MyCarnatic: Nonprofit with goal of propagating Carnatic Musi

raghukumar · Post by **raghukumar** » 16 May 2008, 05:31

Hello All,

My name is Raghu Kumar, and I am initiating a nonprofit group, MyCarnatic, whose mission will be to promote and propagate Carnatic Music on a global basis to meet the needs of listeners, artists, teachers, and students. Our ultimate goal is to provide resources for the entire Carnatic Music community. Our first project is to put online a large database of non-copyrighted music, mostly of artists from yesteryears, in an easy to use website with an interactive media player and playlist options. This will be a truly revolutionary website, in that it will allow users to continually stream hundreds of gigabytes of music, while having the option to navigate the website for their other needs.

We are currently looking for leaders to help initiate our projects and become part of our core group. We are ideally looking for motivated individuals who share the common goal of wanting to promote and propagate Carnatic Music, non just to those within the Carnatic music community, but also wanting to propagate our music to those who do not know about our music. We are very early in the development phase, and it will take many months before the website launch, but nonetheless there is a lot of work to be done!

If you are at all interested in working with MyCarnatic, please contact me at:

[email protected]

Thanks!
-Raghu

mri_fan · Post by **mri_fan** » 16 May 2008, 05:44

Imnot sure that you need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to making a large database of non-copyrighted music. I think Sangeethapriya has done a great job of that..I think some of your other goals may be more important. Just a humble suggestion.

raghukumar · Post by **raghukumar** » 16 May 2008, 05:51

mri_fan wrote:Imnot sure that you need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to making a large database of non-copyrighted music. I think Sangeethapriya has done a great job of that..I think some of your other goals may be more important. Just a humble suggestion.

Definitely not trying to reinvent the wheel

Our music database is only the first of many future projects, we only want to make things as easy as possible for the end-user

kovilpallavi · Post by **kovilpallavi** » 16 May 2008, 16:01

Hello Raghu,,
Ur Thought Of Promoting Carnatic Music Is Excellent,,plz Go Ahead,,i Feel Like It Is Like An Oppurtunity For Me If I Can Do Any Help Regarding This...
All The Best..

Vimala Bulusu · Post by **Vimala Bulusu** » 16 May 2008, 16:23

Many more sites like MyCarnatic are welcome, considering the global need.
CM is an ocean.

kadambam · Post by **kadambam** » 16 May 2008, 20:49

Dear shri. raghukumar,

with all due respect, you are re-inventing the wheel in the name of 'promoting/propogating' carnatic music. Already sangeethapriya.org is successful in providing a huge collection of non-copyrighted music & there are other sites like Karnatik etc that provide a good collection of lyrics.

If you want to promote carnatic music, then you should take it to schools, preferably in non-urban settings, and that is where the real promotion is neccessary. A new rasika to carnatic music will not be born in the www world. www, worldspace radio, cable tv etc are good distribution channels for an avid carnatic listener. But, if you really want to promote carnatic music, take a bunch of kids from the under priveledged sections and initiate them to carnatic music.

Sathej · Post by **Sathej** » 16 May 2008, 21:06

kadambam wrote:If you want to promote carnatic music, then you should take it to schools, preferably in non-urban settings, and that is where the real promotion is neccessary. A new rasika to carnatic music will not be born in the www world. www, worldspace radio, cable tv etc are good distribution channels for an avid carnatic listener. But, if you really want to promote carnatic music, take a bunch of kids from the under priveledged sections and initiate them to carnatic music.

Well, to be honest, there are so many people even in the 'privileged' section and in urban areas who are blissfully unaware of Carnatic Music. So, its not necessarily a rural-urban divide here.
Sathej

ganesh_mourthy · Post by **ganesh_mourthy** » 16 May 2008, 23:00

In the previledged section the accesnt is more on jazz and light music and discotheque. this is vogue and only a miniscule can really appreciate CM. Let the previledged get enlightened and underpreviledged would follow suit.

raj-123 · Post by **raj-123** » 17 May 2008, 19:00

ganesh_mourthy wrote:In the previledged section the accesnt is more on jazz and light music and discotheque. this is vogue and only a miniscule can really appreciate CM. Let the previledged get enlightened and underpreviledged would follow suit.

What do you mean by underprivileged ? If they are not financially well off, well, they will be more interested in food, shelter and clothing first and will not appreciate CM? And instead of giving free food, give them means of getting food. Teach someone how to fish instead of giving fish, is the western or chinese saying. Make music part of school curriculum and that seems a good idea to me. Teach Sanskrit, Music, and other subjects in grassroots schools

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 17 May 2008, 22:33

raj-123 says, "make music part of school curriculum."
Yes, indeed!

