Now, book concert tickets for whole music season in one go

Attending music concerts during the Margazhi kutcheri season (from mid-November to January) has always meant people having to go to different sources to keep a tab on the events happening at different venues in Chennai. Then, they would have to wait in long, crowded queues for tickets. With an aim to simplify this process for music lovers, the digital platform Music of Madras took birth in November 2017, as an Android app that listed all the upcoming events in the city — in music, dance and drama.

“The initial version of the mobile app ‘Music of Madras’ only carried listings of all the upcoming concerts and programmes in performing arts. After a year, in 2018, we renewed the platform with a ticketing feature, which allowed people to also book their tickets for the events. One of our team members would go to the sabha or the concert venue to pick up the ticket and deliver it to the buyer at his or her doorstep. This year, we have decided to introduce a ‘Season Pass’, which lets rasikas buy tickets for all concerts of their favourite concerts across venues in the city in one go,” K Kalyanasundaram, the founder-director of MDnD Entertainment, the company behind the app, tells DT Next.

In a few simple steps, spending just about 15 minutes, a music lover can choose all the concerts he or she wishes to attend during the season. The app’s features will display all events happening at a particular venue, or by a particular artiste, or depending on the kind of music (instrumental, vocal, etc.) one is interested in.

So, one can choose from more than 2,000 events of over 900 artistes across 30 sabhas and venues in Chennai through the platform. “All one has to do is select the dates, and choose the events they wish to attend to obtain a Season Pass. We will collect all the tickets from across venues and deliver it,” adds Kalyanasundaram. The platform has tied up with some of the prominent sabhas in the city like Narada Gana Sabha, Mylapore Fine Arts, Kalakshetra Foundation, Brahma Gana Sabha, etc., for the same.

The most recent update to the app lets a rasika view previous performances of artistes through videos. Besides that, one can also read reviews of concerts by renowned music experts, and know the food menus of caterers at different venues through the app itself. “Sincemany people attend the sabhas during the music season mainly for food, we wanted to include the menus as well,” he adds.

“Since most of the sabhas in the city are very old and not automated, we hope to convert hundreds of rasikas who rely on booklets to keep track of concerts to use our app,” asserts Kalyanasundaram. With about 1,000 daily users currently, the platform aims to attract more users during thismusic season.