Dhunio - Music for the Internet’s Soul

There's music in the sighing of a reed;
There's music in the gushing of a rill;
There's music in all things, if men had ears:
Their earth is but an echo of the spheres.

~ Lord Byron

And to carry to this echo further into the world unimaginable without computers are websites for online music and online videos. A new entrant in this field is – Dhunio, catering to Indian Bollywood music lovers’ needs.

An obvious amalgamation of the words “dhun” and “suniyo”, Dhunio asks you to listen to music, as simple and epiphanic as that. The website resembles MeraMood in some ways, as the basic structure and function of being an entirely Indian music website, and the arrangement of playlists. The major difference (and advantage to Dhunio) is the inclusion of videos along with the music. The videos are linked to Youtube, and act as a major attraction, but also take a little longer for the songs to load. But the videos definitely make listening to music a better experience. Then there is the more than obvious resemblance to Youtube, you would wonder why you will go to this website and not Youtube; that is because this is exclusive in its contribution, it only caters to lovers of Hindi Bollywood music, and hence the songs take less time to load.

While on the subject on online music catering to Indian music (and more), you might also like to check out Gaana, an offering from Times Internet Limited.

Dhunio has the feature of searching music by artist, and artist includes the actors, music directors and singers. It also gives the option to look for music by the ‘decade’, right from the 1930s to 2010s. For an old world music lover like me, getting to watch videos of Kishore Kumar, Dev Anand, Dharmendra, Rajesh Khanna, Madhubala et al is nothing less than a treat. You can also search music by movie or a few words of the song, so for all those with a goldfish memory (including me), this is an outstanding option. There is also the option of adding songs to be watched later. What more could a website offer. Well, a lot, but for a new website, they sure have got their essentials right.

Dhunio has a ‘Dhun TV’ where songs (with videos of course) are played non-stop, the videos being linked to Youtube. They call this show ‘Chitrahaar’, keeping the old world flavor intact. This TV also has a Pause option, as well as an option to skip and move on to the next song. The random selection of songs ranges from black and white to the glorious extravagance of the 2000s. For a radio fan like me, playing random songs with videos is one of the best things that could happen to the technological world. One is reminded of the blissful days of the new arrival of television when there weren’t 200 odd channels to mindlessly surf, but two or three brilliant shows that one could get hooked on to and enjoy. Those were the days!

Although this website needs additional features to compete with the likes of Raaga, MusicIndiaOnline and Smash Hits, it looks good for a beginner. So, go ahead, get hooked to Hindi music and cinema.

Dhunio, for sure, proves the old saying – Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music.