The curtains have come down on 2011 and all said and done it has been a fairly positive year for the music industry. The music scene in India especially the live music scene and the mobile music platform has witnessed tremendous growth despite signs of looming economic slowdown. It’s amazing the number of new live bands spanning a wide range of music genres that have been sprouting all over the place. Most certainly fuelled by the growing number of live music venues and numerous music festivals happening across the country, it has opened up a whole new world of opportunities not only for established bands but especially for new and upcoming ones.
That said, the preceding year kicked off with many film and music awards ceremonies starting with the Star Screen Awards, the Chevrolet Apsara Film & Television Producers Guild Awards, the Jack Daniel's Rock Awards, the Mirchi Music Awards, etc that generated a lot of interest among artists and fans. So also the many music festivals including the Mahindra Blues, Sula, Jodhpur RIFF, NH7, Mood I and Sunburn among others went a long way in keeping the music business alive and kicking. The month of May saw our revamped website up and running. It was a fruitful exercise for us and we take pride in having provided a vibrant platform for musicians, fans and industry insiders to interact and to disseminate all the news and developments happening in the Indian music scene.
Worldwide piracy continues to be the music industry’s nemesis and one that refuses to go away but developments in copyright enforcement laws globally may yet bring about a change in the coming years though it is bound to be an uphill task. Copyright infringement cases in India have seen a steep rise pointing to increased awareness among rights holders and more importantly, belief in the possibility of getting justice through court of law today which was sorely lacking only a few years ago.
2011 also witnessed the passing away of some of India’s greatest musical icons including Pt Bhimsen Joshi, Jagjit Singh, Ustad Sultan Khan, Bhupen Hazarika and others. These legendry musicians will be sorely missed by the music fraternity.
Lastly one thing is for sure music knows no linguistic, cultural or geographical barriers as Kolaveri di demonstrated over 30, 000, 000 times. Wishing all a very Happy and Prosperous New Year.