What’s ShowVelvet?

It’s a made-in-Calcutta app that verges on the social network space. On the one hand, there are musicians and dancers. And on the other, fans. As a fan, one can explore, interact and rate artistes and live shows all over the world, besides browsing schedules, videos and photographs. On the artiste side, one can self-promote and broadcast performances. Also, there is something for organisers who can explore artistes, find booking contact details and broadcast their shows. If that’s not enough, there is a blog featuring exclusive content.

And anybody can update followers on ShowVelvet with interesting posts (experience, photos, video links and so on) on the News Feed.

What kind of music and dance interactive platform?

Anything. Some of the featured musicians are Zakir Hussain, L. Subramaniam, Tejendra Narayan Majumdar, Tanmoy Bose, Amjad Ali Khan, Bickram Ghosh and Anoushka Shankar. Dancers include Mallika Sarabhai, Anita Ratnam, Birju Maharaj, Ashley Lobo and Isha Sharvani. What about indie or Bolly artistes? They will be added over the weeks.

“We have already started expanding to other genres of performing arts as we want to cater to live performers and fans across the globe in every category of music and dance, starting from Indian classical to Rabindrasangeet, from Western classical to rock, from ghazals to jazz,” says Indrayuddh Majumder, co-founder and CEO of ShowVelvet.

How is it different from Saregama Classical or Qyuki?

The focus is on interactivity. “Nowhere else can a fan explore and communicate directly with his favourite artiste about his art or know of him and his creations on a noise-free dedicated platform. Similarly, nowhere else can an artiste interact with his fans and directly broadcast himself for a wider fan-base across the globe on a noise-free dedicated environment meant only for the performing arts,” says Animikh Roy, co-founder and executive director of ShowVelvet.

When does the app go live?

The website is already live with 12,600 unique users from 127 countries. The free app is now available on Google Play Store while the iOS version is in the works.