The World Music Cafes

The World Music Cafes

 

by Madanmohan Rao

Word Music Editor and DJ

http://twitter.com/MadanRao

Email: madan @ techsparks .com

May 22, 2010

 

 

Correct me if I am wrong – or join me if I am right – but the time is ripe for a worldwide chain of World Music Cafes. Hard Rock Café and Planet Hollywood have built on rock and Hollywood themes — the World Music Cafes will do much more in the domain of world music.

 

Each World Music Café will display musical instruments from around the world, exhibit and sell books and CDs/DVDs from leading and emerging world music labels, play an international mix of audio/video tracks, promote local and international music festivals and conferences, provide information on music classes and instructors, host live bands and lectures, provide a gathering spot for world music fans and musicians, and serve an international mix of food and drinks. Each World Music Café will also have an online social media component, and facilitate meetups for musicians from abroad who wish to jam with local artistes and meet local labels.

 

In cities around the world, there is growing appetite not just for local music and mainstream Western rock/pop, but also more exotic tunes, authentic music and fusion experiments. Globalisation is going hand in hand with cultural localisation and cross-border music flows thanks to budget airtravel and the Internet. The World Music Cafes will play an important cultural and business role in this new ecosystem.

 

Phase I may begin with World Music Cafes in three cities: say Bangalore, Bali and Berlin. Phase II will expand to 30 cities (in all five continents), and Phase III will cover 300 cities.

 

OK, maybe that is getting ahead of the story a little bit! But if you are interested as an investor, partner, advisor, manager, exhibitor, sponsor, label, festival organiser, talent scout, cultural ministry, music college, ethnomusicologist, music journalist/photographer, musician or music fan – drop me a line!

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 22nd, 2010 at 3:15 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.