With the aim of bringing a revolution in the country's music scene and stop piracy, telecom operator Grameenphone launched digital music store, GP Music, on July 7 at the Westin Dhaka.

GP Music, inspired by iTunes, started its journey with one lakh Bangla songs, and by the end of this year the digital platform will host a whopping one million Bangla songs. 

About the music store, Grameenphone CMO Yasir Azman said, “GP Music is a new beginning. We hope that all the artistes and our valued listeners will stand beside us in this initiative. We believe that, the affordable prices of GP Music tracks will drastically bring down piracy.” 

At the ceremony, GP also launched the 15 Eid exclusive albums by popular artistes, which will be exclusively available only on GP Music. The releases are – “Azam Khan Golden Collections”, Ayub Bachchu's solo album “Jiboner Golpo”, Miles's “Protichchobi”, Mila's “Uncensored”, Topu's  “Dekha Hobe Boley”, Mehreen's “Seven”, Asif Iqbal's mixed albums “Cholo Ontoheen” and “Ami Chuye Dilei”, Feedback's “Ekhon”, Kanak Chapa's “Padma Pukur”, Tausif's “Ayojon”, Enamul Karim Nirjhor's mixed album compilation “Ek Nirjhorer Gaaan”, Shuvro Deb's “Golden Collections” and Alauddin Ali's “Golden Collections”.

Each track will be available for download for 5 taka while an entire album will cost only 40 taka. GP subscribers can visit music.grameenphone.com to download their favorite tracks. An android app will be available on Google Play store very soon. 

A large number of leading artistes and band groups including Shafin Ahmed, Hamin Ahmed, Ayub Bacchu, Andrew Kishore, Kanak Chapa, Fahmida Nabi, Bappa Mazumder, Mehreen, Feedback, Miles, Topu and Asif Iqbal attended the unveiling ceremony, among others. 

Shafin Ahmed said, “Starting from 1982 till date, I have seen many ups and downs in the music industry. It is the artistes who have always been deprived. Now that the situation is changing, we are releasing our album from GP Music.”

Ayub Bacchu on the other hand said, “Many musicians stopped producing new songs since they don't get what they deserve. This platform will encourage them to make new music. It is a step towards protecting Bangla songs.”

National Film Award winning singer Andrew Kishore said, “I believe this platform will reunite all the musicians who walked away from music.”  

Organisers and the present musicians both hoped that this platform will encourage music lovers to pay for original music as it will be very user-friendly and extremely light on their pockets.

The initiative comes at a time when it has become almost impossible for artistes to get royalties for their hard work due to death of the cassette/CD culture, and widespread piracy.

The store, hosting all kinds of Bangla music -- be it timeless classic, contemporary or exclusive releases — looks to the musicians and music lovers alike to bring back the glory of Bangla songs that the industry enjoyed in the pre-piracy era. 

With this platform, Grameenphone eyes to pull the industry out of the downward spiral it has been experiencing for quite a while, and ensure that the artistes get what they deserve. 

Among others, Grameenphone's Director Marketing Nehal Ahmed, Director Product Hasibul Haque, Head of External Communications Sayed Talat Kamal, Deputy Director Marketing Sajid Rizwan Matin, and Deputy Director of PR Mohammad Hasan were present at the event.