Bhutanese singers and musicians will now have the opportunity to earn better and pursue their passion as a profession. They will be able to do so by collaborating with the country’s first ever music, music video, and karaoke streaming app, Zhabthra. The app was launched on the opening day of the CSI and Food Fair 2022 in Thimphu on December 10. The app founder will pay 70 per cent of the income from Zhabthra to the artists. This is expected to encourage youth to take up music as a choice of career.
Thirty-five-year-old entrepreneur, Kencho Tshering is the founder of the app. As a passionate music lover since teenage days, Kencho worked as a disc jockey or DJ for 18 years.
He believes that there are limited means through which Bhutanese artists can earn money. So, this inspired him to create a platform through which talented local artists restricted by financial burdens can earn a living.
“For those people coming from humble backgrounds, who have good voices and can write great lyrics, they don’t get opportunities. The producers just integrate their music videos on their YouTube channel. Since their YouTube channels are monetized, they get the payment from YouTube. The original artists are left with publicity alone. Keeping this in mind, I started a project between 2017 and 2018,” said Kencho.
Kencho said although the journey wasn’t easy for various reasons, he remained adamant about his work. He hired a developer from Singapore and sourced money from his parents and by taking a loan from the National CSI Bank. He invested five and a half million ngultrum to develop Zhabthra App.
“We couldn’t get reliable developers. So, the money I invested in the project went to vain and that was upsetting for me. The money I had got depleted. I collaborated with Indian developers but still couldn’t come up with a good outcome. We got scammed and they ate our money. Despite that, I remained adamant about it and kept working on it,” added Kencho.
To date, Zhabthra has 125 registered local musicians including popular singers such as Chogo, and Drona and some emerging artists. The artists record their songs with the app owner. The app operates on a pay-per-listen and pay-per-view scheme and 70 per cent of the income earned through the app is paid to the artists, composers, and musicians.
“All have to understand that it takes a lot of time while producing a song and in the current era, time is money. We charge Nu 40 for a song, and Nu 50 for a music video. Then we have karaoke for which we charge Nu 150,” said Kencho.
Kencho plans on collecting and keeping not just contemporary music but also traditional songs in the app’s database for future generations.
Zhabthra also plans to host a music award at the end of the year, which will be judged on the number of views, listeners, and followers on the platform.
Chenga Dawa
Edited by Phub Gyem
