Universal Music India has joined up with Allied Blenders & Distillers to source and develop new musical talent via the Sterling Reserve Music Project (named after the Sterling Reserve whisky brand).

The programme is designed to, according to the press release about it, “incubate, encourage and promote aspiring singer songwriters to showcase their talent and release their music globally via Universal Music”. It adds that it will also be language- and genre-agnostic as it aims to give a platform to the most diverse range of artists that it can. Shortlisted artists will get to collaborate with leading songwriters and producers in the country and also tap into the UMG promotional and marketing machine.

Devraj Sanyal, MD and CEO of Universal Music & EMI Music for India & South Asia, termed it “India’s first artist enabler platform”.

The debut artist to be promoted this way is Anushqa whose song ‘Hear Me’ was released on 20th December. Interestingly it is being pushed via YouTube (rather than a major local DSP like Gaana or even Amazon Music or Google Play Music) and in just over a fortnight, it had generated over 5m streams on the video platform. There is Sterling Reserve branding at the start of the song and the company logo is displayed intermittently in the top right hand corner during the video. Such visible branding may be an issue for younger viewers in the country given the legal age to consume alcohol is, variously, 18, 21, 23 and 25 depending on the state (plus it is also illegal in some states).

Also of note is the fact Anushqa appears right at the end talking about the partnership (in front of a TV screen displaying its logo) and asking viewers to subscribe to the channel. She also invites aspiring acts to submit tracks to a Gmail address (rather than a Universal or Sterling Reserve/Allied Blenders one). At the time of writing, however, the Sterling Reserve Music Project channel on YouTube only had 2,010 subscribers.