As we come close to Vaisakhi, I hope you and your family are staying in Chardikala. I write to you you today to let you know about an exciting opportunity for you to help create the next generation Gurbani Kirtan service.
You may or may not remember the days before MP3 files and iPods. But once upon a time Gurbani Kirtan wasn’t so readily available when it was distributed on reel-to-reel tapes, followed by vinyl records and then portable cassette tapes.
20 years ago, with a simple "Sony Walkman" (that I still have today!) and a loaned "reel-to-reel" tape recorder, I started to digitize Gurbani Kirtan recordings in an effort to preserve and openly share our heritage and musical history. This took shape in 1997-1998 on SikhNet as the “Gurbani Archive Project”, featuring the first 100 hours of kirtan streamed on demand to your computer. This was a huge and cutting edge advancement at the time. Remember, this was back in the day before fast broadband internet when we only had really slow telephone dial-up internet using modems. For the first time, these recordings could be easily and freely shared far and wide for all to enjoy and discover.
The “SikhNet Gurbani Archive” (now known as the "Gurbani Media Center") has grown immensely over the past 20 years and is used now by more than 200,000 people every month! The GMC now contains close to 40,000 hours of Gurbani Kirtan and Katha by over 800 different Musicians. It would take FIVE years to listen to everything on SikhNet back-to-back!
This year, with your help, we will take the Gurbani Media Center to the next level. We are going to make it easier than ever to access, listen to and discover the riches of Gurbani Kirtan!
There is much to do, from rebuilding the GMC website and apps on Android and iOS, to digitizing, preparing, organizing and posting fresh new audio for you to enjoy.
Over the next two weeks you have a unique opportunity to double the impact of your support of this project. A generous donor has offered to match all donations given by April 19th up to $10,000.
In order to start hiring app developers, web programmers and graphic designers we need to raise at least $50,000. Your generous donation will determine the scope of what we will be able to do this year.
The Gurbani Media Center serves so many and preserves our Gurbani Kirtan heritage. I hope you can take a minute to show your support so that it can continue to grow.
P.S. Do you have a collection of old Gurbani Kirtan recordings that you feel are worth preserving and making available through the Gurbani Media Center? If so, please email me if you would like to share them with us!