SaffronConnect..music centered social networking site for South Asians

SaffronConnect is a South Asian social networking portal centered on audio & video content sharing. The site allows artists to upload their music and reach out to users, who can download the music either free, or after buying it. For users, it works like a social networking site where besides browsing the content, they can set up their own social networking pages and connect to other.

SaffronConnect is funded by Duggal, a NY based visual studio and computer imaging firm and is being managed by Divine Arts, a California based, India focused digital audio and video distribution firm, whose management includes (besides others) Amaan Ali Bangash and Ayaan Ali Bangash, sons of the sarod maestro, Amjad Ali Khan.

The creators of SaffronConnect would like to see their site develop into a “hybrid of MySpace and ITunes” for the global South Asian community. In terms of content, the site will allow independent artists, music labels/bands and content owners to upload, share and sell their content to a community of users with interests in South Asian media. Users, in turn, will be able to sample, hear, download and share songs among their friends and other members. Content from Saffron Connect is also planned to be distributed to online media services such as iTunes, Yahoo Music etc.

The social networking dimension of the site is actuated through the ability for users to create their profiles, write blogs, upload photos etc., besides download/buy music albums. Given the fact that music & movies bind Indians, cutting across geographical and cultural boundaries, this strategy could actually work out quite well if handled smartly.

I think one of the key challenges for a site of this nature is to have a simple and transparent pricing model, since it is trying to source content from disparate creators of digital media. I looked up the site for pointers to this aspect and here’s what I found. “SaffronConnect will pay 70% of the revenues from the sale of content to the content owners, after keeping a margin of $0.25 to cover transaction costs. For example, if a track is sold for $0.99, the transaction fee is $0.25. From the remaining $0.74, the content owner gets $0.51 per songs download. Content owners get a payment form sent to them once they received 10 downloads. Payments are made once per quarter.” The modus operandi looks pretty straightforward to me and could as well be replicated by other similar websites.

The site has just been launched and hence its likely to gain traction in some time. However, I do feel that it is more focused on the expat Indian (NRI) community than resident Indians. I think if they really want to target resident Indians in a big way, they would have to make it look more of an (overall) Indian site than a NRI focused one.

SaffronConnect is a good example of how people are trying to use the social networking hook for a wide range of web applications. In a country like India and for a domain like music/movies, at a conceptual level, it is difficult to argue against the inherent rationale behind such a move. And that’s why I think, we are going to see more such websites getting launched in India in future.