Exclusive Interview with Mr.Subroto Chattopadhyay

From the early days of starting as a forum for Indian Classical Music to the recent avtaar of the country’s most successful Record Label promoting Indian Classical Music, I am sure MUSIC TODAY must have undergone a lot of transitions & changes in both in Management, as well as Stakes & Acquisitions.

As you know Music Today is part of the India today group. Now the vision of the INDIA TODAY group is to take India to the world. Being a multi media major, MUSIC TODAY is its music division which shares the same vision but in the music field. That is basically to take the music of India to the world. Our first recordings were as early as 1990, that’s when MUSIC TODAY was started. These were classical music recordings but we gradually broad based ourselves into other forms of music as well like Sufi, Ghazals, and Spiritual. Later on we started recording Thematic as well as New Age Music. In 2002 we ventured into film music with the music of MAQBOOL. After that, we have been picking up good film music albums which have been making business sense to us. So that in a nutshell is the journey of MUSIC TODAY . MUSIC TODAY's recordings are extremely well known in the market for their quality and their concepts.

Would you like to tell us about Music Today’s future projections and strategies for the Indian Music Market?

Basically The India Today Group is extremely strong on editorials. Our Chairman, Mr.Aroon Purie is also the editor-in-chief and he takes keen interest in the quality of editorial. When India Today was launched it revolutionized Journalism in India. The same vision is shared by Music Today where music is conceptualized using innovative music concepts and then commission recordings rather than just take on readymade recordings. Gradually we broad based our portfolio into very good have concepts where we conceive & make recordings as well as we would buy them outright and also license from other parts of the world. The company has grown at the rate of 40% in the last 3 yrs.
As for strategies, we will have our ears to the ground and see how the music industry is developing and ensure atleast a 40% growth every year.

The music industry in India has reportedly been facing turbulent times in the past few years.
In such a scenario do you see a lot of consolidation or Mergers & Acquisitions taking place? Is MUSIC TODAY planning any acquisitions in the Indian Market?

See Sudhir, I feel Consolidation, Mergers & Acquisitions will always take momentum when there is a lot of competition in the market. If there are too many players in the market shakeout has to happen. I guess that is happening. Music in India is de-growing about 7% but home video is growing at the same pace. So Music Today has increased its prscence in the HOME VIDEO market to cover for the de growth in music and to make up for much more.

Through the IMI newsletter, I’d like to proudly announce MUSIC TODAY's recent tie up with STAR PLUS, which enables us to release over 200 hours of STAR TV software.

It’s a first of its kind tie up of this scale & magnitude in the Indian Music Market. Tie ups have happened but really small ones like SAREGAMA-EXCEL & then Shemaroo etc. with foreign studios. But then there is no huge tie up in India. This is the first big tie up of its kind between the STAR TV Network and the India Today group.

As for your question on Acquisitions, let me give you an insight into our strategy on this. More than acquisitions we are keen on tie-ups. For example, like I spoke to you about the STAR TV tie up. Similarly, we are in talks with some big players and like minded organisations for some major tie ups, that is going to surprise the Indian Market. These tie-ups will give us an access to hundreds of hours of home videos and recordings.

Like You said, Recently we have witnessed some very good HOME VIDEOS (like MAQBOOL & Live Concerts of Legendary Indian Classical Performers) coming from your stable. Tell us something about this division of your company? Is there a sizeable market for these HOME VIDEOS in India?

If you go overseas to any store, a large section is being taken up by HOME VIDEOS and a large part of it is television programmes. So we have taken up television programmes which goes with our core properties. Also it is in keeping in line with our vision which is taking India to the world.

