Making music-streaming mainstream

Creative minds behind ‘Mango Musik’ share what the upcoming online portal has to offer netizens

LAHORE:

Dwindling number of concerts, unpromising record labels and the indefinite ban on YouTube have proven to be nails in the coffin of Pakistan’s music industry. While online portals seem to be a crucial medium for lending stability to music around the world, there are currently only a few, including Patari, still in its beta version, and Taazi that hasn’t picked up pace yet, which have been trying to keep local music alive for netizens. Someone who wants to search for Pakistani music online is equally at a loss as the one who wants reach out through music. To address this music-auldron, a DJ Fuzzy is set to launch online portal Mango Musik on June 7.

Colloquially known as DJ Fuzzy or Fuzzy Nocturnal, the artist, who prefers to keep his name under the wraps, has been producing music for over eight years in both Karachi and Lahore. One of the creative minds behind Mango Musik, he revealed the inspiration behind the title, saying, “I didn’t have much to do with the name, but my friends said, ‘If Apple can become so big, why can’t Mango?’”

Mango Musik is backed by ITD Hub, a software development company that will launch two websites. One, titled Mango Musik Local, will be exclusively for local music and run by brothers Talha and Usama Humayun, and one dedicated to EDM, will be helmed by Talha and Fuzzy. Talha and Usama, the latter has previously worked as Noori’s manager, wanted to make a website to promote and store local music and Fuzzy suggested the idea of a running a radio-format website. He said his four-year experience working online as a RJ for a radio channel in Argentina would help him facilitate the project.



“The website will follow the format of radio, where a song will play nonstop. There is no other such local website to date,” shared Talha. “The website will also include radio, video and jam sessions, and archives of artists, but only of music that is already available in order to avoid copyrights issues. We will only use material that artists want to promote themselves,” Fuzzy explained.

Mango Musik will be launched at a music festival, featuring both established and upcoming names in the country’s electronic dance music (EDM) circle, including Nauman Asad, Salaar Khan, Fawad Khan, Bilal Brohi, DJ Barrister, Faisal Baig, Curtis Kelevra, and Fuzzy himself. Fuzzy excitedly shared that the festival will see 3D projections on a 40x20 ft stage with a visual jockey working on visual effects —  a first in Pakistan.

Fuzzy feels Mango Musik will give struggling musicians a platform to promote themselves through social media and the internet at large. They also plan on having ‘boiler room’ sessions and creating video sets to promote artists in the near future. He claimed he’s the first person to bring international DJ Anthony Papa to the country, followed by Jimmy Van M in 2011, who visited twice, once for the launch of his label Bleu Records and then, for an event in Lahore.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 29^th,  2015.

Like Life & Style on Facebook, follow @ETLifeandStyle on Twitter for the latest in fashion, gossip and entertainment.