It had to happen. The proliferation of desi themed games has resulted in an increased dependence on Bollywood film music.

The result - an additional stream of revenue for music companies, and a surefire filmi recipe for success for the gaming industry. 2008 could well see a marked increase in Indian themed games with film as well as original music scores as their backbone.

One of the reasons for Bollywood themed games appears to be their reach. Hindi films and Hindi film music can reach across all age groups and boundaries, and as a corollary often help in the promotion of new films.

Bollywood tracks

As a value added feature, Bollywood music features as an indispensable part of games. As Kreeda Games' Chief Technology Officer Robin Alter says, "Music occupies a large part in the game playing experience. It needs to be compatible to the theme of the game and should relate well to the action of the game, which makes it a better gaming experience. Therefore, Indian music is very important to the games in India today as many of these are Bollywood based."

Alter says that a few new independent companies are starting to produce music for games in India. But currently, it is the record labels that are licensing out their catalogs to the gaming companies. "There are many thousands of games in India, ranging from mobile to casual to the large exciting types and many more to release. This market will continue to grow incredibly quickly," predicts Alter.

Says music director Suleiman Merchant, "Many times, the background score is just a spin off from a Bollywood movie and the amount to be paid is minimal as it also contributes to the promotion of the film. Using Bollywood songs as musical themes reduces the cost of production of the games. Although I am aware of the concept of employing a band or a composer for background scores in games abroad, I doubt if the idea has taken off in India."

Kreeda's Dancemela is India's first multiplayer online dancing game, in which people can create their own character and dance on the latest Bollywood hits. Says Kreeda's Chief Gaming Officer Ramesh Anumukonda, "We buy titles from music companies owning the rights to the tracks and use them for our games." Companies are loath to disclosing the amounts exchanged in acquiring the tracks, but the benefit which comes with the transfer of titles is that the rights are not restricted to limited players. Any gaming corporation opting for certain Bollywood titles do not obtain the exclusive rights of the tracks and the music companies can transfer the rights to any other gaming player by exchanging the royalties.
The Global Scene
In the global Gaming market, there are some music oriented games selling million copies and earning billions. The Guitar Hero video game series with guitar compositions from Aerosmith has sold over 14 million games, earning over $1 billion. On the similar lines, another game ?‹?“Rock Band has sold over 1.5 million copies in only four months and boasts over two million song downloads from online users. Bands are willing to give out their music to games looking at the popularity each song featured will fetch them.

"It involves a cost to procure the license for the Bollywood titles, and also these games help in promoting the musical compilations. The players have to pay initially to download the game and later can play freely with all the songs available with the package," says Anumukonda.

Music director Shamir Tandon however feels that, "Many times, music companies come forward to offer their tracks only with an aim to promote those Bollywood numbers."

Sony Playstation's Bollywood Singstar, launched in November last year, has already created waves in the gaming market with many players downloading it. Sony Playstation's country manager Atindriya Bose says, "We have currently tied up with Sony BMG and T-series for content and would be negotiating with other companies as well for subsequent Bollywood titles. While acquiring titles, royalties and license fees are to be paid to obtain the rights of audio and video of the Bollywood songs. Bollywood is increasingly entering the Indian gaming industry and games based on Bollywood themes will acquire a main stake in the coming year". The Bollywood Singstar unit is priced at Rs 1500 and also allows buyers to go in for additional bouquet of songs for Rs 500.

Another player that has its sights set on Indian themed games this year is Games2win. As the website claims, the company plans to create a destination for Indians to come online for 'gamer' tainment. Games2win products head Meher Shah says, "Music depends from game to game, but as our games have an Indian theme, we have a flavour of vocal music in them. We have a couple of games tied up with the film companies, and we get the rights of the sound and integrate it in our games so, it is a barter concept where the cost of production doesn't increase essentially."

Agrees Indiagames's senior manager R & D Mandar Deodhar. "Games without music are like a Bollywood movie without a background score. Even in mobile games, attention has to be given to music and we have to compose polyphonic tones suiting various handsets. In case of branded games like the ones based on Hollywood or Bollywood flicks, the music is mainly the hot songs or title tracks from the movie thereby not increasing the cost of production when it comes to music. The cost invested on background music also depends on the individual needs of the company. The bigger companies demand better compositions and are ready to shell out accordingly. Many a times, we have clubbed offers like after successfully completing certain stages, we offer free ringtones to the player thereby benefiting the music industry too."

Games like Singstar Bollywood will be responsible for music acquiring more importance in the Indian gaming scenario this year, says Yellow Monkey Director Avin Sharma.

Outsourced background scores

While Bollywood might be its backbone, gaming companies are looking elsewhere for the background scores too. There are instances where the background scores are outsourced to independent composers or upcoming musical bands. Elucidating the point, Maharaja Games CEO Vishal Golia says, "For our projects, we have hired a Hollywood musician in Los Angeles who provides us with the background score. We are mainly into educational games like Skoolastica History adventure, Math adventure etc.. which need minimal music or no music at all. Music in Indian games does not hold much importance, and it would take a long time before music occupies a prominent place in our games. Many a times, the client provides us with the music for their games. In the gaming industry if musicians or bands are engaged to compose music, the cost increases by 20 per cent of the total production cost".

Adds Games2win's Meher Shah, "We do have our technical sound specialists who compose on a regular basis for us and if outsourced it increases the production cost by 15-20 per cent."

One of the major concerns which come while uploading sound files along with games is the size of the files. As Shah points out , "If the game files become as heavy as two or three MB, it takes a long time to load. And as we are mainly into online games, we need to be cautious not to make heavy files which would take much loading time thereby losing non-patient online players."

Yellow Monkey's Sharma however does not believe that outsourcing increases the cost of production. "Commissioning a composer for creating a background score happens more often in big projects which have the benefit of time - at least one year to a year and a half. Outsourcing a composer instead of employing a sound technician contributes to the cost cutting because there is lot of competition around and fresh composers crave for a platform to exhibit. Given a platform, there are ready to work on cheaper rates."

Sharma's company generally outsources the music part to composers internationally. "We have a contract system and employ composers on a project by project basis, for mobile games, the composers vary fro 500$ but again the figures depends on the project budget, the company and the expectations of the composers," he explains.

Golia makes another interesting observation, pointing out that there are gaming websites who simply lift music from online musical sites and use it in their games, thereby not adding to the production cost at all.

Some of the musical sites where the royalty free music is easily available are www.loopsound.com and www.opuzz.com with music in different genres like electronic, funk, rock of music available online.

The Indian Music Industry's secretary general Savio D'souza says that there have been instances where licenses approving the transfer of copyrights have to be got before lifting the music for background score in games. "The Indian Music Industry as an organisation looks that the intellectual property is well protected with proper transfer of rights and holds every right to raid and take stringent action against any gaming corporation failing to do so".

With music aided games being launched at an increasing frequency, however, games should only be music to the ears of labels this year.