AR Rahman announces launch of new digital music platform, 'Katraar'
On his birthday (January 6), music maestro A R Rahman revealed more information about his much-talked about metaverse project ‘Katraar’, a digital platform for independent musicians and artists. The platform will enable artists and musicians to list and monetize their creation in music and other art forms, said the award-winning musician in a short video about his dream project.
The musician will also release some of his exclusive creations through the Katraar platform, which will be deployed on HBAR Foundation’s Hedera Network.
Rahman said that he’s working with HBAR foundation to do many “cool things”, one being to bring a lot of NFTs, which are rare and unique in music, art, storytelling. He also referred to an “undisclosed project based on virtual beings”, which he said will find a “whole new expression to free thoughts trapped in an older form”.
I’m excited to announce today – KATRAAR, the #metaverse platform currently in development, is one step closer to launching. And I look forward to sharing this journey with you all.
➡️ https://t.co/1XP04zo0Lr@HBAR_foundation @MyQyuki #NFTs #Web3 pic.twitter.com/Un0fGSzxdl
— A.R.Rahman (@arrahman) January 6, 2023
The Oscar winning musician further elaborated on what Katraar means to him. According to Rahman, Katraar means “a group of learned people who can change the world”. “Katraar is also tradition, it will have wisdom and a vision,” he stressed in the video. Further, he explained that this platform will help to bring in new talents, new technologies, bring direct revenue to artists, to help emerging technologies and probably bridge them for the future.
“Katraar will bridge the new and the old. People who have ideas and possibilities will have the freedom to innovate and create. Art and creativity can change the world and make it a beautiful place,” he said, adding that the world is opening up and it is important to learn new things.
In recent years, many Indian celebrities have forayed into the metaverse. Recently, Rahman had unveiled his directorial debut ‘Le Musk’, which is a first-of-its-kind full-length VR (Virtual Reality) film and premiered it at Marche Du Films during the 75th Cannes Film Festival.
According to news reports, Rahman met Rajat Ojha, the founder of a VR gaming company from India at the Cannes Festival. Ojha has curated India ka Apna metaverse PartyNite, on which Daler Mehndi performed and also bought a piece of land called ‘Balle Balle Land’. The two purportedly talked about the future of metaverse world and especially how artists and brands are using it as a platform to engage and promote content.
In November 2021, veteran actor Kamal Haasan, through Lotus Media Entertainment, partnered with Fantico to exclusively launch his digital avatars and NFTs.
International musicians like Canadian singer Shawn Mendes ventured into the metaverse by teaming up with Genie, an avatar tech company to create digital wearables. Lady Gaga had also released a music pack for Beat Saber, a VR rhythm game set in the metaverse.
