MUMBAI: As most leading music labels today highly depend on bollywood content to propel themselves in the space, veteran singer Lata Mangeshkar’s recently launched LM Music is venturing down a different path altogether. Aiming to promote upcoming talent in the non-film music space, the label is all set to launch a host of on-ground events within this year.
Having released six albums as part of the label’s launch, it will now also venture into the television space with a singing reality show in the second half of the year, and a series of concerts and workshops commencing from February in India and abroad.
Confirming the news with Radioandmusic.com, LM Music chief executive officer Mayuresh Pai said, “Ours is not just a record label, we aim to promote music through all formats. While we will keep releasing albums, the label will also host workshops, concerts and conduct a singing reality show this year. Our aim is to promote upcoming, new talent through these initiatives.”
The format of the reality show will be based in Hindi and will witness contestants being selected through a talent hunt that will be held across the country. Since the label aims to encourage new talent in the music space, the participants selected for the show will be signed exclusively by LM Music for a series of albums.
Apart from that, they will also host some classical and Sufi concerts with new artistes in India and slowly moving across globally as well. Through this, they also aim to promote several foreign collaborations with various artistes, which are currently being planned. Along with that will be special workshops guiding the students of music in various ways like speech and more. The series of concerts and workshops will commence from March.
With the ‘Nightingale of India’ as the sole proprietor, she herself looks into the day-to-day workings of the label, as a result of which the best of artistes and albums is bound to be produced and distributed by LM Music.
“Lataji likes to be involved in the workings of the label. She is very particular about what kind of album the label produces, or what types of artistes are rendering the songs. Thus, she herself handles the artistes to decide on a particular record. We listen to all the artistes, but the final decision is hers alone,” he revealed.
Inspite of the several initiatives up its sleeve, the label is ultimately dependant on physical and digital album sales to earn revenue. Though it has its own website, the record label has also partnered digitally with HT Media and Media Fire amongst others. The partnerships also help global artistes reach out to LM Music through these companies who further help in promoting new talent.
Apart from that, the label also indulges in digital marketing through Flipkart, where the albums are easily available to consumers. But with physical sales of music being down in the dumps lately, most labels are working on introducing alternative means of sales through digital or other formats.
Pai pointed out, “Though we do have digital partners and marketing well thought out in our favour, we are also engaging in physical sales of albums. I agree that physical sales have been a little down lately but we are not incurring any losses through it. The main factor is awareness, which needs to be created in the consumers’ mindset.”
Currently focusing on music from the non-film space, the label has been receiving a lot of offers from Hindi and Marathi films lately. But laying firm on its belief, LM Music plans to stay away from the segment and is instead looking to produce albums in genres like rock and fusion.
It is all set to churn out a wide range of albums featuring Lata Mangeshkar soon. The first will be Mangeshkar recording the legendary poet Harivanshrai Bachchan’s poetry along with Amitabh Bachchan. It will be followed by yet another album featuring Mangeshkar and Bachchan, which is yet to be finalized. Apart from that, the label will also release a Bengali Rabindra Sangeet album, a devotional soundtrack by Shankar Mahadevan and Mangeshkar and a romantic album rendered by Shaan and Mangeshkar. All the albums are slated to launch within the second half of the year.