If you are a fan of Ilaiyaraaja’s music you can now market his music CDs, says A. Muthusamy, audio and DTS sound engineer. His Honey Bee Music Studio, based in Coimbatore, has tied up with Ilaiyaraaja’s Raja Digital Co in Chennai to produce and market the maestro’s music CDs. Starting with the music CD of the upcoming film Magudi , Muthusamy will also market Ilaiyaraaja’s music of the 80s.
“We didn’t want to take the traditional route of approaching shops to sell his music CDs. We wanted an exclusive Ilaiyaraaja-only channel. And his fan clubs is the answer,” says Muthusamy. He adds that in Chennai alone, about 4,000 CDs of Magudi are distributed through Ilaiyaraaja’s fan network. There have been enquiries from his fans across the globe and every day Muthusamy despatches about 50 to 100 CDs. The CD cover has a smiling Ilaiyaraaja with his harmonium. “We got the unique design done through a printer in Hyderabad. Our objective is to take his music to a wider audience and increase his fan base,” says the sound engineer.
Soon, he plans to approach village panchayats too. “We want to start off with Coimbatore, for example Narasipuram or Aalandurai. Through the village head, we select a dealer from an economically poor background. We will give him the CDs free of cost. He can sell it to the villagers in any format, as audio CD, MP3 or in pen drives,” he explains.
If a village has 5, 000 people, the dealer visits them at home. “Now, everyone downloads songs on cell phones, but the quality we offer will be unmatched and it will cost less. For example, our download cost will be something like Rs. 3 for every song. And, every rupee that comes as profit gets equally distributed among the dealer, as royalty to the maestro, and to a social service trust of Honey Bee,” he says. There are also talks on with the transport department to come up with pen drives that can hold 80-90 songs of Ilaiyaraaja and run for five hours.
The model is applicable to all copyrighted Ilaiyaraaja’s music, right from the 80s. Muthusamy has picked Ilaiyaraaja’s songs from old films and enhanced the quality and strength of the audio through a painstaking manual process. “ I have done over 6000 songs from his popular film such as Mudhal Mariyaadhai , Kaaki Sattai , Kadalora Kavidhaigal , Karagaattakaaran , En Raasavin Manasiley …to name a few. It was the age of acoustic recording with channelised music with live orchestra. I divide the frequencies as LCR (Left, Centre, and Right), LS (Left Surround), RS (Right Surround) and Sub Woofer and enhance every individual channel, be it the violin, drums, flute, or the veena without tampering with the original composition,” he explains.
The objective is to take his music to the masses in a quality audio format. “Everyone who listens to his music knows about his genius in every single composition. All his music will now be available in any downloadable format.”
Honey Bee Music Trust plans to...
Sponsor education of economically deprived children
Set up a museum In Theni And Courtallam on Ilaiyaraaja
Take the maestro’s music to the London Museum
Initiate a signature campaign for a Bharata Ratna award for the musician
