Music + India . . . .plus Ritnika Nayan

Question: How do you connect independent artists and music business in India as a young woman?

Guest: Ritnika Nayan, Managing Director, Downtown India; Owner: Music Gets Me High

Ritnika Nayan shares stories about her passion: helping indie artists succeed and make money through various avenues that they might have been neglecting.  She does that in her main role: Managing Director for Downtown India.  That passion also connects her early love of Broadway musicals to working on college concerts at Hofstra, music festivals in India, building her own company, wellness work, ukulele covers, and writing a book and teaching future music industry leaders in India.  

Bio

Ritnika Nayan is the Managing Director for Downtown India representing CD Baby, Fuga, Songtrust, Downtown Music Services, Found.ee, and Adrev in the country. She is also the owner of the company Music Gets Me High and the author of Indie 101 – The Ultimate Guide to the Independent Music Industry in India. 

Throughout her 21 years of experience in the music industry, she has worked with artists like Maroon 5, Nickelback, Guns & Roses, Manu Chao, Nucleya, Advaita, Jalebee Cartel and also consulted on festivals like Sula Fest, Ziro festival of Music, Wonderflip fest and more. Ritnika has also set up India’s first stand-alone Music Business Certification course at SACAC, Delhi, and conducts workshops on various aspects of the Industry under MGMH Academy. She is an avid speaker at conferences globally including TEDx and has won various awards including the contribution to the creative industry award by the University of Westminster, UK and the Young Music Entrepreneur runner-up award by the British council and more.

Mentioned Links:

• https://ritnika.com/about-me/
• https://ritnika.com/ 
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/ritnika/
• https://twitter.com/ritnika
• https://www.facebook.com/ritnikan
• MGMH YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/mgmhindia
• SAC Certificate in Music Business Management: https://www.sac.ac.in/certificate-course-music-business-management/ 
• Indie 101: The Ultimate Guide to the Independent Music Industry in India: https://www.amazon.com/Indie-101-Ultimate-Independent-Industry-ebook/dp/B074279X8M

Our Mission

Through our guests’ stories, we aim to inspire current and future change agents who are creatives, entrepreneurs, researchers, or community leaders who are seeking inspiration and support around creative innovation — changing the ways we create, collaborate, engage, change lives, and build communities.

Your Host: Gigi Johnson, EdD

I run transformative programs, speak/moderate, invest, advise, and produce multimedia on creativity and technology.  I taught for 22 years at UCLA, where I ran the Center for Music Innovation and the podcast "Innovating Music," built four industry-connecting programs, and taught undergraduates, MBAs, and executives about disruption in creative industries.  Before UCLA, I financed media M&A at Bank of America for ten years.

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