What: A product for LIVE venues to have an “open channel” in some spaces or at some times. An “open channel” which plays the music of any band which cares to call in and play its music over the call. The arrangement will also relay the feedback (boos, claps, comments) of the audience back to the band.

The arrangement might be self-assembled or procured from some source.

How?: The venue which wants the call-in music service will need a phone (mobile or land-line) with its audio-out connected to the sound system, and a few microphones placed around the venue (to relay the feedback) connected to its audio-in. And of course they will need a valid phone number. That’s all. They can sign up to receive call-in music.

Bands with access to the call-in number can just call-in to the number and perform their music. For a richer experience, they can connect microphones and a mixer to the audio-in of the phone and a speaker (to listen to the feedback/response of the audience of the venue) to the audio-jack of the phone. If they are using a mobile phone they can literally perform anywhere the mobile can find range.

Venues can choose to either have an ad hoc system which takes all calls and lets they carry on for any duration, or they can specify durations after which the system will disconnect the call and be open to new callers.

Why?: The Internet seems to offer instant audience to all musicians/performers. It seems to have its own demand-based dynamic. The offline world offers no such possibility. Landing a gig can depend on all kinds of factors, from one’s social network to one’ looks to the genre of music one plays.

This hypothetical (so-far) service and product would attempt to setup a “open channel,” along with its opportunities for abuse, in Bangalore. The effort would be to involve restaurants, offices (waiting-rooms), malls and other public venues in this experiment and see if offers bands, musicians, spoken word performers etc. more liberating possibilities for sharing their work.

Link to full-size image: model-full.jpg