Instep: Tell me about Patari going public; it launched in April in beta if I’m not wrong?

Khalid Bajwa (KB): The beta had been on for a while, but we wanted to ensure that all copyright and consent issues were resolved before we launched. We were also waiting to perfect our mobile and web apps, and while there are still a few features on those that we haven’t incorporated yet, we felt that it was the right time to transition from what had been a very popular beta service to a full-fledged live one. Patari is now fully accessible to public at patari.pk. The android app is out in the play store and the iOS app is pending Apple’s approval and should be out by the time this article is published.

Instep: Have you had to pull music because of legal troubles?

KB: We wouldn’t call them ‘legal troubles’ despite some misconceptions. At no point were we involved in any litigation with anyone. Several artists and a record label asked us to remove their content.

However, by the time we launched, all the library was based on having received consent from the rights holders. At this point in time all content on Patari is properly licensed. We managed to secure a huge number of artists both mainstream and underground. There are very few (2-3) artists who had us take down their content, but by and large we managed to make the transition with our library largely intact. Even EMI’s content is back on Patari since we reached an agreement with them. There are still some artists missing, but a lot of that is based on ongoing negotiations, and we are confident of landing these soon.

Instep: Tell me about some of the mainstream artists who are releasing their content on Patari?

KB: Noori released ‘Aik Tha Baadshah’ exclusively with us. Their music released under Sur Darvesh for Karachi Se Lahore and was also exclusively released on Patari. We continue to work very closely with them on the release of their upcoming music. We also featured a few exclusives from Jawad Ahmed and Hadiqa Kiyani. We also exclusively released Bin Roye’s music and carried Wrong Number’s music. We are also in final leg of conversations with Rushk, who also want to release their new content on Patari. We also carried Moor from Strings and Season 8 of Coke Studio. Going forward, we have a very exciting lineup of music coming. Patari is quickly becoming the go to place for musicians to put their music on because before this, no such direct and involved channels of fan engagement existed.

Instep: Who are your top streamed artists?

KB: Other than Coke Studio as a whole, the normally popular artists like Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Atif Aslam, Noori and Sajjad Ali have been played very often. In indie music, we’re very excited to see our users engaging in unconventional and modern Pakistani music. New artists like SomeWhatSuper, Abdullah Qureshi and The Tamashbeens have received a surprising amount of attention on Patari.

Instep: What kind of response have you received from record labels? Are you on the verge of signing deals with local record labels and/or indie net labels?

KB: Since Patari is a new product, some labels had their doubts initially. As we moved further and built statistics that clearly show how much the users are enjoying Patari, we have noticed a lot of the record labels have started easing in to the idea of a streaming service. As mentioned above we already have pretty much most of the mainstream and indie record labels onboard. However, we are constantly communicating with independent artists and also big labels to further expand our collection.

Top Ten Indie Artists on Patari

SomeWhatSuper
Abdullah Qureshi
The Tamashbeens
Esharp
Ali Suhail
Mooroo
Farish Shafi
Shajie Hasan
Shamoon Ismail
Ali Sethi

Top Ten Artists on Patari

Coke Studio
Noori
SomeWhatSuper
Nescafé Basement
Abdullah Qureshi
Junoon
Vital Signs
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
Atif Aslam
The Tamashbeens