Music Facts

40 billion songs are downloaded illegally every year, that's some 90% of all music downloads.

To win a gold disc, an album needs to sell 100,000 copies in Britain, and 500,000 in the United States.

Gwalior Gharana is the oldest gharanas of Hindustani Music. Gwalior Gharana is the oldest of the khyal gharanas and the one to which most of the others gharanas trace the origins of their style. It is believed that the Gwalior Gharana was founded in the 16th century by Nathan Peer Baksh and Nathe Khan. They were musicians at the court of Raja Mansingh Tomar (1486 - 1516 AD). Later on grandsons of Nathan Peer Baksh, Haddu Khan and Hassu Khan, further enriched the gharana and took it to greater heights. Gwalior Gharana is marked by its lucidity and simplicity. Some of the famous exponents of Gwalior Gharana were Pt. Shri Balkrishnabuva Paluskar, Pandit Vishnu Digambar Paluskar, Rehamat Khan, Aptebua, Paranjpebua, Vasudevbua, Shankar Pandit, Eknath Pandit, Anant Manohar Joshi, Krishnarao Shankar Pandit, Gajananrao Joshi, Sharadchandra Arolkar, Omkarnath Thakur, Vinayakrao Patwardhan, Narayanrao Vyas, B.R.Deodhar, D.V.Paluskar, Kumar Gandharva and Shankar Rao Bodas.

Bageshwari Qamar is the first woman shehnai player of India. Bageshwari Qamar learnt Shehnai from Ustad Bismillah Khan. She was crowned Shehnai Queen at Chandigarh in 1983, the year she made her debut. Bageshwari has recorded a jugalbandi with Ustad Bismillah Khan apart from solo cassettes. She represented India at the Bharat Mahotsav at Russia in 1988.

Bageshwari Qamar is the daughter of Jagdish Prasad Qamar, the only disciple of Ustad Bismillah Khan, who joined him as per the traditional Gurukul system. Jagdish joined Ustad Bismillah Khan at the age of 10 in 1946. He lived and learned shehnai at the Ustad's house in Benaras.

Sharan Rani is the first woman sarod player of India. Born in 1929 in Delhi, Sharan Rani is playing Sarod for nearly 70 years. In fact, she is also popularly called as Sarod Rani. Sharan Rani learnt sarod from eminent musicians such as Baba Allauddin Khan and Ustad Ali Akbar Khan. Sharan Rani has performed concerts throughout the world. Jawahar Lal Nehru called her "Cultural Ambassador of India".

For her achievement in music, Sharan Rani was awarded the Padma Shri in 1968 and Sahitya Kala Parishad Award in Delhi in 1974. She received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for Hindustani Instrumental Music in 1986. Sharan Rani is one of the three women to be conferred the title of "Gems of Indian Music" by the Government of India, the other two being Lata Mangeshkar & MS Subbulakshmi.

Pandit Vishnu Digambar Paluskar set up the Gandharva Mahavidyalaya at Lahore on May 5, 1901. It was the first music school in India. Vishnu Digambar Paluskar (August 18, 1872 - August 21, 1931) was an Indian classical musician born in Kurundwad, a small town falling under the Deccan division of Bombay Presidency during British rule, presently in Maharashtra.

Gandharva Mahavidyalaya was run by public support, donations from the richer classes and funds raised by the concerts of Vishnu Digambar Paluskar. The school was a challenge to the traditional teacher-student method of training music where a student lived under the roof of the teacher. Many students from his early batches became respected musicians and teachers in North India. This brought a change in the way people looked at classical musicians. Vishnu Digambar returned to Mumbai in September 1908 to start a branch of the Gandharva Mahavidyalaya. Eventually, the Lahore school was shifted to Mumbai after Independence.

MS Subbulakshmi was the first musician to get Padma Bhushan (1954) and Padma Vibhushan (1975). She was also the first musician to receive the Ramon Magsaysay award for Public Service in 1974.

MS Subbulakshmi was a legendary Carnatic musician. She was popularly known as Nightingale of India and was famous for rendering of Bhajans. MS Subbulakshmi was born in the temple city of Madurai on September 16, 1916. She began her Carnatic classical music training under Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer and then Hindustani classical training under Pandit Narayan Rao Vyas. She also acted in a few Tamil films in her youth. MS Subbulakshmi was conferred with Bharat Ratna in 1998.

Illayaraja is the first Indian to compose a symphony. Illayaraja composed a full-length western classical symphony in July 1993. The hour long symphony was composed by him in one month. Illayaraja is the first Asian whose symphony was performed by John Scott of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra which is patronized by Queen Elizabeth and whose president is Lord Yehudi Menuhin.

Illayaraja is also a famous film composer, singer, and lyricist. He has composed over 4,000 songs and provided background music for more than 800 Indian films in various languages. He has thrice won the National Film Award for Best Music Director.