Beyond doubt, Music Today is the clear leader in the market when it comes to Indian Classical Music & Devotional Soundtracks

Indian Classical music as you would know is a very niche market. The buyers at a point of time were 45 to 50 yr old consumers, but gradually what happened is the concert circuit started hotting up. So the youngsters like young working executives started attending these concerts. Like any leader of any category it is the onus of the leader to grow that category. So we have taken the onus of growing the category of the Indian classical music in India and abroad and take it to the younger generation. We have started an events department at Music Today which is a self sustaining one where roughly we do one concert per week. These concerts are aimed at people who come in the evening after work hrs to a good ambience like typically a 5-star hotel. We have been very successful at roping in sponsorers as well and the entire business has taken off well.

Does it get any better when we look at it from an international perspective?
Internationally what has happened is a lot of music labels like T-Series have flooded the market with low priced products. This has in a way spoiled the market for classical music internationally. Today a western classical album sells for US$19 and The Indian Classical Album sells at a meager US$3. This kind of impacts the image of Indian classical music in a big way.

Do you see a change in the international scenario?
Currently, labels are slowly losing interest in promoting the Indian classical music due to the falling prices. I think this will be an opportunity for us to consolidate our position in the market and gradually increase prices of our products. Yes I expect a change in the international scenario for Indian Classical Music soon as we increase our market share.

Speaking about market shares can we have a peek into your annual sales figures in these segments?

Last year we did about Rs.10 crores in sales of which 33% came in from Indian Classical Music which is 1/3rd of our sales.

Music Today was once thought of as a non-aggressive label but today you are actively involved in Bollywood music, remixes & movies.

Is this shift in strategy due to lack of volumes in the Indian Classical Music Market?
I would put it as the HUNGER TO GROW. Till recently we thought it didn’t add any editorial value to the company hence the lack of interest initially. But gradually we realized that Bollywood is an integral part of Indian Music and we needed to grow our company and therefore we ventured into it.

Let me quote a Related Article - http://www.rediff.com/money/2007/sep/29spec.htm
The Indian classical music industry is stuck in a rut, and topmost on everybody's blame list is the record label. Erstwhile champions of the category like Saregama and Music Today are being held answerable for not sustaining their interest in the genre and repackaging their existing inventory.
Gurmeet Singhji… Your comment on this ??

First of all let me clarify that the above is just a point of view of someone which is entirely incorrect and I do not agree to it. Let me reason this out. If you look at the last few years, we have been promoting the younger breed of artistes more than senior artistes. Whether it is Rahul Sharma, Rakesh Chaurasia, Amaan & Ayaan Ali Khan, Kamaal Sabri etc.

We were one of the first music labels to make a video on a thematic classical music album. Lately Saregama & TIMES Music have also joined in. Saregama has recently released their videos on Rahul Sharma & TIMES Music has released their videos on Amaan & Ayaan ali Khan. Till the recent past senior artistes like pt.Ravi Shankar, pt.ShivKumar Sharma, Pt.Hariprasad Chaurasia, Amjad Ali Khan etc were being sold by every music label but the next generation was being sold only by Music Today and now lately by Saregama & TIMES Music as well.

Sir, How do u place yourself in the market space where you have Times Music and SAREGAMA on one end and internationally T-Series is comepeting against you?

Competition has always existed and it has been very healthy till the recent past. Times Music is our competitor in the spiritual and devotional segment and Saregama is our competitor in the Indian Classical Segment. As for T-Series, they are not a competitor in the real sense. I believe healthy competition will always bring out the best in the industry.

In the last couple of months, under your leadership MUSIC TODAY has diversified into alternate offerings like an online music store and various other digital selling formats.

How has the music store on your website www.music-today.com done? Do you think there is an audience in India for an online music store given the fact, that there are still a lot of payment & delivery mechanism problems?

Firstly let me tell you that since the beginning we have been gung-ho on digital. You must be aware that we were one of the first labels to get onto i-tunes. We are one of the few labels whose albums have been on i-tune charts. Its something that’s still not a well known fact but yet discreetly and in our very own way we have been making a mark in the digital space.

