Blogswara has been featured again in the media. This time it is Metro Plus, The Hindu, Kochi edition.
Check it out online in The Hindu website or click on the image below to read.
Blogswara in The Hindu, metroplus, kochi edition
Starting from the year 2006, Blogswara has released 6 online albums with 61 original songs in 5 Indian languages (Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada) by 101 individual artists. So much effort has gone into the release of each Blogswara album by everyone involved in this project. What Blogswara aimed for was never a commercial benefit out of it, or to make a band of our own, but to promote amateur music and give a platform for musicians who otherwise would not have been heard in the public. People who have participated in Blogswara have dreamed of sharing the music for free using the power of Internet. Many people who have participated in the Blogswara, who have worked together on a song, have not even met in the real world but made music happen. It was proof that music can unite people. It was all this and much more that has kept the spirit of Blogswara going.
But we think not everything is fair. Our audience has been consistent but limited, considering the wide reach that the Internet offers. And I think that the Blogswara members / musicians deserve a wider audience for the effort they put in. And we tried to reach out to the world. We had our bit of media publicity too. But it seems that the best way to reach out to a wider audience is through tapping the offline audience that comes in huge numbers.
You need money and marketing techniques to promote an album offline. Since Blogswara is a non-profit entity, it is impossible to pour in money. The other way is to get your songs and the concept aired through the radio – but they don’t seem to be interested in broadcasting anything other than filmy music.
At this moment, I think the time has come to think of a revamp, a fresh outlook to the whole concept. Keeping in mind that the very idea of Blogswara came through various discussions with online friends, I request you to put your thoughts, answers or criticism in the comments section.
Please take your time and give us your thoughtful inputs. look forward to that. Thank you!
I must thank Indian Express for their continued support to a non-commercial platform like Blogswara. This article appeared in their Kochi edition in the beginning of the month. Thanks to you guys, for your continued support to sustain the uncelebrated, off-stream music. (By the way, have you heard the songs yet?)
Express Features
First Published : 05 Mar 2010 12:48:00 AM ISTKOCHI: Blogswara , the internet music community that acts as a common platform for amateur musicians, has released its sixth album.
The album has 14 songs sung by 22 new artists in four Indian languages.
A free music movement where visitors/ listeners can listen and download mp3 files free of cost, Blogswara (www.blogswara.in) began as a blogging initiative by a few people around the globe, who loved to sing.
Till date, many of the singers associated with Blogswara have not met each other.
According to Joseph Thomas, who was one of the first to launch the concept of Blogswara, the attempt is to showcase the hidden talent of amateur singers before the world by producing original music and sharing it over the internet.
“Soon after the release of Blogswara version 5, we had begun with the work of the 6th album. For the first time, we have included a Telugu song, last time we had included a Kannada song. It’s the first time that so many amateurs are joining the effort, last time we had 15 new singers,” says Joseph.
Professional singers like Pradeep Somasundaram and TV anchor Divya have also rendered their voice for the album.
Blogswara proves that people, wherever they are or whatever languages they speak, can come together for a cause – here the cause being music.
And the digital age has made it easy for them to collaborate, the blog says.
True to its tagline, ‘United in Music’, the album has many lyricists and music composers from across the globe, who worked from their respective places together to come up with the album.
What better way to celebrate this year’s Holi! Celebrate it musically!! Go and listen to the songs from Blogswara‘s 6th online album which has just been released. This album comes with 14 songs in 4 Indian languages and 22 new artists. Listen to the songs from the website and share the buzz with your friends. Tweet it, blog it, post it in your Orkut/Facebook pages and show support the best platform available for free independent music and let the Blogswara saga continue!
Our special thanks to Jyothis E for his continued support in providing the space to host the songs and to Pradip Somasundaran for all the technical help extended. Thank you both! And to the panel members who spent their time reviewing the songs – Vijay, Nandu, Roshni and JK. Thank you!!
Follow us @Blogswara for Twitter updates.
It is time for another version of Blogswara! Yes, it is Blogswara’s Sixth album!! We have posted the song teasers in our website, so hop over there to listen to the song previews.
We have 14 songs this year and in four languages – Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil & Telugu (introducing Telugu for the first time in Blogswara) many new talented people being introduced through Blogswara..
So watch out for 1st of March for the grand release of Blogswara Version 6. And do spread the word around!
