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Exclusive Interview - R.H.Chhatrapati

Artist Mentor - Terry McBride

In Conversation with Manisha Dey

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Exclusive Interview

R.H.Chhatrapati, Associate VP, Sales & Catalog Marketing, Universal Music India

...I got employed at Universal and I have continued and grown with my first employer since the past 19 years...Everything that has to do with revenues from the Physical Sales falls under my purview...65% of our business and revenues comes from International Music. Now a major chunk of this 65% business comes from the key accounts, which are retail stores like Music World, PlanetM, Odyssey, Reliance, Rhythm House, etc...If it’s a HIT album Planet M would sell around 10,000 pieces in 6 months...Universal is the only music company which has kept a very high pricing of Rs.395 and above. If you compare us with a Sony Music or EMI, they have a price point of Rs.199/- We do not have a price point of Rs.199/- at all...we do not have any new releases to cater to the market in the South...In the case of an International HIT Album we usually launch with 25000 quantities subject to the fact that we have sold 20% higher in the past for the same artist...Firstly let me clarify that such things do not happen in a company like Universal which does not have back to back new Bollywood films. We are basically into the International Market. I think this might be true in the case of companies who have back to back Hindi FIlm Music releases and have invested heavily into Bollywood Films... With more and more retail outlets opening up in various parts of the country I think we will still have a sustainable physical sales in this country...Physical sales still accounts for 65% of our revenues whereas Digital Sales have been growing at 35% ..I think Music will be available for FREE in certain formats or certain digital modes. I do not think Universal will ever sell FREE CD’s to the end consumers...Firstly I do not believe that Radio can ever boost the physical sales of an album or a song. Radio only plays popular music. Why doesn’t Radio play western classical music. If it were to then I am sure we would have seen some effect on the already slumped Physical Sales of Western Classical Music genre.. we know that western classical does not sell in India, so we import about 400 to 500 pieces and immediately liquidate it. So there is never a question of Universal burning its hands in a flop product... We believe that, Merchandising will give an impetus to our existing line of products as well as our new releases...Read more

Terry McBride - A Special Focus

...The artist necessarily has to be a great song writer. They have to be writing their on songs. Because when they sing their own songs it comes from their hearts. You will find that the most popular artists in the world are not necessarily the best singers but they sing with passion and that passion affects people...you work with music that you love and not with music that you likeWhen I went signing Sarah 20 years ago, did I believe that she is gonna become this big star? No I didn’t. Did I love what she was doing? Yes I did. I believe that if I love the music and if I do a good job of mentoring the artist, chances are that hundreds and thousands of people are gonna love the songs that I loved...A good artist manager may or may not be a musician but he is definitely someone who understands the music business. One who not only understands artists but also understands all the moving parts of the music business, its legalities and regularities. This is a very complex business. One who understands branding to merchandising, from LIVE concerts to intellectual property and now of course digitization.I think social networks which specialize in the music space are extremely popular with artist managers.... Read On

In Conversation with...

Manisha Dey, DGM, A&R and Sales, TIPS Industries

...My primary responsibilities are to see that our huge Bollywood as well as non - bollywood catalog has a good movement and work on more ways than one to monetize the catalog....The distribution network of every music company in India is the same. Lets take for example my distributor in Delhi – Venus enterprises. Now he is also a distributor for HMV, SONY, BIG Music, etc...Maximum sales come in from North India. North India contributes to 50% of the sales....Till last year the entire industry expected volume sales with the number of these retail stores opening up across India. But to be honest with you there has been no increase in volumes....I agree we have gained on revenues from Radio and other digital mediums. But the larger question is whether that revenue is justified? My dealers are left with surplus stock despite the fact that I have a HIT music album which the masses are consuming...More than 60% of the CD’s of RACE sold were pirated....Roughly we work on a 20% margin....let me tell you that I have worked with most of the MNC’s in India. Such situations arise in these MNC’s who have very high Corporate Standards and a culture not found in regional companies like us. Our company is a mix of traditional and corporate working style. In most of these MNC’s, you have to justify your sales and projections at the end of the month with presentations. Obviously this is for vested interests and individual benefits where one needs to justify budgets to a global headquarters. It can never happen in a family owned company from India which has a mix of traditional and corporate style of working....After TIPS actively got involved with in house film production we started treating film music differently. Today it is more of a by product for us and the film is our main product. Music along with the trailers enhances the excitement of viewers during the film’s launch period. it...Read On

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