Folk Music Goes Digital In India

Folk music forms in India are rich and diverse, varying from region to region across the Indian landscape. The recent explosion of new media technologies (e.g. DVDs, CDs, mobile phones) in both rural and urban India is changing how oral folk music is being performed, produced, distributed, and shared. To further understand this impact, we conducted an extended field study across four field sites in India that are rich in folk music tradition and activity. Through a process of interviews, participant observation, focus group discussion, and content analysis with a varied group of stakeholders - including folk musicians, listeners, retailers, and radio show producers we found that 1) there are a diverse set of motivations for performing and listening to folk music, 2) new media technologies are helping folk musicians become more popular, while reducing some streams of revenue, particularly for businesses engaged only in music production and distribution, and 3) as expected, piracy is widely tolerated by musicians, both out of apathy, and an interest in reaching new audiences with their message, while increasing their own fame and associated patronage. Based on these findings, we propose some implications for the design of an appropriate folk music sharing and distribution service that addresses these various motivations of the musicians and listeners.