As for our music store on music today.com, 2 years ago appprox 90% of our buyers were overseas. Today the scenario has changed and the ratios of the Indian consumer shopping for our music on the website to the international consumer is 50:50. So I think the payment and delivery systems you referred to, will gradually evolve and the Indian market is opening up to buying music online.

In the same breath let me also tell you that The India Today Group has a very advanced DIGITAL STRATEGY and we are an inherent part of this strategy.

As a matter of curiosity Sir, why are the soundtracks sold online on your website, so heavily priced (equivalent to those in the physical format). Given that you don’t have to pass on distributor & dealer margins when you are selling online?

In fact Sudhir, you’d be surprised to know that we are quite open to the pricing scenario. If we feel that by pricing a soundtrack on a website for a lesser price is going to attract sales then we don’t think twice about it.
For example if I am pricing my soundtrack on i-tunes which caters to a non-indian audience, they are higher-priced. But if I am pricing the same soundtrack on raaga.com which caters to a lot of Indian audience both in India and abroad then the track is priced lower. Again if I am pricing a full-track download on HUTCH then I have a different pricing for that.

As for your query on pricing vis-à-vis the physical format is concerned, you must be aware that most of our CD’s or physical format as you call it, are much higher priced than that on the web and are in the range of Rs.250/- & Rs.210/- . I believe that our pricing on the web is much lower and on average is lower than most music labels selling online and this strategy has worked for us.

Lets say someday the online market evolves into a mature "buyer’s market" for the consumer of today what would be the probable price of a soundtrack or an album sold online be?

A lot depends on the dynamics at that point of time. For example, there is a lot of talk today that MUSIC WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR FREE to the consumers and the monies would come in through advertising. Although its an extreme thought nevertheless, it still exists. Then of course there is the yesteryears revenue model where no monies come in through advertising and most of the sales come from the actual software / music sales. So I think where the ball is at that point of time, it will be somewhere between full monies coming in through advertising to full monies coming from software sales. Depending on where the ball is at that point of time pricing would change accordingly.
Take an example of Rajshri.com. Now Rajshri.com has aggregated music videos from across the music labels and like minded people and they stream it on their website for free for their consumer. Which means if you want to watch a MUSIC TODAY music video or a concert you can watch it for free on their website. However, we are paid based on the number of clicks. That is the duration for which the consumer watches the video. Now this money they get from advertising. So virtually we are sharing a part of their advertising revenue.
Similarly if you go to RAAGA.com, Music Today is one of the top 500 websites in the world and Music Today is present on RAAGA.com in a very big way. Again here we are sharing a pie of the advertising model.
We are very actively involved with GOOGLE. A lot of google ads is where we get our monies from.
We are one of the first music labels to have a page on youtube.com.

Recently SONY BMG, TIPS and EMI have signed content sharing agreements with YOUTUBE.
Do you think YOUTUBE which is an online C2C (consumer to consumer) content sharing website, furthers any music company’s or for that matter the music industry’s business interests in terms of revenue?

See Sudhir, youtube is a concept in its own. The youtube is concept is empowering the consumer to go and view a video or go and upload a video. So, what happens is it’s a forum for everybody to share and everybody to benefit. In this process of everybody sharing and viewing a lot of advertisers come on board. Its through these advertisers that companies like us make money.

Does it not hamper revenues when consumers consume your content on the Internet for free, instead of buying your traditional content on CD’s?

See today if you talk about selling music videos, there are not a lot of buyers for a music video or DVD’s. It’s a very small market. I would be selling 1000 DVD’s kind of a volume. So the loss in sales for me is a very negligible volume. So it’s a good forum for me to create a buzz and earn monies through advertising in the bargain

Sir, I hope u don’t mind me bombarding u with some Anti-Piracy Questions :-

Recently the discussion around piracy has taken great momentum. It’s a Global phenomenon, which must be obviously depressing for MUSIC TODAY too. What are some of your major concerns?

