STATUTORY LICENSING WRECKING HAVOC TO MUSIC INDUSTRY
The Indian Music Industry is the 90 plus year apex body of the recorded music industry that represents the music labels across India. Registered as a society in Kolkata, it holds its annual general meeting in the city every year. Speaking on the sidelines at the AGM, Dibyendu Lahri, the promotor of Asha Audio lamented that “statutory licensing is the reason why many labels in Kolkata have shut down or are in the process of shutting down. Royalties earned form Private Radio and TV networks are negligible and paltry not enough to sustain creation of Bengali music which has so much to offer.”
Blaise Fernandes President & CEO of IMI said “statutory licensing was introduced when private radio was in its nascent stage, that was 20 years ago, hence statutory licensing has way past its expiry date. Not only does music labels get affected by this archaic law but also the film industry across India gets impacted. Unlike any other markets 90% of music in India is film based and record labels pay astronomical amounts in the form of royalty fees to obtain the rights to any film soundtrack. I am hopeful that DPIIT will take note of this serious matter. We thank DPIIT for withdrawing the memo extending statutory licensing towards digital services and we hope they will abolish this archaic law of statutory licensing soon.”
Arjit Dutta, MD, Priya Entertainments, one of the oldest stakeholder in the film industry, was unanimous in supporting abolition of statutory licensing, stating “the film and music industry go hand in hand and its unique to our culture, no where in the world does this rich cultural heritage exists, in India it has survived. The art of storytelling where songs play an important role to enrich the narrative of the film.”
