The acquisition of EMI's music publishing business by a consortium led by Sony comes at a fortunate time as it will drive the nascent segment in India coupled with the proposed Copyright Bill, says a top Sony India official.

"Music publishing is still a very small segment in India. The deal gives us access to a large number of titles and we are hoping to leverage that in India. Coupled with the proposed Copyright Bill, I think the deal has come at an fortunate time," Sony Music President (India and Middle East) ShridharSubramaniam said.

A consortium led by Sony/ATV, a joint venture between Sony Corp and the Michael Jackson trust, is buying the music publishing division of EMI Group Ltd, for USD 2.2 billion. Universal Music Group is buying EMI's recording division for USD 1.9 billion. 

Citigroup is selling British music company EMI after taking it over in February, when private equity firmTerra Firma defaulted on its debts.

EMI has copyrights to over 1 million songs and manages the works of artists like Rihanna, Norah Jones, Beyonce and Alicia Keys. 

Sony/ATV has recently forayed into India through an exclusive strategic alliance with Sony Music Entertainment India. As per the arrangement, Sony/ATV will exploit and manage Sony Music India's publishing work overseas, while, Sony Music India will manage Sony/ATV's international work across four countries -- India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal. 

"Though music publishing is just 30 per cent now of the about Rs 1,000 crore music industry in India, but there is huge potential. As the proposed Bill comes into effect and developments such as these will only help grow the segment further," Subramaniam said. 

The proposed Copyright Amendment Bill seeks to amend the Copyright Act, 1957. It is probably the most comprehensive attempt to amend the Act and is expected to far-reaching implications for the music and film industry. 

The Bill seeks to give independent rights to lyricists, composers and singers as the authors of literary and musical works in films. 

If the Bill is enacted, authors, especially lyricists, will get royalties and other benefits from the commercial exploitation of their work. Under the present system, the right to receive royalty vests with the music firms and producers. 

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Without a doubt,everyone’s expectations were riding high once the promos of Rockstar were out. This has to be one of the most awaited movies of 2011 which promised great music and an amazing script that followed the life of a naïve college student who aspires to be a rockstar like Jim Morrison.

However, as the movie progresses it only disappoints when it becomes obvious that the plot is hardly about the rise of an underdog who fights all the odds to become a rockstar but rather about a lovesick musician who abruptly rises to fame. The first half of the movie that was actually based on the one liner “A painful heartbreak gets out the real artist inside you” goes for a complete toss by the second half when JJ aka Jordan (RanbirKapoor) is seen rekindling his passion for Heer (NargisFakhri), the college hottie,who he had managed to befriend to experience heartbreak. He soon gets obsessed with his bestfriend who was unhappily married to an NRI in Prague.

Though the chemistry between them is smouldering and Imtiaz Ali portrayed their platonic relationship growing into something deeper with a certain amount of flair and charm what soon follows is achingly long scenes of a lovelorn RanbirKapoor pining away for his Heer.
The scenes after this show an increasingly frustrated Jordan flashing his middle finger and beating up media persons sporting a very grungy  style.

So does all of this make him a rockstar? Hmmm. Taking the example of 2008 critically acclaimed movie ‘Rock On’  which had inspired many teenagers across India to pick up a guitar and play  some good music after their music album had been released, the music quartet however, wasn’t really a rock band. They would’ve at the most made a convincing pop group. RanbirKapoor adapted a rash, ‘I don’t give a damn’ attitude much better but the main dilemma here is there are no rockstars in India. Filmstars gyrating to catchy tunes and lip syncingto playback songs are the ones who occupy the most prominent positions in our showbiz.

The music of Rockstar is composed by music maestro AR Rahman. Though the titles of this Imtiaz Ali movie isRockstar none of the songs can come under the category of ‘rock’. The genres actually range from folk and alternative to electro-pop, qawwali, sufi and some Balkan gypsy pieces as well.The question remains for many critics and the audience whether AR Rahman would be able to compose rock songs as easily as Shankar Ehsaan Loy did for ‘Rock On’.  One song that would catch any rock music lover’s attention would be ‘Jo Bhi Main’ which has a soft rock sound with the electric guitar in the background.

From the movie title, though, expectations were high for Rockstar to be like a pioneering point in Bollywood where the rock and roll genre is finally introduced after composers like AmitTrivedi and Ram Sampath have been known to experiment with rock and punk genres in their albums. Rockstar’smusic,however, is more on the safe side with songs like ‘KatiyaKaroon’ which has a lot more of a commercial appeal with its catchy chorus ‘tinga ling tingalinga’ which has a very Punjabi sound to it along with the lively tumbhi and dholak beat. The music is thus at odds with the movie trailer which shows RanbirKapoor in his ‘rockstar’ avatar with his aggressive behavior and grungy dressing style. Though the music is lovely and has proved AR Rahman as one of the best composers in the country yet again the album shies away from getting into the rock ‘n roll genre. 

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T-Series is one of the major players in the Indian music industry that has been proactive in taking legal action against infringers in India and has expanded its fight against infringement to the worldwide web too.

Lately music companies are resorting to cost-effective measures to combat such piracy without incurring exorbitant legal expenses. Apart from pursuing remedies available under Indian laws, music companies are also using the take down provisions of the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to disable access to online content which infringes their copyright.Recently, pursuant to a DMCA takedown notice by Super Cassettes Industries Ltd., the online music streaming website www.dishant.com was shut down.

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