MUMBAI: "New Urvasi Urvasi", that is how the track 'It's My Birthday' by hip hop artist will.i.am and singer Cody Wise begins. The track is an adaptation of the famous Tamil song 'Urvasi Urvasi', which is composed by Oscar winner AR Rahman from the 1994 film Kadhalan. With Will.i.am using the music, interest in the original track has spiked and it is gaining more fame than ever before.

Will.i.am is no stranger to Bollywood tracks and has been sampling them in his songs for quite a while now. In the past, his four-member group the 'Black Eyed Peas' has sampled music for tracks like 'Don't Phunk with My Heart' and 'My Humps'. The samples used in both tracks are by Kalyanji- Anandji during the 70s. "In the past, will.i.am and many artistes have adapted or sampled the track and it is an on-going process. There is hardly a month when our Indian domestic repertoire is not licensed by our offices across the globe for various purposes: films, television serials, advertisements, games, fitness videos, etc. Daler Mehndi's 'Tunak Tunak Tun' has been a massive hit with the 'World of Warcraft' community, which has licensed it for their annual conference in Anaheim," said Universal Music Publishing's MD Achille Forler.

The song has many parodies and spoofs on YouTube and has also been used in fitness videos abroad. This year Universal Publishing has licensed two R.D. Burman's songs- 'Baby Let's Dance' and 'Meri Jaan Maine Kaha' which is from the film 'Shalimar' and 'The Train' respectively. 'Baby Let's Dance' has also been used in the successful biopic on French fashion designer- Yves Saint Laurent.

'La La La', which was the sixth fastest-selling single in 2013 in the UK, was sampled from the EarthMoments Indian Vocal Pack. The track was released by British producer Naughty Boy, featuring vocals from Sam Smith. "When we are actually recording and editing these samples, we always try to imagine how they will one day be used by musicians and producers – the way Naughty Boy used that particular sample from the EarthMoments Indian Vocal Pack came as a beautiful surprise to us," said EarthMoments and EarthSync sound designer Yotam Agam.

Samples from Indian music have also found their way to much bigger international artistes today. 34 year old composer Gaurav Dayal who composed music for the George Clooney starrer 'Gravity', permitted dubstep producer Skrillex to sample his music for the hit song 'Scary Bolly Dub'. Selena Gomez's 'Come and Get It' features his loops and samples as well.

However, the use of samples does not come for free. The upfront payment can be somewhere between $ 3,000 to 60,000 on types of the use-sample, synch, adaption, background score and so forth. The payment is also calculated based on medium where it will be used. In India, if a publishing company has to license a track, the producer will have to shell out 20-25 lakh depending on the budget of the film due to lack of transparency in royalties. Nevertheless, Hollywood films can license the song for lower amounts or say even for free if the project is big. The reason for this is that Hollywood films are clear with the royalties they share (which is usually huge).

Sony Music/Sony ATV director Arjun Sankalia said, "In case of samples or interpolations, there is an upfront payment perhaps in the 10,000-20,000 range against royalties. There is also an ownership in the new 'work' that is created because the new work has portions or elements or is based on an existing work. So there are also future earnings with publishing royalties that accrue, and are claimed." The Tamil song 'Why This Kolaveri Di' under Sony Music has been utilised in adverts, TV shows and other areas that were aired in United Kingdom and United States.

Saregama India Limited, formerly known as The Gramophone Company of India Ltd, owns the largest music archives in India and one of the biggest in the world. "Saregama had 90 per cent market share of licensing Indian content," Saregama Plc international operations head Amarpal Gaind claimed. There was a worldwide Heineken campaign where the track 'Jaan Pehechan Ho' sung by Mohammed Rafi from the film 'Gumnaam', was used. The publishing business has been doing well for Saregama and has seen an upward trend. "Last year, we cleared a sample for a British Band called Bombay Bicycle Club." There was a sample used by rapper Kanye West, Jay Sean and MIA. "Most of the tracks that are used internationally are pre-dominantly from the 60s to 80s. I would say that RD Burman and Anandji-Kalyanji are the favourites. That is the reason Saregama catalogue is very lucrative." Music was also sampled for the film 'Life of Pi'. Other ads in which songs from the Golden Era of Indian music were used are Cadbury (UK with song 'Apni Toh Jaise Taise'), HDFC (global campaign with song 'Eena Meena Deeka'), Kellogs (Italy) to name a few.

The release of 'Addictive' a single recorded by Truth Hurts for Dr. Dre's Aftermath label in 2002 was followed by a $500 million lawsuit against the label. Indian singer Bappi Lahiri filed the suit in the US District Court in Los Angeles and stated that "'Addictive' was the product of 'cultural imperialism' that did not credit Third World artiste". Gaind said, "They did not seek approval before using it and that set the tone in the market. That in fact, helped gain western interest. It was a Lata Mangeshkar song and after that many artistes took proper approval from us. That stint got lot of media attention." 'Addictive' made the charts on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number nine, and sold over 6 lakh copies in the US.

The whole licensing process takes more than a month where paper work is concerned, so most of the tracks get used before the final leg of signing the deal.

Sony Music India is looking at Synch as the area to grow. Sankalia added, "This process is also quite straight forward in terms of licensing for synch (given out vast international network) is concerned. There is a real opportunity to get our music more in the mainstream via synch usage in films and TV shows- we see this as a serious growth area and we are making investments in terms of manpower, visits, outreach etc to drive this over the next 24-36 months."