Travel With Your Ears, Crawley, U.K.
Travel With Your Ears™ (www.travelwithyourears.com) is a new online platform and resource combining destination, country and travel related information, videos and links with World Music playlists and videos sourced from Spotify and YouTube, carefully selected and compiled to offer the best audio and visual experience of different World Music genres.
With the intention to appeal both to existing World Music enthusiasts as well as to general music lovers interested in expanding their musical horizons, the playlists and videos cover several World Music styles and genres, each with dedicated pages. Ranging from dance inviting music and relaxing ear pleasing tunes to good vibrations reggae from around the world and modern and classic locally playing ethno pop and hip hop, Travel With Your Ears™ has something on tap for every musical taste.
Those more interested in authentic and traditional sounds and folklore will find as well a page dedicated to the seasoned or budding ethno musicologist, while there are also articles and links related to instruments, musicians, musical styles and festivals. The selected videos show as much as possible beautiful or interesting scenery or cultural aspects of the countries from where the music originates, to keep with the music and travel theme. The music in both videos and playlists is carefully selected to be varied, interesting, pleasing and lively.
The travel related information comes in the form of country features, supported by destination videos and music videos showcasing the range of styles from each country, as well as a comprehensive list of travel, music and culture links.
The objective and vision behind the www.travelwithyourears.com website is for this combination of music and travel materials not only to inspire travellers to ‘let the music take them places’ by following their ears to the origins of the music, either independently or using tour organizing services, but also to be a sentimental reminder to those who have visited those places, as well as a perfect ‘virtual escape’ for armchair travellers who can be transported by the music and images to distant and exotic places, at home or on the go on the mobile friendly platform.
by Jean Christophe Robles Espinosa
Launched on 28 July 2016, the website is steadily growing in strength, with music and features being added on a regular basis, supported by a Facebook page at www.facebook.com/TravelWithYourEars, a Twitter account at @TravelWithEars, a YouTube channel at http://bit.ly/2bIxjmV and a Spotify profile at http://bit.ly/2bpDj5M. In order to be sustainable, Travel With Your Ears™ plans to display relevant advertisements and affiliate programs, while opening to sponsorship or partnerships with National or Regional Tourism Organizations, World Music, cultural or folklore festival organizers, music or festival related inbound or outbound travel organizations, places of accommodation, music magazines, music producers, arts and crafts producers and other relevant partners, making it a global platform to reach audiences who appreciate what our beautiful world has to offer in terms of music, travel and culture.
Travel With Your Ears™ is owned and developed by Chris Robles, a veteran of the tourism industry who for many years was heading the Marketing and Promotion departments of the Tourism Boards of the State of Sarawak in Malaysian Borneo and then of the Sultanate of Brunei Darussalam also on the island of Borneo. While in Sarawak, Chris was involved from the beginning in the Organizing Committee of the now famous Rainforest World Music Festival, being its Chairman for the 4th edition in 2001 and establishing many of the parameters that contributed to its current success. It was however in Brunei, when invited by a local DJ on the national radio to make mini World Music programs to introduce listeners to the music and their places of origin that Chris came up with the Travel With Your Ears™ brand, keeping it in the back burner until recently deciding to revive it as a website, which he will work on to attract and retain many visitors, followers, partners and sponsors.
FOR ICTP MEMBERS: The website can be a platform for those members who are involved in relevant music and travel related activities, and who can use the platform to publizse their offers and services, or to enter in sponsorship or partnership deals.
INTERESTED: This being my first online venture, any advice from those who have been successful in similar ventures would be welcome. So would any relevant information that I could include on the website, tweet about or post on the fan page.