Qyuki, a digital music start-up backed by music composer A. R. Rahman and Bollywood producer Shekhar Kapur, has pushed the reset button.
The new media venture, which launched in late 2012 and picked up funding from Cisco, has pivoted and re-jigged its business model, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter.
The company has now shifted base to Mumbai from Bangalore. In the middle of 2013, it brought on board former Indiagames COO Samir Bangara, who led a fresh round of investment. “Whatever set-up Qyuki had before, which was mainly a Pinterest-like model that allowed artistes and content producers to engage and collaborate, is more or less gone now. What they are doing now is becoming a one-stop shop for all creators , starting with production and ending with monetisation and distribution,” said a source. The Qyuki network is more exclusive now.
It will look to sign up content producers and artistes that revolve around the film and music industries mainly, and will work to tap into the whole multi-channel value chain.
For instance, it now allows content creators and artistes to migrate into the Qyuki network, where they can use the company’s studios to produce content.
The artistes will not be charged for use of the studio, and, in certain cases, Qyuki will own the intellectual property and will take care of the distribution mechanism. Qyuki currently has a number of studios across the country which can be used by the artistes and music creators that sign up for the service.
Another new initiative is what the company currently calls ‘brand projects’ where artistes can sign up for content marketing campaigns posted by companies.
