 I mentioned that I'd like to focus on what internet technology has been able to do with regard to the publishing and distribution of music. For a long time, the music industry, as it is called, would invite artists of different styles, forms, to come and record, and would publish and distribute their work. But in the last, I would say, 15 years, there has been almost a complete, I mean a gradual, but now almost complete shutdown of the music industry with regard to looking at diversity in Indian music. So while in 1902, when the first commercial recordings of Indian music were made, and when recording expeditions came to India, all kinds of music was looked at and recorded and sought, and coaxed and persuaded artists or persuaded to record. And obviously, there was great business sense in doing so. But regional forms, little known forms, all were captured with recording technology. Till 1984 almost when cassette technology and the cassette boom in the 80s, there was this, there were huge, as many as, I'm told, 300 labels in music companies recording all kinds of music. Of course, the larger ones would concentrate on Hindi film music. But I'm told that in the 80s, just 40% of the music market was actually, was consumers who were looking at film music. But 60% of recorded music came, was in the form of regional artists, singing a variety of forms. However, in the last 10 to 15 years, slowly there has been almost a complete neglect of many, many forms of music. And even with Hindi film music, it's only a certain kind of music that finds favor with the mainstream, the big, the large labels that have been in business for a long time. What this meant was not just that music was not diverse, forms of music were not being captured, recorded, and distributed, and documented. But it also meant that people and musicians and artists were being forced to look at certain ways of making music. To give you an example, in Delhi there is a wonderful family of Sarengi players. For six to seven generations, the family has been involved with studying Sarengi, teaching, playing, and their very eminent performers. One of the young performers from that family told us that this was about 10 years ago, that when there was his ambition to document his family's work by publishing a CD. And therefore, he approached a large number of record labels. Everywhere he was told, he doesn't run anymore. Now you can do the fusion. So he said, you know, I really like fusion also. But it is, I feel that I would like to document the family's deep involvement with the art of Sarengi playing. And I want to record a solo, but nobody is willing to record. And so I think, finally, I will just have to make the kind of music that I'm being asked to make. On the one hand, all of us could sit back and say, well, if you wish to be coaxed into doing something, or forced into doing something, that's your prerogative to say yes or no. But at the same time, I think that particular example really stresses the importance and the significance of internet technology and the empowerment that it has given to a lot of artists who have been able to engage with it. Because it has made it possible for Indian musicians to record themselves, to publish on their own terms and independent terms and conditions. And it has made it possible for them to free themselves of this kind of rampant tyranny of the mainstream large labels. Having said that, there is still a prestige that is associated with recording with a large label and the launch party that goes with it. And sometimes the stamp-sized picture that comes out in advertisement that comes, that you see in some publications. But what internet technology has done is that today, across the country, there are a large number of record labels and a large number of independent artists who really do not engage any longer with the big labels. They record the music that they want to, that they wish to, that they would like to leave behind as a mark of their work. They distribute it on their own terms and conditions. Sometimes they withdraw an album that was created four years ago because they feel that this is not a good representation of their work any longer. And I don't see that ever happening with a regular record label. Once you have, because what was the way in which an artist engaged with a record label? For a lot of us who were studying and are studying traditional forms of music, nothing in our Talim ever prepares us for a formal legal agreement. The only agreement that we knew and were taught was that if you learned the composition and if your Ustad or Guru told you that this was composed by Sohanso Pandit or Ustad, you had to just touch your ear, your gesture, your respect, or take his name and say, he ha me han se mili. That was it. That was the acknowledgement and credit. That's it. There was nothing more that we were taught. How then does one expect to know about a formal contract? When that contract should be studied, what are the areas that one should watch out for? And very often it's in a language that we don't know also. I mean, very often it is impossible that a contract written in English with a lot of legal terms may not actually make sense to anyone even if you are fluent in English. So, and I can vouch for this that I speak from personal experience that in my early recordings, I was never given a contract or explained the clauses of a contract before I went into a recording studio. It was only, in fact, usually after the launch of the album, that somebody would call from the record company and say, where is your contract? And then I would read this huge document which basically, if the English was to be followed, meant that I was bonded labor for that record company for the rest of my life. Including, including, this is very, very important, that I was signing away the rights for Rag Yaman, which I had never owned in the first place. So I had given them full copyright over Rag Yaman and Kamaj. And now, if I ever wanted to sing it again, you can help me. And I have to go back to the record label and seek their permission. Now, I am saying that these are the kind of contracts that are regularly used even today. Even today, this is the kind of contract that a lot of musicians are signing. Because nothing in their training or their talent ever prepares them for this world of complete, I mean, I would say, proprietary control over one's work. And although I'm not saying that internet technology has suddenly given us this freedom to soar away and do what we like, because I think each medium has to be understood. And there are problems with each medium and format. And those have to be learned, usually, unfortunately, on the job. And therefore, the lessons are not always very pleasant. But at the same time, at least that one beginning that one makes of saying that here is a piece of music that I would like to share with my listeners. And this is how I would like to share it. Let us say that I would like to record a one-hour a-lap in a particular rag. Why should anybody tell me that, you know, half an hour is more than half an hour. 15 minutes is better. So why should anybody tell me that if I really do want to present something in a particular way or if I have composed a piece of music which I would like to share with listeners, I feel that that independence certainly has come about through internet technology and the many, many ways of publishing and distribution. And therefore, for the last nine or 10 years, Anish, my husband and I have been working with our colleagues to see how internet platforms, distribution platforms can be used to share our work and the work of our colleagues with music lovers across the world. And this did really give us an opportunity to engage at various levels with artists, with people who are buying music, who are seeking music. And the main problem right now lies in the fact that although the technology is really empowering, but it is being used again by the people who once were exploiting artists in many ways. So today, if people are saying that, you know, you can have your work published in 300 online digital stores across the world, including iTunes and Napster and this and that, iTunes and Napster is also getting a lot of its content from India from the very same people who once exploited artists. And therefore, when you go with your one album of Alap for one hour, they say, yeah, yeah, sure, you can use this. It's a free platform. I mean, there are certain parameters that you have to adhere to, but it's really not going to give you any permanence. So while internet technology is made it possible for us to share music on our own terms and conditions, discovery of that music still remains a huge problem. How do people sitting in the room find out whether they can find, you know, recording of a Drupadhyaya from Darbhanga made 50 years ago. How do they know that they can find it on the net? We do not have all the platforms for distribution and for publishing and promotion, including things like, places like YouTube are actually now controlled by a lot of people who have the money to pay for the media. And therefore, we still face that problem. Okay, it's out there. The music is there. It belongs to us. We can administer our rights as we wish to, but at the same time, it's still in the hands of the same people, the same music industry who has now understood the worth of internet technology and they were laughing at all of us when we started work nine years ago. Today, they're all using digital platforms and distribution platforms, but they've taken over and they are very much in the same position of calling the shots. And therefore, I guess we all have to get creative yet again and find ways of beating them at their own game. I think there are several things to be said with regard to music and technology, but I think I'll stop for right now and maybe later we can come back.