V J LAZARUS, President, IMI
What would be the key focus of IMI in the upcoming year 2010?
The
key focus of IMI will continue to be enforcement because the problem in
the industry is the huge amount lost in piracy. Whether its physical or
non physical, public performances, mobile chip so these should be
monitored and enforced by licensing. We should support the PPL ad IPRS
as societies in terms of licensing the content in much more efficient
way.
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IMI being an apex body in the Indian Music scene, how does it plan to
bring better solutions to garner fair trade, development of music
culture and ensuring copyright compliance regime?
My first answer covers the copyright compliance. Fair trade we are
always in the forefront of with our lobbying with the government and all
other authorities which contributes towards the environment to create
fair trade. Development of the music culture is the responsibility of
the individual music companies and not of IMI as we do not get in the
situation of creating content. Music companies should create new trends
and genres, new kind of music or promoting artists- it falls under their
jurisdiction and not of the association.
How
excited are you by the possibilities of 3G services coming in & taking
music to a new level?
It is very exciting, no doubt about it. The percentage of 3G and other
2.5G’s and other lowers will be far greater. 3G will be a niche area and
it all depends how much we are able to penetrate with that as it will
also be expensive at the upper end. We need to wait and see when it
happens- it might another year and half & its penetration levels. On
these bases we shall know the volumes it shall churn. The more the
business, more the excitement & less the business, less the excitement.
If you were to advice on one strategy to build a healthy artist,
label and audience relationship, what would it be?
The strategy of music is two things- artist (creative part of the
content) & Music Company (job to manage the content). To manage the
creativity one needs to look at how one platform the artists, promotes &
reaches the artist out to a fan base and even builds it. The artist must
have a clear thought process & beliefs on which bases his creation.
What are the 3 threats and opportunities you see today in the music
industry?
Threats: Piracy, Piracy & Piracy- I don’t see any other threats apart
from this. If one is able to monetize all the consumption I market,
there would be nothing really to be worried about.
Opportunities: India is a very large country and we need to look at the
other languages. The regional states and regional languages are very
powerful, have a wealth of creation and folk music which need to be
brought to the fore. With so many creative essences in the country,
India is like a continent, it’s like Europe.
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There is so much potential we have
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If we are able to harness the new medium (digital), like at
present we have the mobile which is giving us a base and internet if we
can get rid of piracy.
-
We need to create hits in a country so large. The promotion
business comes out of films which are an access for promotion of music
which not available in other countries. The basic missing link which we
have found in a couple years is the lack of a universal hit & national
hit. That is the third opportunity we should look at and explore.
Kumar Taurani, Chairman
& MD, TIPS
 What
key project would you be focusing on in this year 2010?
The projects of key focus would be our two films due for releasing:
Prince- Its Showtime & Toh Baat Pakki. We even have album release of
Atif Aslam and one or two there artists.
How excited are you by the possibilities of 3G services taking your
revenues to a new level?
3G services have still time to come in. 2.5G is the existing service. We
should be happy with that technology we have for now and make the best
of it.
What are your plans for non-Bollywood, local music development in your
company & how do you intend to take it to an international audience?
We have no such plans. We make bollywood content and are happy doing
that.
If you were to advice on one strategy to build a healthy artist, label
and audience relationship, what would it be?
The strategy would be to have artist managers and producers just as they
have in the western music industries. 360’ degree value chain is the
model we need to work on. Time has come to get inspired by overseas
music companies to grow beyond funding and handle business of the
artists.
What are the 3 threats and opportunities you see today in the music
industry?
Threat:
Piracy has been the threat and it is weakening us every day.
Opportunity:
DTH will prove an opportunity for movies and 3G will enable full track
download.
Rajat Kakkar, MD, Universal
India
What key project would you be focusing on in this year 2010?
My focus would be on our joint venture with Eros, on bringing musical
talent into bollywood.
How excited are you by the possibilities of 3G services taking your
revenues to a new level?
We need to get practical about the 3G services. It’s not going to churn big
volumes and I am not sure of its pricing too. I will like to wait and watch
its developments in the market.
What are your
your plans for non-Bollywood, local music development in your company &
how do you intend to take it to an international audience?
Ours is the only label who focuses on non- bollywood content. We have done
it successfully in 2009 & will continue doing so in 2010 while scaling it
up. We shall bring about India’s biggest “musical star”. I shall talk to our
international label & take it other global platforms.
