Rahul Ram, the vocalist and bassist of India’s first fusion rock band, Indian Ocean, has become a name to reckon with in non-film music industry. A hard core music addict Rahul has composed music, done playback singing and acted in bollywood, but he chooses to keep a distance from mainstream commercial films. Extremely passionate and a true lover of music, Rahul has created his niche audience who turns up in huge numbers in any part of the world for his live concerts. He had recently judged a reality show and opined that most  reality shows in India look for playback singers.

Rahul shares his views on bollywood music and his struggle.

Bollywood has been a big brother of Indian music industry for ages but now this big brother has started a new trend of including music from indie artistes. Fifteen years ago, there was a trend of creating music videos for non-film music but it stopped because music labels could not rake in moolah.

Money plays a vital role in bollywood and huge investments are being made for promotions today. A lot of money is poured in for music videos of films and companies in turn are making huge profits.

Indian Ocean makes their full album in Rs 10-20 lakhs. In bollywood, you spend around Rs 1-2 crore on music videos with an expectation that the movie will be a hit. But with me, I just have an album to sell. In a physical copy, 40 per cent goes to various partners and making the cost and whatever is saved is really meager. We will have to sell around 1 lakh or more CDs to make Rs 1.5 crore, which is a bit dicey.

All musicians feel that they play good music and will get success. We also think that we should be recognized for our work and be promoted. From economies point of view it doesn’t make sense. We have to understand that bollywood would remain our big brother in the block and we have to go with that. Just look at SAARC countries, if bollywood is India then indie music is Bhutan.

Such a small percentage cannot be compared to the gigantic bollywood industry. Indie musicians have to make their own identity and create their niche audience. In bollywood, new directors are willing to have more and more indie music. It is a very healthy trend; they are not the old music directors who had their thought only till bollywood. Moreover, there are many composers who have a vision outside bollywood and listen to rock, pop, jazz and western music. They have interest in non-film music and so new trends are coming in along with new music.

However, it is an undeniable fact that musicians basically make money through live shows. Even bollywood musicians make money only through live performances. We love doing live shows. That is our bread and butter and that is our adrenaline rush.

Furthermore, the recording companies are blind if they think they can stop piracy. Anyone who buys a CD rips it and passes on to others. If I run behind a label company to sell my CDs firstly they will take my rights away. They will bind me in a contract and you don’t get any profits. In terms of royalty you get 10-15 per cent per CD sold. So I might only end up getting Rs 12 per CD.

But today I feel it is much better to put music on  Soundcloud, ReverbNation and Youtube. Internet is very crowded. But in the end you have to make your own contacts through it. YouTube and Soundcloud provide different avenues to put up your music so that many can listen and you can build contacts.

If a label spends money on marketing and advertising on our music, I really don’t know from where they get their returns. Look at digital formats where music is downloaded, the product is priced at minimal price. Piracy is inevitable there is no need to cry about it. The fact is that now you have to be lucky to get million hits in your YouTube page, and get advertising on to it or you do live shows and earn money.

Many festivals and live ventures have opened up which was not the case before. There are 10-12 venues in Delhi for live shows. There are many festivals coming up and independent bands can perform. Once they play in one festival they get known and get more projects.Festival promotions happen heavily through digital platforms.

If you become an artiste that means you have not taken a conventional route. There is competition for everything. Competition and hardships are a part of life and are inevitable. The kids who have won SaReGaMaPa contest have done rayas for 10 years. They wouldn’t have got in if they would not have practiced. It is just a beginning for them. At times they might disappear after few years. If they start believing that they are stars and act pricey then they will fail.  If you look at reality shows that take place there are three to four winners in every reality show and all want to become playback singers. These singers who come out don’t have compositional abilities. Or rather no one is testing their ability to compose; they were fed in a way to do bollywood singing. In bollywood you don’t have to compose, someone else composes you just sing. Ultimately to create music is not that easy.

When we started our live shows we used to be happy about our journey in train, staying in hostel and with Rs 1000 in our pockets. But these kids once they become the winner of reality shows; they get deluxe treatment, flight tickets in business class which ruins their habit. There are people who act pricey and there are people who are really talented. The truth is that talented people cannot be stopped.

After becoming a part of a reality show I have been able to get very close to these contestants’. Once I met a guy who asked me to sing a song for a bollywood movie and he turned out to be a runner-up of a reality show. I usually don’t see such programs. I have not seen my own program (SaReGaMaPa) but I have interest in the show as it is music based. SaReGaMaPa team who approached me for the show said  nowadays youth are listening to non-bollywood music and Indian Ocean is the representative of non-Bollywood music and my different outlook towards bollywood will help in judging. They were hoping that many young people who follow me will follow the program.

In the end I would say that our budding artiste should understand that they should not aim to reach heights in haste. One needs to find a way to reach there and it takes time. Life is not the place where one gets success overnight. It is slow and it takes time.