In its zest to curb music piracy, South Indian Music Companies Association (SIMCA) and South India Digital Music Management Private Ltd (SIDMM) launched ‘Cell Muzik’ in Chennai last year(September). In a quick chat with Poonam Ahuja, South India Music Companies Association (SIMCA) joint secretary Rajesh Dhupad opens up on how successful has ‘Cell Muzik’ been since its inception and reveals plans to curb the fast-growing piracy in the South Indian music industry.
Excerpts:-
What was the actual idea behind coming up with such a venture?
Today 70% of all music consumed in India is on the mobile platform and apart from ring back tones (RBT) consumption which is 100% legal as of now, not a penny comes to the music industry from the mobile platform. 100% of all the music that is consumed on the mobile is pirated and there are thousands of shops all over Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh who do side loading of music on their memory card for free which is completely unauthorized.
Our survey shows that there are about 25000 retail outlets alone in Tamil Nadu who are into this business of music piracy. Just imagine the money that is spinning around these entities. Customers go to these shops and get their memory card filled with the songs, for which the shopkeepers charge them with a fees of Rs. 100-400, depending upon the capacity of the memory card. On an average, even if each shop gets 10 consumers per day the amount of money that is generated by these outlets is not less than Rs. 3-4 million. This is the amount of money that is spun around through these outlets annually, but unfortunately not even a single penny comes to the music industry. This was the main reason for us to launch Cell Muzik.
How is Cell Muzik trying to curb piracy?
Till date there is no model or structure for selling music officially. We have found that there are many mobile outlets who sell pirated music to their customers by copying it to the phone’s memory card. Through Cell Muzik, we issue licence to these shopkeepers to do their business legally. The shopkeeper is not entitled to make any official bill or create any account, he just has to acquire the licence from us at a defined amount and continue his business of side loading music. The fees for obtaining licence ranges between Rs 10000-15000 per year.
‘Cell Muzik’ is an entity created for exploiting various vectors of unexploited territories all over the world, primarily for the members and directors of SIMCA. There are 13 directors in Cell Muzik and all of them are label owners from SIMCA. Apart from the content licensed for SIMCA members we also license content for various other labels.
How successful has it been so far?
Although a lot has to be done, but the initial feedback has been extremely overwhelming. In fact we have also launched Cell Muzik in Kochi, Kerala last month.
How much revenue is expected from the anti-piracy initiative?
We have already started generating revenues from this initiative, since we started last year. If this entity works properly and if we get the right support from the legal agencies and government then the amount would go into crores. Even if we are able to capture 20% of these retailers then a huge amount could be generated. This is only about Tamil Nadu. We have done our survey in Kerala and found that there are 20,000 outlets into the same business. In fact we have been delayed to venture into this stream of business but now with Cell Muzik we will definitely be able to curb piracy and generate money.
Could you throw some light on the investment?
I will not be able to give you actual figures as we are private limited company. But a lot of infrastructure has been set up and huge amount has been pumped in. A lot of publicity has also been planned so that we can exploit it to the best.
Is ‘Cell Muzik’ on the same lines of Music Mobile Exchange (MMX)?
To a certain extent yes, but we are more closer to the grassroots than the other people so our interaction with the retailers is much more as we are able to talk to the shopkeepers on a personal level.
What kind of strategies is SIMCA & SIDMM undertaking to engage more retailers?
We are interacting with the police department for anti-piracy activities. We are engaging retailers by giving them the licences at a nominal price unlike putting them behind the bars. We won’t stop them from doing the business but we encourage them to do the business legally after acquiring the licence. This is the principal difference which I feel has happened in anti piracy activities as compared to the earlier days.
Any plans of expansion in other cities?
Since we represent the South Indian music industry majorly, we are controlling our activities in Tamil Nadu and Kerala currently, and will go to Bangalore (Karnataka) and Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh) soon. At present we are not expanding but we will definitely grow in other cities soon.