If
you were to advice on one strategy to build a healthy artist, label and
audience relationship, what would it be?
As labels we should focus on talents and not trading copyrights. We
can’t blame the media, as we labels need to initiate for the media to
follow.
What
are the 3 threats and opportunities you see today in the music industry?
Threat-
Illegally downloading is a threat & getting marginalized by bollywood.
Opportunity-
Artist based music business entertainment providers into digital space
not only as content providers but also as enablers
Sridhar Subramanian, MD,
Sony India
 What
key project would you be focusing on in this year 2010?
We would be focusing on the first half of the year on the movie; My
Name is Khan as it is an important project for us. The other half of
the year would be other projects from Dharma production and Vishesh
Films. It would be fair to say that 2010 would be about My Name is
Khan.
How excited are you by the possibilities of 3G services taking your
revenues to a new level?
In the short term I don’t believe 3G services having any material impact
in the industry. By the time auctions happens, services are rolled out &
number of people who pick up 3G phones and connections , I don’t think
it will have a material impact on our revenues until 2012. 3G will be
there but won’t make such a substantial impact for now.
What are your plans for non-Bollywood,
local music development in your company & how do you intend
to take it to an international audience?
For the moment we have no plans on non- bollywood. Our current plans are
to engage film music in more languages. We have entered the Tamil, Telgu,
Kanada market, so the point is to not only be in Hindi but in many other
regional languages. We shall be in all the regional languages for the
film music for now. We are yet to find a suitable business model for
non-film music.
If you were to advice on one strategy to build a healthy artist, label
and audience relationship, what would it be?
The strategy should be to have a 360 degree model where we represent the
artist for live music, film, endorsements, recorded music & song
writing. And we participate in all the artist revenue. This one way to
make the model work as you participates in creativity, development of
the artist& therefore building a fan base and harvesting that across all
these different revenue streams. This is the only way to do it and it is
the only way it is done anywhere in the world. The problem is India is
the lack platforms for their artist music to get heard. Even if we go to
sign a 360 deal with artist, there is not enough music television, radio
or promotional platforms available for the artist to become larger than
life. It is taking artists 4-5 years of performance to come through till
they become recognized.
What are the 3 threats and opportunities you see today in the music
industry?
Threats:
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Piracy, as always.
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The low revenue share the content companies are getting from the
telecom companies, as we get 5-7% of what the telecom companies charge
the customers, we are low on base. As the pie keeps getting larger, the
content share doesn’t seem to be keeping pace. Telecom could be under
great pressure to drop prices like they did to message charges. Even the
music prices can crash, as the percentage share is low, our revenues
will certainly compress.
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It could be in the form of producers and films not paying enough
attention to music. The dangerous trend of films having 1-2 songs, most
of the songs are not in the lip sync (like the title songs or closing
credits). So much of our music business is dependent on the film music
and if the film industry is not to pay attention on the music which will
eventually lead to different. It is an opportunity in one way, if film
music does not do well; non film music will grow and develop.
Opportunities:
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Regional music
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Try and built a business model which will work on the internet. We
do not have admirable business model and internet is reaching a stage of
maturity – both in terms of penetration, acceptance and paying online.
T. Suresh, GM, EMI
Country Head India
What key project would you be focusing on in this year 2010?
Our key focus in 2010 would be digital sales growth.
How excited are you by the possibilities of 3G services taking your
revenues to a new level?
3G is not likely to come in till late 2010. We need to wait its launch
to talk about revenues.
What
are your plans for non-Bollywood, local music development in your
company & how do you intend to take it to an international audience?
Indian audience is underserved in non-bollywood content. We had our music on
I-Tunes & other online stores for about eight to nine bands in 2009. May be
we shall have 20 bands in 2010. There is a fusion space in our market.
Experimental music is what listeners want to here.
If you were to advice on one strategy to build a healthy artist, label and
audience relationship, what would it be?
To
build towards success is the key strategy. You need to put more money to get
more money. If you give an artist more audiences than he would have thought
of – it will eventually lead to build a healthy relationship.
What are the 3 threats and opportunities you see today in the music
industry?
Threat
Piracy is the only threat we face.
Opportunities:
(i)
Consumer perspectives are used to a wider range of music and the
markets have matured
(ii)
Amount of music consumed on the digital formats has increased.
(iii)
Live music audience is growing and so are the venues, which eventually leads
to increase in physical and digital sales.
Apurv Nagpal,
Managing Director, Saregama
What key project would you be focusing on in this year 2010?
