RJ Malishka, Darshan Rawal, Nisha Narayanan and Rajat Uppal at the launch of RED FM's Indie Hain Hum

Only the evolved brands walk their brand manual talk and live its personality everywhere, internally and externally, and the irreverent, effervescent 93.5 RED FM belongs in that small, select list. To names its recent initiative supporting Independent music, the wacky but never frivolous marketing team put Independent Music + Indy Music + RED FM in its thinking hat and came up with the brilliant monicker, ‘RED Indies’. And this name represents a new lease of life for Independent Music which had been wallowing way under the FM airwaves radar dominated by Hindi commercial film music in spite of the superb creativity of so many excellent independent music individuals and bands.

A good Radio Network will demonstrate an emotional investment in the people and ecosystem it serves, and even though Radio is the most difficult of mediums to survive in, RED FM – supported, of course, by the fact that it has been amongst the most successful radio networks – not only announced RED Indies, but launched it in a manner and on a scale not seen in FM Radio for some time.

It first announced RED Indies at a big event in Delhi, where the RED Indies logo was revealed in the presence of several independent music artists. And then, at a sparkling event in Mumbai, launched a new show, Indie Hain Hum. The show was launched by Darshan Raval along with the RED FM team in the presence of a veritable Who’s Who of the music and independent music industry. And leading the entire presentation on stage with the artists and RED FM team, was RED FM’s Mumbai ki Rani, Malishka.

RED FM Team RJ Malishka, RJ Akriti, RJ Rishi Kapoor and Darshan Raval along with independent music artists at the launch of RED FM’s show Indie Hain Hum

This kind of investment to announce, introduce and market an initiative for the poor country cousin of popular-with–the masses music, ie Independent music,  speaks of RED FM’s belief in the new space it has unequivocally set out to own. RED Indies is a welcome platform to engage and bring out the independent music talent in India.

Indie Hain Hum: The new show, Indie Hain Hum, which will be hosted by Darshan Raval, is a special weekend show that promises to bring forth the immense potential of the rapidly growing Indian independent music industry.

Every episode will highlight an Indie music artist, who has grown to popularity from the roots and made it to the hearts of the Indian youth. The show will also give new musicians a platform to showcase their talent to the audiences.

Commenting on the launch of Indie Hain Hum, Nisha Narayanan, COO & Director, RED FM and Magic FM, said, “RED Indies is a completely language- and platform-agnostic channel and is dedicated to discover new music with a combination of artists from pan-India.

“RED FM’s vision has always been to play some great music for listeners, irrespective of its genre. It’s a humble effort by RED FM to blur the differentiation between independent and Bollywood music. We are confident that Indie Hain Hum, our first show under RED Indies, will mark the transformation of the radio and music industry to help grow the community of Indie artists.”

Singer Darshan Raval, “Music is something that brings people together, it has no boundaries and can be heard in any language. I am delighted that RED FM has started … Red Indies to support Independent artists like me. Indie Hain Hum will serve as a pivot where Independent artists will come together from all over the country to capture the essence of the evolving music scene in India.

“Being a host of Indie Hain Hum, I am truly looking forward to witnessing some new and engaging talent for the discerning music-loving audiences.”

In recent years, Indie music has gained momentum in the country. ‘Indie Hain Hum’ will play a significant role in bringing out the hidden talent in India as Independent music and artists significantly contribute to the music industry as well. RED FM will help bridge the gap and empower artists from regional states and push their talent and brilliance to an extensive audience as well.

Why the weekend? Because weekends are a bit slack, and weekdays are the money spinners for the difficult medium of FM Radio in India. But it is indeed laudable that thanks to RED Indies from RED FM, there’s finally a platform to promote and support independent artists and grow the independent music scenario in India.

More important, we see RED Indies as perhaps the biggest and best alternative to the weekday fare of Hindi film music, to grow the weekend.

It’s smart strategy, because the beauty of RED Indies is that it is also tailor-made as a concept for the digital domain, where independent-music fans hang out, and which can drive ‘ear-falls’ to the original weekend broadcasts of Indie Hain Hum and other properties, and actually end up building a large, lucrative audience, just as television led marketers from its staple weekday dramas to the weekends by growing non-fiction shows.

We are aware of the quality of music Independent artistes are producing, so the quality of content, that RED FM’s excellent creative team will handpick and curate, is never going to be a question. And having seen the RED FM Marketing team’s past campaigns, one’s sure the marketing too will remain strong. So RED FM should definitely grow ‘appointment listening’ on the weekend from those GenZ and younger millennial youngsters who have an ever-growing affinity for, and who vibe with, differentiated music.

Radio needs to expand its prime days from five to six and then seven, and this focus on Saturdays will inspire other networks to think of expanding their offerings to listeners and marketers to the weekends with differentiated content. To our mind, the single largest chunk of attractive musical content, after Bollywood music, is Independent Music. Through RED Indies, RED FM  has taken that.

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