The Piano Man Founder Arjun Sagar Gupta on Making Jazz Work in India

The New Delhi-based musician and entrepreneur who runs The Piano Man Jazz Club in Safdarjung and the Piano Man in Gurugram, is opening a third venue soon

- ANURAG TAGAT

RIGHT OFF THE BAT, ONE OF THE first things that restaurateur and musician Arjun Sagar Gupta wants to address about music venue The Piano Man Jazz Club (and the Piano Man in Gurugram) is about payments for artists.

The long-running venue space for indie music in Delhi NCR - the Safdarjung venue, though tiny, was set up in September 2015 and a much bigger Gurugram space was launched in 2019 - has "partially pioneered a flat payment model" according to Gupta. He adds, "It is obvious that any hard-working individual would want to be compensated for their efforts. Over time, it becomes a matter of viability within the ecosystem of venue performances."

Gupta also tells Rolling Stone India that there's a third venue he's opening up in a few months, promising more details soon. In an era where we've seen the flourishing and closure of indie music-focused venues such as Blue Frog in Mumbai, The Humming Tree and BFlat (both in Bengaluru), the Piano Man continues to forge on clearly. Perhaps a big part is the artist payments, which Gupta says is based on "creating viability for keeping the venues going. The artist adds, "We expect that it will rise over time, as we add more venue capacity and as attending live performances becomes more normalized."