Our focus would be trying to bring more no- film music in the market for
our consumers.
How excited are you by the possibilities of 3G services taking your
revenues to a new level?
I am excited about any and everything till, my consumers get more
content. I am not sure about the amount of revenues it shall churn.
What are your plans for non-Bollywood, local music development in your
company & how do you intend to take it to an international audience?
We
are still working on it. As of now, nothing concrete is in place.
If you were to advice on one strategy to build a healthy artist, label and
audience relationship, what would it be?
Honesty & transparency would be the one strategy to build a healthy artist,
label and audience relationship.
What are the 3 threats and opportunities you see today in the music
industry?
Piracy is the most obvious threat. In India, we have street piracy- selling
of Cds & not internet piracy.
More and more music continues to be consumed by our consumers is always an
opportunity.
UMESH GUPTA,
Managing Director, Aditya Music
What key project would you be focusing on in this year 2010?
In 2010 we would be focusing on strengthening our catalogue by entering
into other regional languages and on setting up our own digital
distribution networks.
How excited are you by the possibilities of 3G services taking your
revenues to a new level?
Yes, we are positive on growth in revenues because of 3G services.
What are your plans for non-Bollywood, local music development in your
company & how do you intend to take it to an international audience?
We are based at Hyderabad and are leading in Tollywood. We are entering
into other regional languages also. We would like to take music to the
international audience by making use of digital technologies.
If you were to advice on one strategy to build a healthy artist, label
and audience relationship, what would it be?
Strict and consistent action against piracy is a positive contribution
to the industry. If the industry is safe and healthy; all the players in
the industry will be healthy. Any label is known by the quality of
content it holds. We believe in providing clean and quality music at
the most economical rates.
What are the 3 threats and opportunities you see today in the music
industry?
Threats:
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Piracy of all kinds is a major threat. Pirated music and this
section, constantly cost conscious, always picks up low cost pirated
music.
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Technology when put to wrong use. Technology is making it very easy
for copying, storing, streaming, downloading etc.
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Ignorance of copyright provisions. A vast section
of population are ignorant and unable to differentiate between a
genuine and Pirate.
Opportunities:
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Technology is offering number of opportunities and avenues like Mobile
phones, internet, Kiosks etc for exploitation of music. It is
facilitating music companies to in cash the true potential of their
catalogues. With the growing awareness among the masses about
copyrights there is growing realization that music has its own value and
it cannot be enjoyed free of charge.
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Industry to start making money from the broadcasters. It’s not just
radio, now its television industry which uses lot of music TV and
reality shows as a big part of their industry. I don’t think we have
done a great role in monetizing broadcasters and public
performances; the potential to increase dramatically exists.
S. L Saha, Director,
Hindustan Inreco
What key project would you be focusing on in this year 2010?
My website Janagana, would be my key focus. The website would have
download, music videos, streaming, and karaoke on it. I am looking
forward for its launch.
How excited are you by the possibilities of 3G services taking your
revenues to a new level?
I am excited about the 3G possibilities as it will have a good effect to
my upcoming website. For now, we are dependent on overseas companies for
our revenues.
What are your plans for non-Bollywood, local music development in your
company & how do you intend to take it to an international audience?
We are completely a non-bollywood label. We are inspired by I-tunes,
Amazon for having are catalogues outside India. Hopefully, Janagan (his
upcoming website) enables to reach us out to our audiences globally.
If you were to advice on one strategy to build a healthy artist, label
and audience relationship, what would it be?
I would like the royalty regime to come back. I understand the artist
community not being too happy with it but we should try and develop
something which the artist & label both agree with.
What are the 3 threats and opportunities you see today in the music
industry?
Threats:
(i)
Piracy is something we live with but scarier is cyber piracy.
Websites need to come with a solution to it
(ii)
I wish tax bearers are taken care off while selling content from
one state to another for a better outcome of physical sales
(iii)
To ensure writers, authors and composers get their due
Opportunities:
(i)
Ability of digital long tail at low costs
(ii)
Display of long catalogue like ours as the regional music is
important and labels have a direct opportunity to exploit it
(iii)
Riding on the back of the mobile industry will take us to all
places
Vipul Pradhan, CEO, PPL
What would be the key focus of PPL in the upcoming year 2010?
