MUMBAI: After big baron T-Series joined hands with The Indian Performing Right Society (IPRS) and the Phonographic performance Ltd (PPL) - to collect the public performance license fees on its behalf, Eros Multimedia Ltd has also come forth to be part of the licensing bodies.

Confirms PPL CEO Vipul Pradhan, Eros came under PPL wing by the end of last year for collection of royalties for public performances. Although the label had been handling the collection on their own for long; looking at our pan India presence and ability to collect royalties decided to be a part of PPL.... According to the agreement with Eros, PPL will collect royalties of Eros music used in radio, television, broadcast and public performances. The digital rights of music acquired by Eros will however stay with the content aggregators.

Commenting on the move, IPRS CEO Rakesh Nigam says, "It works for the benefit of labels as we can collectively manage their licenses. If done collectively, the consumers cannot escape from requisite licensing and it facilitates more transparency....

Confirms Nigam, Eros Multimedia joined IPRS in September 2008 and we handle their rights for Television, radio and publishing....

Eros had been an independent entity and used to handle its licensing on its own for all these years. Adds Nigam, We made them understand our business and it merged with their ideas and they agreed to be a part of IPRS. IPRS handles rights for television, radio and publishing.

Eros spokesperson commented, Eros is a part of IPRS and PPL but we are not yet members of Indian Music Industy (IMI).

Members under the IMI, have to pay a stipulated amount for curbing piracy, which is why many companies prefer to join the PPL and IPRS. Also, the licensing bodies cannot refuse companies such provisional membership due to section 33 of the Copyright Act

PPL has a strength of 160 music labels under its wing across India and covers about 90 per cent of the market. Says Pradhan, We are in talks with many labels across India for strengthening our pan India presence. We are essentially looking at blanket licensing with the music labels where we have all rights- Tv, radio, publishing, broadcast, digital etc rather than handling a part of it....

Eros has a mixed bag of hits and flops last year including releases like Hijack, Drona, Namaste London, Partner, Heyy Baby, Om Shanti Om. Their upcoming releases for 2009 include Toonpur Ka Super Hero, Aladin And The Mystery Of The Lamp, Roshan, Pankh, Kambakth Ishq, Milenge Milenge, Tera Mera Ki Rishta, Veer, Me Shivajiraje Bhosale Boltoy.