MUMBAI: The Indian Music Industry (IMI) will be launching the Music Mobile Exchange (MMX), an initiative to curb mobile piracy in Punjab from 1 August. The initiative kick started in Andhra Pradesh May this year is now being carried to parts of Punjab.

Says IMI Secretary General Savio D'Souza, The music culture in Punjab is flourishing and so IMI thought of launching the MMX concept in Punjab.... The initiative will be targeted in four places in Punjab namely- Chandigarh, Bhatinda, Amritsar and Jalandar.

Elaborating on the operations in Punjab, D'Souza says, As music culture in Punjab is flourishing, there are many mobile users in Punjab looking out for legitimate ways to access music. Also there is rampant piracy in Punjab and this is a marketing initiative to legitimate the use of music....

Joining hands of IMI in this initiative are seven music labels including Saregama, Aditya Music, Tips, Venus, EMI, Sony and Universal which account for a significant share of the copyright titles being pirated.

In a bid to curb music piracy and cash in on the growing demand for music on mobile phone memory chips, IMI had started the new division MMX. Through this initiative, mobile stores and other shopkeepers can become legitimate by opting for a MMX licence from the right holders and sell music without violating the Copyright Act. The license can be taken for a period of 1 to 3 years at a minimal cost which ranges from Rs. 1500- 5,000 per month/per computer depending on the kind of shop and location of the shop. An independent survey conducted by IMI indicates that an average shopkeeper earns Rs 7500-12500 each month by music downloads and other music applications thus making the licence fee a reasonable amount and a profitable business for the shop owners.

IMI has registered more than 1000 cases against mobile chip piracy.  If convicted for mobile piracy, the punishment ranges from 6 month to 3 years and fines from Rs.50,000/- to Rs.2,00,000/-. According to IMI, the music industry of India losses more than Rs. 300 crore each year, only by mobile chip piracy which includes products like ring tones, true tones, ring back tones, full song mobile downloads, music videos etc.