[Reader-list] Selling Music

[Prashant Pandey]

hi, i am prashant...independent research fellow... currently in mumbai researching on the music industry.........

  
Conversations with a music company executive
. (name and company’s name withheld on persistent requests) 

He has been one of the most easily accessible of the respondents
 no ego, no tantrums
 
Rather I see in him an ease and an honest urge to make his point about the industry
.
 
After struggling with the address, I am late by half an hour for the appointment
 
As I reach his office on the 7th floor, a peon ushers me to his room.. 

Executive--- hi I am 



.
Myself--- sorry I am late

.
Its all right normally I stay in office quite late

I had trouble with the address 


You said you knew about lokhandwalla 
Ya just been here once
 
Ok 
. You have really good knowledge about the industry
I read you’re your proposal.. It’s very strong
 
Ya that’s why I am being paid to do this` research
 
 
(Laughs
)  Who’s paying you? 
 Then I tell him about Sarai (he is amused like everybody) and then about myself
 
then he tells me that it wont be possible for him to say anything on record so we could just talk without the Dictaphone between us
 I readily agree as any talk is better than 
 no talk.. 

myself--- tell me
.. a very basic question
 why do music companies make films 
 

They make films because they want to sell the film as well as the music

Venus, tips, t-series everybody make there own film
 by this the music rights are inherently theirs. 

I feel
there could be a chance I m just thinking 
 they could be making films primarily to sell music
. 

Ya somewhat but returns from films are lucrative too.. but you are absolutely right
 
Why should we buy audio rights worth 5 crores 
 10 crores
 itne me to puraa picture bana lo
 

Ya but now its kind of a talkback
 Production houses are launching music companies
 yashraj music and so on
 

Yashraj happened because the companies refused to buy audio rights at such exhorbitant rates .. can you believe Veer-Zara was being sold for 12 crore
 HMV said its fine but we aren’t sure about this madan-mohan stuff
 so yashraj launched its own
 

I think I should meet people there in yashraj. 
 
You know somebody there
 

Yes I do
 

Ok go and talk
. But I guess nobody at least in the office isn’t goin to tell you anything interesting
 so where were we 

We were talking about music companies making films and film companies making music
 

Ya you put it perfectly
 but its not easy
 if u have never done music before u have to start everything--- cost of tapes,production,quality control, marketing and so on.. 
Same applies to music companies
 they have to take all the risks
 they have to shoot promos, songs (in fact the whole film)  apart from making the music
 



Then we take small break and start talking about people
 he mentions Sameer and I am hooked

Sameers is a producers’ lyricist. He is amazingly flexible.. and incorporates every suggestion that the producers make..

If the producr says sameerji ye word thoda jama nahi kuch maja nahi aa raha  then sameer will change it. A javed akhtar or gulzar wont do that. Javed se bolo ki sir aap ne jo ye “kaali syaahi” use kiya hai romantic nahi ho raha hai
 javed ji will say aapka kaam hai picture banana
 jab aap camera se shoot karoge to main waha pea a kar nahi kahoonga ki esee shot lo vaise shot lo
 likhna mera department hai mujhe likhne dijiye
 but there are writers who are willing to do as much compro as they can .. 

But why does he (sameer) do it

Seedhi si baat hai
 vo nahi karega to koi aur kar dega.. yaha pe to free main likhne vale baithe hain
 

That’s makes him so prolific
 

Ya u can say that
 and he is so good with phrases and one-liners..  

Like shik-dum? (shik-dum shikdum is hit song from Dhoom)

Ya
 

 When u say he’s a producers writer I remember, ramesh taurani of tips recalled how sameer had traveled with him again  and again to Chennai(rahman was doing the music) despite his schedules for the “legend of bhagat singh”.. Ramesh ji was really touched by his gesture 

Ya you need to do all this
 everybody is good here but u should be willing to go the extra mile...  see prashant in this industry nobody is ur friend nobody is ur enemy
. 

.everybody is a collaborator
. if u r in a group or lobby it really helps


lobby means eating and drinking together


laughs 
 ya 

but a group must  have a strong commercial  side to it


  of course as long as you can help to sell my tapes u can eat and drink with me as much as u want.. 


accha tell me one thing
 music companies seem to taking almost all executive decisions about music making
 some of these decisions fall in the creative domain as well
 do music companies have creative departments



ya some of them have
 HMV has a very good creative department.. it’s a company that runs on the support of its employees.. Sony is good too
 however in some companies like TIPS all decisions are  taken by the owners
 

Are they musically inclined
.