The key focus of PPL is to increase compliance. When we started the
journey of PPL, the initial problem was of valuation. I think over the
last couple of years we have managed to correct in a large extent. But
the compliance still continues to be the problem. The focus in the next
year would how to bring about a better compliance of copyright be it
public performance, radio or telecom.
PPL being an apex body, how does it plan to bring more benefits to its
members in the upcoming year?
Primarily PPL’s role is to license on behalf of its members & we create
value for the members by the value per usage & better compliance. By a
combination of both hopefully we could generate better revenue streams
for the music industry; which means better monetization and better
future.
How excited are you by the possibilities of 3G services coming in &
taking music to a new level?
We have been hearing about 3G for quite some time now, almost two years.
The first 3G service on BSNL has just been launched. Hopefully in next
12 months we might hear similar kind of initiative from other network
operators as the networks are ready to be launched & it’s only a
question of license. If you look at the music industry perspective,
currently the biggest service on the telecom network is ring back tone
service which is essentially streaming of the music. Other services
namely full track download & streaming are relatively small services,
largely on account of bandwidth problems, the launch of 3G would enable
distribution of the rich media service. This would be essentially
handled with the launch of 3G services. After the launch of 3G services
you will find newer business models being launched on the download &
streaming services. There will be a better portfolio of music
utilization across the different networks. So 3G is a good news, when it
happens is something we you have to wait and watch
If you were to advice on one strategy to build a healthy artist, label
and audience relationship, what would it be?
Healthy business model is ideally the participation y the creators in
the whole process. Unfortunately our market is film driven, where the
business model are quite different. The artist work and give their write
to the producer who in turn give these rights to a music company. As &
when the business model changes, whether voluntarily or legally, it will
create participation of all stakeholders & create a viable business
model. Infact some of the leading authors have started to retain their
rights. Whereby, lesser amount is charged upfront & there is sharing of
revenue on the eventual download or performance of the music. It brings
about a holistic change in the way music is being created & artist is
going to be compensated more if the music does well. If it is a
participatory model good music will get rewarded & bad music which
doesn’t sell does not create a risky model for the music companies.
What are the 3 threats and opportunities you see today in the music
industry?
Opportunities:
i.
3G means newer business models to be launched where streaming
and download would start to happen
ii.
The government opening up multi frequencies wherein niche content
could be utilized over various radio stations
iii. Emergence of broadband as an alternate mode of distribution,
likely to open up a huge market for consumption of entertainment content
Threats:
i.
Compliance of license being taken by different set of copyright
owners
ii. Usage of content by the radio without the justifiable valuation
to content owner
iii. Uncontrolled & unaccountable usage on the telecom network, that means
distribution of content by unlicensed companies & “passing off” cover
version, as the original content.
Rakesh Nigam, CEO, IPRS
IPRS being an apex body, how does it plan to bring in more benefits to
it members in the year 2010?
In
the year 2010, we would like to expand in newer areas and get more
establishments of rights, as a lot of people are disputing in taking
dual rights. We are trying to get radio, television, public performances
get the sound recording plus the literary work licenses and probably we
will get into mobile front also. This will help us in enhancing the
values for our members for establishing rights and getting better rates.
How does IPRS plan to make the aspiring artist aware about its existence
to protect them?
When we start collecting money we try and inform the known people about
us and ask them to be members with us. As far as the new or upcoming
authors and composers do not understand the complexities of the music
business, how it runs and what IPRS is and what are performing rights.
We start distributing the royalty; we inform them about and seek their
membership. We also hold conferences in various cities of our nation to
make people aware of our existence.
Do you think the authors and composers are keen on getting the creative
work registered?
Authors and composers struggle to make themselves established. Most of
them are not aware of the rights and even if they are aware, unless they
are not settled, they try and worry about the rights; they will be
knocked out of the race. There have been many cases where established
authors and composers have let go off their rights for better projects,
so there is no question of small timers. They work on project and look
out for the other project, to know where their next bread is going to
come from.
If you were to advice on one strategy to build a healthy artist, label
and audience relationship, what would it be?
The artist and the music company must work together to know what kind of
music would be accepted by the audiences. It should be done on a fair
share bases so everyone knows the risks in the business, for everyone’s
survival in the business. Only if the healthy relationship persists,
then good quality music would be produced.
What are the 3 threats and opportunities you see today in the music
industry?
Music is being played all across and there has been an increase in
consumption. We need to channelize and monetize the increase
consumption. We need to understand the loop holes in the existing models
and to capitalize on the untapped markets.
-RIA SHAH
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