Midival Punditz’s Tapan Raj Launches A Series Of Gigs

Tapan Raj Photo: Varun Bhatnagar

The relationship between music and technology has evolved into a largely symbiotic one. Over the last year, we’ve seen a number of Indian artist and EDM-centric apps on Android and Apple stores including those launched by Midival Punditz, Karsh Kale and Anoushka Shankar.  It came as a surprise that Tapan Raj, one half of the Delhi electronica project Midival Punditz, had helmed SnapLion, an online platform that helps create apps for musicians and artists across the country.  The platform creates free apps ensuring that the fans never have to pay to download the apps of their favorite artists.

Raj hit upon the plan last year with friends Rohan Gupta and Nikhil Sama after he realized how tedious it was for an artist or a band to create a music app inIndia. Typically, a band that needed an app would have to go to a development company ”“ an arduous, expensive process ”“ and a basic application would take as long as three months. SnapLion’s process is a lot simpler and quicker. “We thought it would be awesome if the artist could go to a website and create their own app from scratch without any knowledge of coding. The artist already has all the content required to go into the app, so why not give them the freedom to decide how the content should be presented to their fans,” Raj says. The artist can go back to the website and with a few clicks, add and edit content in the app. “The idea was to make this app creation and management process simple and intuitive and not too technical,” adds Raj. Each application provides everything from music, videos, event updaetes, news and photos to mailing lists and merchandise information.

SnapLion is currently creating applications for the event management agency Submerge, Canadian rapper, Humble the Poet, Jitter (Jayant Luthra) and Kohra (Madhav Shorey). Raj is also focusing on the music side of this relationship by launching a series of events called “SnapLion All Stars,” which will lead up to a launch next month. The first gig, slated for July 14^th, features Raj and Dualist Inquiry. Of course, all the information is already available on an app created specially for the event on Android and iPhone stores.

We also asked Raj for his list of Top 10 Mobile Apps and threw in everything from music apps to flight trackers:

1. Shazam – I am amazed by this app very time I use it. Gets which track I want it to identify 9 times out of 10.

2. SoundCloud – A great portable version of the website. Gives me updates if there are new tracks from my favourite artists.

3. Flipboard – Fantastic way to read online content. I even prefer to use Facebook and Twitter on Flipboard’s layout than on their own apps.

4. Radio Paradise- My favourite Internet radio station finally became portable. I use it everyday.

5. TouchOSC- Fantastic customisable interface that can be used to control music software’s like Logic or Traktor.

6. Zinio – My favourite magazine reader. I prefer it to Apple’s Newsstand app

7. iTeleport – This app allows you to control your computers remotely. Been using them since they were called ”˜Jadu VNC’. The app just keeps getting better and better

8. Dropbox- I think they were the first guys who made cloud storage popular. Gives me access to important projects and files while on the move

9. FlightTrack Pro- A great app to track flights worldwide. A must have for travellers.

10. C.B.R.- The Comic Book Reader ensures that all my favourite comics are with me when I travel.

SnapLion All Stars. July 14, 9pm onwards at Cheri.