Music Insights

Raghav introduced me to www.last.fm - a music service with a whole lot of features. In a nutshell, this service tracks the music that you hear on your laptop (media player), recommends other songs of similar genre to you, and also connects you to people who share similar music taste.

They have something called a scrobbler which tracks your media player and updates what you have been listening to on a daily basis. So, in a way, the scrobbler is to music what people meter is to television.

Plus, the website has the required analytics to see the top tracks/top artists and other such statistics easily. What the service currently lags is an advanced search selection to see Top tracks with filters By country/ By age group/ By genre etc. This will be a tremendous market research input to someone like MTV/Channel V.

So, I decided to test last.fm on the music which I am most familiar with:- Bollywood

In the last week, the top 3 tracks of the following artists are as follows:-

Sonu Nigam (36480 listeners):
1. Aaj ki raat (Don) - 2007,
2. Title (Kal ho na ho) - 2003 and
3. Mujhe raat din - 1999

Shaan (22896 listeners)
1. Tanha Dil - 2002
2. Bhool ja -2002
3. Jab se tere naina - 2007

Shankar Mahadevan (24760 listeners)
1. Breathless - 2000
2. Jhoom barabar - 2008
3. Lakshya - 2005

To be fair to the TV guys, they have aired music videos of at least 4 songs from this list in the recent past. But the important thing is that from a sample size of approximately 50000 listeners none of the top 9 tracks (from the top3 artists) are from 2009 or 2010. And a closer look at the music listing of MTV , Channel V or NXM will show you the exact opposite statistic.

Hope Channel V and MTV analyze this data closely and go back to airing good music.    

Blame it on twitter

IPL and controversies go hand in hand. This season is no different. It started with the untouchable treatment to Paki cricketers which went on to fuel the SRK-Sena fire. Next, Ravindra Jadeja was shown the door for trying under the table tactics to switch teams. Our Lalu Moody, said the matter will be decided soon. Nothing came out of it, Jadeja is now hoping to show his wares in West Indies.

Next, was the miniscule problem of Deccan Chargers as all their home matches were shunted out of troubled Andhra. Then was the turn of Kings XI Punjab, who added to their losing streak, a tiff between Yuvi, Sangkara and Ness Wadia.
And now, the biggest controversy seems to have the capability to shake the power circles in Delhi!
Preview of the most important controversy of the IPL
MI (Moody Inc) vs CSK (Consortium of Secrecy from Kochi)
Venue: http://www.twitter.com/

Key Players:
MI: L Moody (captain and commissioner), Mr. Videokaun (corporate) , Shri. Safe (unique combo of Bollywood + cricket)
CSK: Sheeshee Tharoor , Sanki Sreesanth and …………………………. (cannot be revealed as per agreement)

On form:
Moody is the master of the game. His experience in controversies goes back to the cocaine days. Expect him to come out of this one unscathed. However, don't forget, Sheeshee is a tough nut to crack. It was on the same ground (Twitter) that he has made a name for himself. 5-star stay, cattle class, Saudi Arabia, all came on tweeting along. Equally important is the performance of Sanki Sreesanth, who is harboring captaincy hopes in the new team from Kochi. That explains his bowling performance for Punjab.

Weather Report:-
Strangely, although the match is played on twitter, it is getting hotter and hotter in New Delhi. Dubai has also reported a few tremors ever since.

Statistics:-
Moody: 26 tweets , 4 controversial , Strike rate: 24.5 , Man of the Controversy: 7
Sheeshee: 17 tweets, 17 controversial , Strike rate: 100, Man of the Controversy: 3


When they last met:-
Videokaun and Shri Safe tried to forge a new opening partnership but went home for naught. They managed a decent total thanks to the sahara of the other corporate honchos. The secret group had a decent plan in place, took a few Karbon Kamaal Katches and in a defining Citi moment of Success, was in the driver's seat.
However, in the 2^nd innings things changed dramatically. Moody regrouped his side along the way, took the strategic timeout too seriously. In one tweet, he stabbed CSK in the back, tearing the agreement of secrecy. He spiced up things by sledging below the belt "You are close to a cheerleader" he said, apparently.
Unfortunately, this did not go down well with the officials, and Moody was summoned by the match referee, fined 25% of his match fees and asked not to sit next to SRK next time.

Squad Changes:-
MI is now backed up by the addition of the powerplay BJP members. Expect them to get DLF maximum benefit out of it. CSK on the other hand is waiting for its most dependable support, the Congress.

So, who do you think is right in this matter. Send an SMS to MAXMOBILE only with dual sim phone to take part. Watch DLF IPL for more action.