GBG Case Study
Google Business Group helps the Indian Anthem Project create global virtual choir to celebrate Independence Day
About IA Project
• iaproject.in • Mumbai, India • Voices crowdsourced for a virtual music choir project • One person, 20–25 volunteers • One month before Indian Independence Day
The Indian Anthem Project is a collaborative initiative launched by singer and music producer Sharanya Natrajan. The collaboration involves 32 artists and a crowdsourced virtual choir. On July 15, 2014, just one month before Indian Independence Day, Sharanya brought together more than 100 voices from across India, U.S., UK, Nepal, Malaysia, Canada, Germany and Sri Lanka. The idea was to record a unique, a capella version of the Indian National Anthem. Sharanya initially invited her friends and then sent out an open invitation for people to submit their recordings to her online. Some of these came from Indians abroad who realized this was something they could do for their country remotely. Up until the last minute, Sharanya didn’t know how many people would take part. This uncertainty was a challenging part of the project, along with editing and mixing the audio and video.
“The entire project couldn’t have happened without the Internet or the help of Google.” — Sharanya Natrajan, Producer, Indian Anthem Project Sharanya’s project couldn’t have happened without the Internet or the help of Google. With the assistance of Sreeraman, from the Mumbai Google Business Group, Sharanya managed to reach out to more people while planning and structuring the response. Singers sent their audio and video files directly to her Google Drive, which has storage capacity of almost 10GB. This was linked to the IA Project website, which facilitated the process of uploading. The final video was published on YouTube where it has already received over 6,500 views. The IA project also gave complete strangers a reason to connect online, through their mutual involvement in the project. Inspired by her success, Sharanya wants “to collaborate with more musicians and artists of all varieties from across the globe, to create music for change— things like supporting women’s rights in India and other parts of the world.”
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