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By NARAYANAN V
Backed by Sonu Nigam and funded by Chiratae Ventures, online music education platform Artium Academy is looking to hit a high note at the upcoming Carnatic music festival season. From partnering with major sabhas in Chennai for exploring sponsorship opportunities to setting up promotional kiosks, the Mumbai-based music academy is pulling out all stops to onboard more music enthusiasts onto the platform.
Founded by Ashish Joshi, Vivek Raicha and Nithya Sudhir in February 2021, Artium Academy offers music education using modern pedagogy, combined with technology. It offers music lessons and courses in the form of one-to-one live classes. Bollywood singer Sonu Nigam is the patron-in-chief; Hindustani classical singer Shubha Mudgal; keyboard artist Louiz Banks; and renowned guitarist Raju Singh are among the faculty members.
In December 2021, the academy launched South Indian music learning courses. It also roped-in eminent singer Aruna Sairam as the faculty head for Carnatic music, and film playback singer KS Chitra as the faculty head of popular film music genre, while renowned voice training expert Ananth Vaidyanathan was appointed as the chief of pedagogy.
In October 2022, Artium Academy raised $3 million in a funding round led by tech-focussed venture capital firm, Chiratae Ventures. Raicha said the music start-up will use the funds invested in technology to create more immersive learning experiences and for customer acquisition in both domestic and international markets.
Ashish Joshi, Founder & CEO, Artium Academy, said Carnatic and popular South Indian film music have since become the mainstay of the academy. “We are seeing a huge traction for these courses from the South Indian population not just in India, but from other parts of the world as well.”
Joshi said the academy is now planning to target the global expatriate population with South Indian origin. This is also one of the reasons why the academy is focussing on the upcoming December Music festival, a month-long music carnival that attracts Carnatic music lovers and practitioners from across the world.
Artium Academy currently has over 5,000 paying learners. The academy’s co-founder Raicha said that of the total paid learners, 15-16 per cent are from the international markets, with the US, UK, Australia, Canada, Singapore and Malaysia being some of its key markets. International market also contributes 26 per cent of the academy’s revenue.
How does it work?
Music learners can book a half-an-hour free trial for any of their preferred genres and get personalised guidance from one of the experts in the academy. Once enrolled in the paid version, students will get one-to-one live and customised learning sessions with Artium-certified teachers. The paid members will also get four master classes every year with music maestros in their genres.
Raicha said 50 per cent of demo enquiries on the platform are getting converted into paid membership, while conversion rate in international markets are 2-3X than that of the domestic market.
Currently, the platform offers courses on Hindi popular film music, Hindustani Classical, Carnatic music, South Indian popular film music under vocals besides courses on guitar, piano and tabla. Joshi said the platform will soon add instruments like mridangam and veena to attract more South Indian music practitioners to the platform.
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