Hoopr India’s leading music licensing platform and Universal Music India (UMI), a division of Universal Music Group (UMG), the world’s leading music-based entertainment company, have partnered to launch an Indian music industry-first Artist Accelerator Programme, designed to provide emerging independent domestic artists with structured funding and support to create, release, and earn money from their artistry.
The programme aims to address key challenges faced by many independent musicians by offering end-to-end publishing, distribution, sync and micro-sync and brand opportunities. It will include the creation of a large catalogue of new original compositions, which will be released on Hoopr’s YouTube channel, Songfest, and published on its music-tech platform, Hoopr Smash. Songfest has previously collaborated with leading artists such as Monali Thakur, Shalmali Kholgade, Nikhil D’Souza and Ash King, and has also delivered award-winning brand music projects
Additionally, the programme will also make available a significant collection of iconic UMI classics for Hoopr artists to reimagine and recreate — a collection of these remixes will be released on UMG India’s Revibe YouTube channel.
UMG’s vast global distribution network and first-class ability to market music around the World, combined with Hoopr’s extensive community of independent artists, will provide emerging musicians with a unified platform to create new music with visibility and monetisation opportunities
To identify participants, curated auditions will be available to Hoopr’s community of 1000s of artists and will be conducted by UMG. Through this process, emerging talent will be selected. These artists will receive end-to-end support—including A&R guidance, studio access, mixing and mastering, music video production, and sync opportunities via Hoopr.
The programme is open to all genres and languages. At a time when independent music is leading India’s charts and brand sync opportunities are expanding rapidly, this joint programme offers a tech-enabled launchpad for the next wave of musicians.
Viral Jani, the Chief Revenue Officer at Universal Music Group in India and South Asia, said: “Our partnership with Hoopr is a strategic and creative one. We pride ourselves in being an artist- first label, and we invest equally in discovering emerging talent from anywhere, and in promoting some of the biggest superstars in the business. With Hoopr, we have found a perfect sync: their significant network of emerging independent artists will have the chance to create new music the way they want – especially in the case of recreating classics from the UMG catalogue. When this new music is combined with the extensive distribution network of UMG, these new artists will have the chance to reach audiences all around the world.”
Gaurav Dagaonkar, Co-Founder & CEO, Hoopr, said: “This program represents an essential breakthrough for India’s independent artist community – a chance, for the first time, for new musicians to receive the support they require to produce high-quality music, launch their music on an international scale, and make money doing it using transparent means such as sync or microsync. Our ambition has always been to create an ethical, opportunity-rich music ecosystem. In establishing this program, we have begun to achieve that vision. We are grateful to UMG for this partnership, which has created a first-of-its-kind collaboration and sets a new benchmark for the industry. We believe that this program will define how we identify, develop, and grow talent going forward”