In its zest to curb music piracy, South Indian Music Companies Association (SIMCA) and South India Digital Music Management Private Ltd (SIDMM) launched ‘Cell Muzik’ in Chennai last year(September). In a quick chat with Poonam Ahuja, South India Music Companies Association (SIMCA) joint secretary Rajesh Dhupad opens up on how successful has ‘Cell Muzik’ been since its inception and reveals plans to curb the fast-growing piracy in the South Indian music industry.
Excerpts:-
What was the actual idea behind coming up with such a venture?
Today 70% of all music consumed in India is on the mobile platform and apart from ring back tones (RBT) consumption which is 100% legal as of now, not a penny comes to the music industry from the mobile platform. 100% of all the music that is consumed on the mobile is pirated and there are thousands of shops all over Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh who do side loading of music on their memory card for free which is completely unauthorized.
Our survey shows that there are about 25000 retail outlets alone in Tamil Nadu who are into this business of music piracy. Just imagine the money that is spinning around these entities. Customers go to these shops and get their memory card filled with the songs, for which the shopkeepers charge them with a fees of Rs. 100-400, depending upon the capacity of the memory card. On an average, even if each shop gets 10 consumers per day the amount of money that is generated by these outlets is not less than Rs. 3-4 million. This is the amount of money that is spun around through these outlets annually, but unfortunately not even a single penny comes to the music industry. This was the main reason for us to launch Cell Muzik.
How is Cell Muzik trying to curb piracy?
Till date there is no model or structure for selling music officially. We have found that there are many mobile outlets who sell pirated music to their customers by copying it to the phone’s memory card. Through Cell Muzik, we issue licence to these shopkeepers to do their business legally. The shopkeeper is not entitled to make any official bill or create any account, he just has to acquire the licence from us at a defined amount and continue his business of side loading music. The fees
for obtaining licence ranges between Rs 10000-15000 per year.
‘Cell Muzik’ is an entity created for exploiting various vectors of unexploited territories all over the world, primarily for the members and directors of SIMCA. There are 13 directors in Cell Muzik and all of them are label owners from SIMCA. Apart from the content licensed for SIMCA members we also license content for various other labels.
How successful has it been so far?
Although a lot has to be done, but the initial feedback has been extremely overwhelming. In fact we have also launched Cell Muzik in Kochi, Kerala last month.
How much revenue is expected from the anti-piracy initiative?
We have already started generating revenues from this initiative, since we started last year. If this entity works properly and if we get the right support from the legal agencies and government then the amount would go into crores. Even if we are able to capture 20% of these retailers then a huge amount could be generated. This is only about Tamil Nadu. We have done our survey in Kerala and found that there are 20,000 outlets into the same business. In fact we have been delayed to venture into this stream of business but now with Cell Muzik we will definitely be able to curb piracy and generate money.
Could you throw some light on the investment?
I will not be able to give you actual figures as we are private limited company. But a lot of infrastructure has been set up and huge amount has been pumped in. A lot of publicity has also been planned so that we can exploit it to the best.
Is ‘Cell Muzik’ on the same lines of Music Mobile Exchange (MMX)?
To a certain extent yes, but we are more closer to the grassroots than the other people so our interaction with the retailers is much more as we are able to talk to the shopkeepers on a personal level.
What kind of strategies is SIMCA & SIDMM undertaking to engage more retailers?
We are interacting with the police department for anti-piracy activities. We are engaging retailers by giving them the licences at a nominal price unlike putting them behind the bars. We won’t stop them from doing the business but we encourage them to do the business legally after acquiring the licence. This is the principal difference which I feel has happened in anti piracy activities as compared to the
earlier days.
Any plans of expansion in other cities?
Since we represent the South Indian music industry majorly, we are controlling our activities in Tamil Nadu and Kerala currently, and will go to Bangalore (Karnataka) and Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh) soon. At present we are not expanding but we will definitely grow in other cities soon.
