MUMBAI: At a time when multiple companies are putting their might behind pumping up their over-the-top (OTT) offerings like Hotstar, ErosNow, Sony Liv and HOOQ amongst others, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel) is not one to sit back. Putting the money where their mouth is, Zee is upping the ante in by launching original digital content for its OTT and digital platforms.
In order to offer content anywhere and at any time, Zeel has got its entire digital ecosystem - Zee Digital Convergence (ZDC) - and its content studio – Essel Vision Productions - to design and introduce an instrumental musical show -#LifeIsMusic.
Starting 15 June, the seven-week series will be available on its OTT platform DittoTV and digital platform www.lifeismusic.in.
Original content (both long and short) has emerged as a new form of storytelling in the digital space as millennials continue to alter their entertainment consumption habits. Banking on this very same learning, Zeel has now got into producing original content for its digital platform. #LifeIsMusic celebrates world music and highlights the true value of musicians who are experts in the instrumental genre.
The multi-platform instrumental reality series will be available for audiences all over the globe and will showcase the value of instrumental music in a holistic manner - across a variety of popular and melodious music genres.
#LifeIsMusic will feature regular upload of unplugged original music compositions every Monday and Friday for a duration of seven weeks. The show has three renowned maestros on its panel - Louiz Banks (the Godfather of Indian Jazz and Grammy Award nominee), Taufiq Qureshi (ace percussionist) and Purbayan Chaterjee (one of the leading young Sitar players of India) mentoring budding professional musicians. Each maestro will form a band of four musicians each of whom specialize in different instruments - like percussions, rhythm guitars, bass guitar, sitar, sarod, flute etc.
The show will be promoted across all the major websites including zeetv.com, zeenews.com, india.com, dnaindia.com, bollywoodlife.com, dittotv.com amongst others.
Over the past few months, the video on demand (VoD) industry has been witnessing major activity as these platforms have become an extra content delivery arm for major entertainment business houses. While earlier the VoD platforms were used as a source for archival content, the new players are bending the rules. In order to gain eyeballs, the players are not only making original content, but also premiering movies and songs.
Zee Digital Convergence CEO Debashish Ghosh said, “#LifeIsMusic is a clutter-breaking original concept with a goal to inspire passion, unleash creativity and realize dreams in a digital era of free downloads. We are confident that the series will soon become a favourite destination for all music lovers - especially when you want to experience quality music never heard before. This exclusive series aims to engage, educate and entertain the youth about the variety and possibilities that exist with instrumental music. It will reach out to around 50 million viewers, making it a truly global multi-screen phenomenon! The platform also seeks to encourage aspiring musicians to showcase their talent to global audiences - and demonstrate their skill and creativity transparently to global music talent scouts.”
Essel Vision business head Akash Chawla added, “Zee has always set new benchmarks with innovative content across platforms and as its content studio, With today’s evolving online world, producing #LifeIsMusic series is in sync with our aim to design content that empowers talent to achieve their creative visions across all mediums.”
