The sound of a voice raised in song drifts out of the studio, down the corridor and into the room where we wait. On the other side of a glass door sits Santhush Weeraman - one half of Sri Lanka’s favourite pop band.
It’s been awhile since I last met BNS, and from the looks of it they’ve moved up in the world. The door swings open and the man we’ve been waiting for walks in. Though no one would confuse Anil Balasuriya and Santhush, the two artists are among Sri Lanka’s most ambitious musicians. BNS have taken Sri Lankan music to the international stage and Anil is determined to provide them with plenty of company within the year.
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| With Matt Glover-Manager James Morrison |
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| With Lord Clement Jones CBE -House of Lords, British Parliament |
Once a member of the celebrated band Independence Square, Anil is now known as the founder of the concert series Rockapalooza. A studio, a music label and a T.V channel dedicated to music videos for local bands is the next logical step. In the meantime he continues to write and perform his own music as part of the band Magic Vinyl.
Considering all they’ve accomplished, it’s no surprise that Rockapalooza and BNS were selected by the British Council for the Young Creative Entrepreneur (YCE) Awards programme. The Council sponsored their trip to Soundpad, where they got to network with the elite of UK’s music industry. Seminars and conferences ranged from how bands can make it big and practical tips on promoting themselves to problems the industry faces and what it’s going to look like in the future. Anil describes their four days at the music festival in Brighton followed by 4 days in London as “a real eye opener,” while Santhush settles “it was a total crash course.”
Over the next hour, the two men barely pause for breath. We begin with the future of the music industry. Pirates sailing the web will discover both BNS and Anil‘s discography are easily available. Why use itunes when you can have it for free? “This album is something I sweated over, and now someone can just download it without my permission,” says Anil. That the music industry is going to have to change its revenue model if it wants to turn a profit is old hat by now, but artists struggling to make a living have legitimate concerns. Everyone is scrabbling for a solution – enter entrepreneurs like Benji Rogers.
Anil met Benji, one of the founders of www.pledgemusic.com, at Soundpad. Pledge Music turns a bands fans into their biggest allies: they invite you to pledge as much as you wish, in exchange for which the band sends you demos, takes your advice and offers you music, front row seats, backstage access and exclusive merchandise. “To be part of creating the music...that’s a great thing for a fan,” says Anil, adding that such innovative approaches make the most of the bond between a band and its fans.
Envisioning a future where big organisations manage music clouds, Santhush talks about how marketing information will be the new currency. “The music industry’s future is going to be about creating relationships with people and turning that relationship into revenue models,” he says, adding “it’s going to be easier to access your music, and easier to make it.” Heady stuff.
Anil and Santhush have come back from Soundpad determined to find ways to apply what they’ve learnt to Sri Lanka. “Artists from all around the world are forced to be businessmen – they must produce and market their own music,” says Anil. “Even starting a website for your band is like going into business.” Santhush wishes this wasn’t the case. “We have created our own recording studios, started our own labels – that’s how we’ve survived.” Like Anil, Santhush and Bathiya would much rather devote themselves to creating new music, but feel they have little choice.
On the upside, they all see big things coming our way. Having made serious contacts at 'Soundpad', they plan to send Sri Lankan bands to participate in big festivals both in India and the U.K. Anil is keeping Pete Jenner’s advice in mind. The one time manager of Pink Floyd offered them this gem: “we don’t want another band from the sub-continent playing Oasis. We want something that will represent your culture.”
BNS have that down pat, and Anil is enthusiastic about the idea. “I think someone in this country needs to realise that the arts can be a huge tourist draw – it could be like how Sanath Jayasuriya put us on the map when he played in the world cup,” he says, smiling.
The Soundpad project was developed as part of the British Council’s Young Creative Entrepreneur (YCE) awards scheme which was implemented to develop a powerful professional network between creative entrepreneurs in the world and to inspire and facilitate the sharing of best practices in building skills and access to resources, professional development, markets, mentoring and resources thereby increasing opportunities for business between UK and the rest of the world.
British Council SL will launch the Young Music Entrepreneuer (YME) award programme in November 2010 as a direct result of the positive impact the Soundpad study tour had on its two delegates.
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