Vh1 to bring '100 Pipers VH1 Sound Nation'

Live shows across six cities over 10 days will see Indian English artists performing, ending in an award show on May 11

Sohini Sen | Mumbai | April 24, 2014

Vh1 is all set to introduce their newest property in the live space. Bringing some of the best known Indian English musicians, '100 Pipers Vh1 Sound Nation' will be a music extravaganza featuring different musical genres.

Sponsored by Seagram's 100 Pipers, 'Sound Nation' will feature 28 artists and bands – both upcoming talent and established artists – performing 23 gigs over a period of 10 days. It is set to start on May 2, 2014 and will culminate in an awards night on May 11, 2014.

Girish Patil, AGM Marketing, Pernod Ricard India, commented, “Our association with music has been a long standing one and we are excited to partner with Vh1 for Sound Nation which aims to celebrate and recognise local music talent. 100 Pipers Vh1 Sound Nation will engage music lovers through live performances across the country leading to an awards night.”

Though the main event will be on-ground, some gigs as well as the awards night will be telecast. Sound Nation will feature some of the biggest names in the Indian English music scene, including Parikrama, Midival Punditz, Indus Creed, and Nucleya. The artists will be performing across the 6 metros – Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Pune – in a plethora of genres from Rock to EDM, Hip-Hop to Blues, etc.

Ferzad Palia

“Sound Nation will bring the best of Indian talent to the platform we are providing. We have two objectives. One is to showcase the homegrown talent, and two is to celebrate them. So the award show will have 13 categories and will recognise and celebrate the cream of talent,” said Ferzad Palia, SVP & GM, English Entertainment, Viacom18 Media.

Vh1 has already brought international artists to India through their international format shows like 'Rock Rules', 'Jazz Masters', 'Hip-Hop Hustle' and 'Handpicked'. However, for Sound Nation the plan is to stick to Indian musicians only who will belt out original numbers. The channel hopes to give an international platform to the deserving talent. For this they are already in talks with Viacom International.

“We are scaling up Live, because we feel Live is growing bigger every day. I think it has doubled in the last one year and is likely to grow even more, maybe not at the same rate, but grow it will. It is a time when the Indian music and entertainment industry is finding new ways to create differentiated property,” added Palia.

To market such a big event, Vh1 is leaving no stone unturned. The artist videos are already on air. It will be heavily promoted on television, print, outdoor and digital.

“There are logistical issues in organising such a property, especially when they are of the indoor format. The level of precision required is different. But it is good because advertisers are more encouraging and supportive now of Indian English music,” Palia concluded.

According to Palia, Vh1's four strong holds are television, live space, digital and the soon to be launched consumer products section. While TV has always been the strongest and digital has grown with Facebook and Twitter, their main focus for now will be on the live space. Just like Comedy Central, they also plan to bring out Vh1 merchandise to introduce their consumer products line.

Sohini.Sen@BestMediaInfo.com

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