Not in a traditional sense but when it comes to packaging and selling and getting a particular kind of music done they are very very good at it.. They exactly know what is going to sell and what is not
 

How much is the interference
 

Well that’s not exactly interference
 its their money and they make sure they get the job done as they envisage.. so every word of the songs is looked at 
 changes are made
 
Music pieces in the song, how the song should begin 
 alaap dalna hai ki nahi
 singer kaun sa hoga 
everything
 Lot of times a song is “appreciated” but after the final mix agar lagta hai ki  vo feeling nahi hai to we also change singers
 

Oh it  must be very tough
 you must be saying sorry all the time..

No its very common and singers have to accept it. See a song is a song only after it has been shot and you have an actor singing it.. or even it is none of these there has to be a promo on tv 
 the recorded song must compliment
the promo
 and vice-versa..
So much money is involved in just shooting the song so what’s wrong in changing a singer/lyricist/tunes/lyrics  or changing the whole song 

You must be paying them.. 

Paying them what?

I mean once a singer has sung a song he/she gets the payment but then you go for another singer
 

Ya you know lot of times singer jab apni film hall me dekhne jaate hai to unhe shock lagta hai
 as they hear their own song in somebody else’s voice
 

Can give a recent example
 

Yaar common cheez hai why get into unnecessary troubles. (pauses but adds later on
.)

Babul (supriyo) is a big sufferer because of this.. Producer (music company also producing the film ) says yaaar maza nahi aaya sanu se gavao.. 

Tell me about kumar sanu

.

Oh he is very strong
even today if I take 10 odd songs from my catalogue and put it in the sales without any marketing
 it will sell good
 people especially in west Bengal
or say everywhere love him
 though his throat isn’t keeping well but we insist 
On sanu every time we do a film
 he is our bankable star. Alka is also our favourite she will sing all the songs... That’s our word... both sanu and alka are big and have strong fundamentals.

How do u watch a singer and how do you decide that she/he is good.. 

Past records and popularity in the charts


By past records you mean sales
 

Yes
 and also music companies have good understanding of market.. they may not take new singers but they know who is doing well and who is not
 

New singers and music directors will suffer due to this
. 

Ya because its very risky how can we bank on new people
 see its not very easy to work with new people. if the singer/director happens to be in house then only it becomes easy for him.. Like kumar sanu who was doing cover versions for T-series and was called for auditions for Aashiqi
 also a t-series film
 that’s how he made it big. Or say like manmohan warris who sang “rang de basanti chola” with Sonu in the “legend of bhagat singh”
 he happens to be an in-house singer for TIPS. 


Talking to you I feel that film music is all about selling
 

Yes
 we also work like that
. a promo must hit a consumer like that it must create a sensation strong enough
 this makes promos very very important
 people notice everything
 lyricist kaun hai .. music director kaun hai
 etc etc.. then you know once our stuff reaches these music outlets the ball then goes to their court.. 

We carefully arrange songs in the album.. side a mein kaun sa gaana kaha hoga 
 side b meain kaun sa hoga 
 normally side a first song is most catchy one
 the music store people play it again and again easily( side a first easier to play) and attract the people.. 

Ek baar khareed liya phir uske upar hai
 how he finds music in other tracks
 

Aajkal ek do songs hee acche hote hai
. Those we use to sell our cds and cassesstte.. 




At this point again I raise the fundamental question at the risk of being seen as a revolutionary and naïve 


 How do businessmen decide what is good music and what’s bad
. 

Oh
 its not important
 we just follow the current trend.. I look at a 14 year old
 and decide what my music
this 14 year guy is most important..this is the time people form their music tastes and impressions.. they start watching films
 fall in love
 and when I sold  a kumar sanu  in early nineties or sell shaan or kunaal  now , the teenage says “oh this guy is singing my song
its me, my emotions
my love life
my tragedy
my fun
”. what is the film that struck you for the first time  as a music lover? 

Aashiqi
 and I was 11 then
(the momemt of enlightenment is here)

So there you go
(smiles)  that’s how it works
 today somebody might be singing and buying Kunal as you bought kumar sanu those days
 times change so do we in our approach to identifying and selling
 its very natural and common sense. 


We then realize that there is nothing more to talk and we compliment each other
its 7.45pm.  We come down from the office together. 





 

































 










prashant pandey
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20050316/9e7b1ed6/attachment.html