MUMBAI: Tips Industries' artiste managemement arm has signed on 15 musicians, who will be promoted aggressively by the company.

The artistes include Atif Aslam, Jal, Ahmed and Krishna, among others. Tips will produce their albums and do a 360 degree promotion. Says Tips Music and Artist Management MD Rajeev Sogani, "I see a very good future as far as artiste management is concerned. By next year, Tips should be getting very good returns." Currently, the company is focusing on a lot of Pakistani talent, since Sufi is the taste of the season.

Tips has been lying low in the music scenario for some months now, only making investments in the non-film arena. "We were just watching the market those days and maintained a low profile. Tips' main aim was to survive in the scene and not to get washed out by taking the wrong step. We are looking at acquiring titles now," states Sogani. Apparently, Tips spends around Rs six to seven million (Rs 70 lakh) per artiste for promotions. If a singer does close to five shows a month, the company can pull in a million rupees (Rs 10 lakh) per month per artist.

Tips also tied up with ice cream brand Walls Cornetto for one of their artiste albums recently. Says Sogani, "It is on a case to case basis that we tie up with brands. With brands, it is a win-win situation. Brands get noticed and it works well for us."

He also throws light on the new venture initiated by Tips. The company will now design music for small budget films and the rights of the music will stay with Tips. "This is a fairly new concept. There are many producers who cannot afford to spend a lot on music, so we do it for them and they get to associate themselves with a brand like Tips," explains Sogani.

An in-house music team directs music for these films. Among the films that Tips took up on this project was Stranger, produced by Sahara One Motion Pictures.

As far as films are concerned, Tips savoured success with Race early this year. Not only did the film gross good figures at the box office, the music enjoyed time on the chartbusters lists for a long time as well. Tips is now readying for Kismet Konnection, which releases on 17 June. The company has also acquired the music rights to the Salman Khan, Sohail Khan, Sharman Joshi, Isha Kopikar starrer Hello.

The company is currently planning nearly five films. The list includes Kuki Gulati's film with Vivek Oberoi, Rajkumar Santoshi's film with Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif, and three untitled films with known directors. The music rights of these films will rest with Tips Music.