Music Today as you know has a major prescence in niche segments. All the niche segments have piracy on a smaller scale. To compare it with bollywood the percentage of piracy is the same in bollywood as it is in a niche segment like Indian Classical Music. But the absolute scale is less. If you would find 100,000 copies of a bollywood film you would find only a 1000 copies of a Indian Classical music album. PIRACY is as much nuisance value for me as it is for a bollywood film for SAREGAMA. The problem is how do we get IMI’s attention onto it and how do we get IMI’s resources onto it? That’s the challenge we are confronting now. Even from a IMI’s point of view sending a team to a location like PUSHKAR to seize a 1000 CD’s is not very cost effective. Whereas for us those 1000 CD’s impact our bread and butter. In our scheme of things they are very important. Again Piracy in the digital world is a major concern. For example when we released Pankaj Udhas’s latest album called YAARA, it was available in a week over various illegal websites all over. Again, we are losing precious business and how we can prevent this is something we still haven’t figured it out with IMI.

Does it bother you, when some people discuss that the reason piracy is rampant is because music CD's and tapes are expensive?

No it doesn’t bother me. I would be bothered if people would stop buying Music CD’s and tapes despite escalating rates. Pricing plays a role, but pricing is also like a black hole. If we were to get into the MOSER BAER kind of a pricing model we would increase sales but it is difficult to sustain a business at that price. Again in trying to prevent PIRACY by lowering the price actually attracts the risk of a falling business. So I would say one needs to maintain the balance between PRICING, SALES & PIRACY. Unless this balance is maintained the business will just fall apart.

In an era where people have adapted to the Internet and digital music & mp3's do you think anti-piracy raids are the best solution to curbing the pirates?

Absolutely YES. I would like to draw an analogy here to the Traffic Police. Today when one sees the Traffic Police one drives extra cautiously and follows all the rules and regulations of safety. That’s one of the reasons, today rash driving rates have come down. Anti-piracy raids are the best way to keep piracy at bay.

Does MUSIC TODAY see itself actively getting involved in the anti-piracy crusade just as companies like T-series are doing it?

NO we don't plan to go solo.. We are a part of IMI and we would like to remain that way. We support IMI completely in their battle against Piracy.

What do music companies expect from a body like IMI? How do you chart their progress in the Indian context?

My expectation is that music companies and IMI should work closely with each other. The monthly regional meetings we have, should continue. I also feel IMI should centrally hold meetings with the Music company heads apart from the AGM’s to review industry progress from time to time and review anti-piracy operations from time to time and more importantly review the vision of IMI. Music Today would be privileged to be involved with such a kind of exercise.

Look Sudhir support is a mutual thing. If we get into a win-win situation where IMI needs our support and respects our support, we can obviously increase our support to IMI more than what it was till now.

Oh Yes, I am extremely fond of music and I am extremely fond of movies. And that’s what has driven me to be a part of the industry. Otherwise I am an engineer by background and a management graduate from FMS, Delhi. I have spent about 5 &1/2 years in MARICO which is a FMCG company in sales and brand assignments. I was with SONY for about 3 and a half years heading their operations in the North. Then I joined Music Today and have been here since the last 6 years and I have been heading Music Today for the last 4 years now.

When it comes to music I am very fond of Kishore Kumar and his songs. In the Ghazals segment I am fond of Pankaj Udhas. I am extremely fond of enjoying Indian Classical concerts and my favourites are Pt.Shiv Kumar Sharma, HariPrasad Chaurasia & Ustaad Amjad Ali Khan of the older lot and in the younger lot Rakesh Chaurasia, Amaan and Ayaan Ali Khan, Rahul Sharma and Kamaal Sabri. And in the international category I am fond of Mariah Carrey and Bryan Adams.

I’d like to tell all your readers – “NO MUSIC, NO LIFE”. Without Music there is no life so lets all listen to music and have fun.

. With that I’d like to end our interview. It was a pleasure speaking to you. Thank you.

Thank you Sudhir.
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