MUMBAI: Advertising is often referred to as the holy grail for any thriving industry. In a rapidly evolving ecosystem, what path should the music industry take to attract advertisers and get more moolah? On the panel were WPP Group's Ranjan Kapur and Lintas Media Group's Lynn De Souza, which was moderated by Anil Wanvari.

Kapur started off the conversation by asking if there were advertising professionals present in an room full of delegates from the music industry? The small number was proof enough that advertisers have very little inclination for this sector. "Music and advertising are inseparable as seen over the years. But the question is do we treat music as importantly as we should? It is universally accepted that we cannot do without music in advertising. Every commercial needs some music underlay. Music acts as a cushion for words and sound effects. But brands do not see it with same seriousness."

He added that music has always been a visual medium for us, we grew up on music videos. It has never worked standalone for us. Though music used within a brand in a visual sense works well, at the end of the day, every brand thinks music is important but does nothing....

Reminiscing the jingle era Kapur rues, "Earlier, jingles played a big role in advertising. The words were written and then you visualised the video. In the past, brands have been built on music. Today in the advertising communication business, jingles are not the way of life. From jingles we have shifted to songs."

"Also, music is no more the number one aspect when examining the priority on which a communication is based. Its role is altered according to the importance the brand owner and communicator gives it. Giving an international perspective, internationally, music was never an underlay, in fact it created atmosphere. There is no jingle used but music is used intelligently."

Giving another dimension to the issue, from the agency's side de Souza explained, "We have to keep music in perspective and when we do that it falls short of the amount of attention that sports, cricket or Bollywood attract from the advertising fraternity."

Pointing the reasons for lack of sufficient funds being diverted towards this sector by the advertisers she further added, "We are a music loving nation and it is a large platform but just not large enough. If we are developing a media strategy we look at cricket or Bollywood which are a spectacle and present a larger than life picture. They are on a big scale on-ground and then they are taken to television. But music today is not that a crowd puller. We do not associate ourselves directly but through what television and radio broadcasters give out."

de Souza also pointed about the slow state of affairs of music channels in the country. "Music channels do well when they stop offering music content. There are 300 shows on GECs that are music based proving that they are still the biggest drawers on television. But there is no direct interaction between the two industries."

So what does the industry has to do to attract the advertisers. "Music doesn't have large on-ground formats, which need to be developed. We will not go and reach out for music artistes or make them celebrity endorsers till they build their presence out there. Money put behind music channels in last four years has doubled but till today it is just Rs 300 million. There is money supporting it but can we say that it is even close to an IPL. Disappointing, but no. It needs to build larger than life music icons."

Kapur added, "All parties creators, aggregators, and users need to get together and understand the lack of attention from the advertising world. What measures should be done to make it more appealing for people to put there money in music."