Visit http://www.blogswara.in & follow us on Twitter @Blogswara
It was in the last year that Vijay S had asked me to sing his first song for Blogswara. The song was called Kaathirundhen and it is one of the much appreciated songs of Blogswara’s V4 album. I loved that song totally and was happy to sing it with Sindhuja, a wonderful singer. I practiced the song a lot, recorded it multiple times, but fell ill just before I was to make the final recording. I had a terrible cough which was followed by sever throat pain. My voice was hoarse and this lasted for almost 2 months. I knew I wouldn’t be able to finish the song and I requested Murali R to sing it. The song came out very well with the vocals of Murali and Sindhuja.
I was glad when Vijay came up with another gem of a song this year and asked me to sing it. When I heard the song Azhaithadhu Yaaro at first I wasn’t sure if I could sing it. The shruthi of the song was way too low for my vocal range (I think my vocal range fits for the mid-range songs, not too low and not too high) and I expressed my concern over it. Especially the parts like “kaaNaamal kaaNaamal maayam” in the 1st charanam were too low for me and the song tempo was a bit fast. So the tempo was changed to be a bit slower and the shruthi a little higher. Still, the tempo did not leave much room for improvisations from vocalists but the song in itself was so beautiful and it did not need much improvisation.
Vijay S had started planning the song early, so we had enough time to practice the song. He first sent the song to Sindhuja and she was kind enough to record the song in her voice and sent it for me to learn. Vijay is a perfectionist but he also let the singers to take freedom in improvising at parts. There were so many emails sent back and forth and Vijay would also call me on the phone to discuss certain parts of the song or to explain the meaning of the song.
At one point of time, I thought I wouldn’t be able to do the final recording, because my sinusitis usually gives me cold and nose blocks in regular intervals. So I told Vijay that I might not be able to finish the song on time or he better get another singer. But he was confident that I would be okay and that is how my voice went in. 
The orchestration of Azhaithadhu Yaaro, done by Vijay N, has gone through a lot of phases and Vijay N has done a wonderful job. He has made video about this orchestration experiments and you can watch it here.
I never met any of the people who have worked with this song – Vijay S is in Bangalore and we talk only over the phone or chat through Gtalk. My communication with Sindhuja was limited only to Gtalk and emails, and I have interacted with Vijay N only through emails. Yet, we were able to do this song and I think that is the beauty of Blogswara. That it encourages people to come up, communicate and collaborate irrespective of the location and with their love and passion for music.
My recording devices: My laptop, Shure SM 58 Microphone, Cool Edit Pro software
Here comes that moment of the year again where we all get to listen to the songs of Blogswara! Blogswara’s version 5 has been released today at 12 AM IST in our website – http://www.blogswara.in. There are 14 songs in total for this album which includes songs in 4 langauges – Malayalam, Tamil, Hindi and Kannada – and instrumental music. Go to our website, listen to the songs and let the song teams know your feedback. And also if you like the songs, please do spread the word through your blogs and emails. By the way, I have sung two songs – Azhaithathu Yaaro (with Sindhuja) and Etho Oru Pookkaalam. Listen to both and let me know your comments.
I would like to thank each and everyone from the song teams who have worked hard to make this happen. You guys keep the spirit of Blogswara going on! Also thanks to our moderators panel who have been instrumental in the songs selection process. I want to specially thank Nandu Mahadevan for taking time to master all the songs through his busy work schedules and Jyothis E for taking care of the hosting of our songs and for promptly responding at the crucial times. Thank you both!! And to Connexionz and Don who have been helping us with the website hosting from the very beginning.
For those who don’t know about Blogswara yet, here is an introduction given below:
Blogswara (http://www.blogswara.in) is an internet music community which acts as a common platform for musicians (a majority of whom are amateurs) to showcase their talent before the world by producing original music and share it over the internet. It is also a free-music movement where visitors/listeners can listen and download the mp3 files free of cost. So far we have released 4 internet albums and Blogswara Version 5 is scheduled to be released by the year end. The songs are in multiple languages and so far we have had songs in Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada and Hindi. People from abroad have also shown interest in Blogswara. There is an American musician, who plays Sitar, will be working for this year’s album.
Blogswara proves that people, wherever they are or whatever languages they speak, can come together for a cause – here the cause being music. And the digital age has made it easy for them to meet each other and collaborate. Many of the individual musicians who have appeared in Blogswara have not seen each other in the real world but they are still able to collaborate. Human spirit is what drives Blogswara. Like the Blogswara tagline (United in Music) says here people unite in music.
The songs re-produced (cover versions) as well as original compositions or songs in this blog are not for commercial use, but for personal listening pleasure only.
