Each year, 20,000 to 25,000 original songs are made by over 40,000 music creators in India (this excludes remixes and music by the unorganized sector). Music is integral to streaming, films, television, radio, gaming…
Each year, 20,000 to 25,000 original songs are made by over 40,000music creators in India (this excludes remixes and music by theunorganized sector). Music is integral to streaming, films, television,radio, gaming, and social media. It helps generate over INR 12,000 croreof revenue in India, which is around 6% of the media industry. Indiansongs are amongst the most popular in the world – they hold sevenspots on the Top Ten YouTube Global Charts for 2022.Of the INR 12,000 crore generated by music, recorded music revenuesof labels have crossed INR 2,500 crore in 2022, while music publishingrevenues will approximate INR 884 crore in 2022-23. However, India’sglobal revenue ranking is far behind other developed markets.As per the report, the industry could potentially see another doubling ofmusic publishing revenues by 2026-27, to INR 16.9 billion – if theindustry is able to address the issues holding it back.One key to this is addressing the “abysmally low” copyright compliancerate of just 1.2%, the report said. Only 71% of music DSPs in the countryhave a license from the Indian Performing Right Society (IPRS), while56% of short video platforms have a license. Fewer than 1% of retailestablishments, hotels and restaurants have a license. This is alsoevident from the fact that One8 Kommune, a chain of restaurants run byMr. Virat Kohli was recently pulled up by the Delhi High Court andprohibited from playing music in which Phonographic PerformanceLimited owns the copyright.Among TV channels, 796 out of 905 aren’t licensed with IPRS, while1,033 of 1,035 radio stations have not taken a license from the copyrightsociety, “some citing the lack of legal clarity, others believing that theirpayment for the use of sound recordings includes the payment ofpublishing right,” the report said.The numbers clearly highlight a problem with copyright compliance,specifically in the music sector of the media industry. Furthermore, alack of clarity regarding the applicable laws and requisite licenses, aswell as definitive lack of rights by creators further compounds the issue.
