licensing needs to work on digital streaming. They have issued a rate card. So, artists have direct money from gigs, and then there is money coming in from brands. Plus, we are paying money to IPRS which will go to song writers.”

But content that can be monetized has to be of good quality, she added.

"While coming up with live events in music space, the key challenge we were facing was people were recording music from home from their laptops or phones and the audio was not really great. Plus, you need a WAV format for streaming and people use different kind of bitrate," she said.

All these issues were solved when JioSaavn used Dolby On for the live concert.