Ganesh-mourthy,
I was puzzled too about your statement. You might not have meant it that way, but it came across as an elitist statement. Such statements will only make CM less agreeable or accessible to many who might get interested in it, listen to it and even learn it! After all, isn't that what we are all after?
Before CM came into existence, there was music-in the fields and households of every state in the south as well as elsewhere. CM owes a lot to those beginnings...

raghukumar · Post by **raghukumar** » 03 Jun 2008, 21:54

Dear Rasikas,

To follow up on the initial post, after having received some encouraging emails from rasikas, asking me how they can get involved, I am pleased to announce that MyCarnatic is coming along nicely. The website is finally in development, and we're working with a professional web design group. Here are some of the features to be included for the initial launch:

1)tens/hundreds of gigabytes of streamable music (noncopyrighted) on the website, using Flash, so that the user can continue to navigate the website while the music is continually playing in the background

2)playlist option, so additional songs get queued on visible playlist on website (free registration required)

3) "Learn About Carnatic Music"- the highlight of MyCarnatic, users will have the ability to learn about the music, ranging from beginner topics to advanced/sophisticated topics. Each topic's content will be written by a panel of writers, and will be accompanied by audio/video

4) Various resources available
a) concert schedules by city (worldwide)
b) concert schedules by artist
c) teacher listing by city
d) contact information for music organizations by city
e) find accompanist tool (main performers who are looking for accompanists can submit their concert information, and accompanists can contact them)

If are at all interested in working with us on any of this, please email me at

[email protected]

We have assembled a core group of members to lead the project, but nonetheless there is going to be lots of work to be done. However, we sincerely believe it will be well worth the effort since we will be providing some much needed resources to the Carnatic music community

Thanks!

siddarthcs · Post by **siddarthcs** » 04 Jun 2008, 22:58

Well, Raghu, congrats on coming up with such an awesome initiative! I think it's fantastic that you want to do this. I shall email you. I would love to contribute to the current music scene!!

And as for the others, come on people, support him! I definitely shall help in what little way I can. I think it's important to encourage such an awesome initiative. Enough of the sitting back and complaining/commenting; let's actually help this guy.

raghukumar · Post by **raghukumar** » 05 Dec 2008, 18:14

Dear Rasikas,

It it with great pleasure for me to inform you that the website is coming along fantastically, and should be launched within a span of a 2-3 months. It is taking a little longer than expected due to modifications to the original website structure, but I believe it is all for the better as the website will be turning out even better than expected

I have attached some screenshots for you all to view to see how the website will look. The highlights of the website will be the same as layed out above:

Music Search/Listening

Ability to listen to listen to hundreds of gigabytes of tagged music (by artist name, ragam, composer, thalam, album name, and song name)
Ability to do detailed searches by first specifying search category (song name, artist name, or ragam), then typing in the search term (list of suggested searches automatically will appear as you type term to help with spelling errors), then speciying which selection of song types you wish to include in the search results (any combination of Varnam, Krithi, Alapanai, RTP, or Other)
An embedded media player that is fixed on the website, so no annoying pop-ups: music plays directly on the website
Ability to add songs/albums to your own custom playlist (login required), so that the next time you visit MyCarnatic your playlist will stay intact

Screenshot of Media Player, Search Fields, and Sample Search Results Page
(please keep in mind this is just a screenshot, when the website goes live "Semmangudi" will be "Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer", there won't be spelling typos, and there will be a proper MyCarnatic logo instead of this temporary one)
http://projects.dburnsdesign.com/my_car ... de_v09.htm

Resources

Search for teachers in the USA and Canada by teacher name, instrument name/vocal, or State/City
Search for performing artists in the USA and Canada using same criteria as above
Search for Carnatic Music organizations in the USA and Canada by Organization Name or State/City, and pull up contact info
Search for concert schedules of artists

Screenshot of Example Teachers Listing (fictional teachers listed, don't contact!!)
http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/9654/teachersqt2.jpg

Now, I am requesting you all to help me out a little bit! For the resource listings (teachers, performing artists, concert schedules, music orgs), I spent a few hours compiling a bunch of publicly availalbe information online, and put them into google spreadsheets. I am sharing these spreadsheets for you all to view:

Music Organizations (USA/Canada)
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key= ... x85i9OdYCg

Teachers (USA/Canada)
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key= ... wgu6l_Y3MA

Performing Artists (USA/Canada)- incomplete
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key= ... XXdyVwSNVw

Concert Schedules (only for 2009; haven't begun yet)
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key= ... It87zxiFaA

I need your help in compiling this information!

Whether it's

Modifying information listed on any of the spreadsheets
Adding a new listing to any of the spreadsheets
Linking me to another website with available information
Getting me in touch with somebody (including yourself) who would like to personally help me compile this information (I can then give you admin status to modify the spreadsheets directly)
Any other way in helping me get this information

Please either reply back to this thread or email me at:
[email protected]

We also looking for writers for the articles page. On the articles page, writers will get their own personal "blogs", where they can write on any Carnatic Music related topics of their choice. Users can search for articles by visiting writers' personal blog pages (where all their articles will be listed), or by finding a listing of articles under General Topics. If you are interested in becoming a writer, please contact me at:
[email protected]

Thanks!

Cheers,
-Raghu