PPL CEO Vipul Pradhan - People are using music increasingly but the value is not coming back to the music industry

Source: Radioandmusic.com

The spectre of piracy continues to haunt the music industry, draining its revenues and crippling new initiatives. The Phonographic Performance Limited (PPL), the licensing arm of the Indian Music Industry, is striving hard to license the use of music in the public arena.

In an interview with Radioandmusic.com's Anita Iyer, PPL CEO Vipul Pradhan outlines PPL's plans for the year ahead.

Excerpts:

How has the spread of digital music impacted the industry?

In the past five years, mobile downloads have been on an upward curve with a variety of products available for consumers - from ringtones, track downloads to caller ringback tones. But piracy that exists at multiple levels is now beginning to eat into it. The crucial one is at the consumer level via bluetooth, which is threatening the growth of this market. The ringtone industry was perceived to have great potential, but the market has now vanished and has actually shown a decline in the past 12-14 months. If we analyse the revenue, ringback tones form 75-80 per cent of revenue to the music industry, 15-20 per cent comes from ringtones and 10 per cent from streaming services. We can conclude that there is zero per cent piracy in ringback tones, but about 80 per cent piracy in ringtones.

Is the revenue from television licensing increasing with the rise in music related shows on TV?

With the success of music based reality shows, there is a different trend to the value of music on TV. There are channels which thrive on music based shows and in the short run, this has started to give us a reasonable amount of revenue. But there are still problems because some broadcasters, specially the regional ones, do not have legitimate licenses for using third party content.

The revenue from television licenses, which was 10 per cent of the whole last year, has doubled to 20 per cent. We are also contemplating action against those who do not have legitimate licenses. In the first phase, we targeted the big broadcasters and have been successful in converting them into legitimate users. In the second phase, we would be targeting the niche or regional channels, so hopefully, the percentage share may go up to 25 per cent by next year.

The radio industry has been demanding rationalization of music royalties. Has any amicable solution emerged from talks with radio operators?

The PPL is here for the business of licensing. The fundamental question here is that the current rates of Rs 660 is fixed by the government and our demand for Rs 2400 per hour. The cost of packaging of content in radio is two to three per cent which is evident from balance sheet of various companies. The revenue share to us from mobile and internet radio is 25-40 per cent, so the question is why should we liberate content for FM at two to three per cent. It is nothing but pressure tactics by radio companies to bully individual music companies to surrender their rights at marginal cost. That is not acceptable to us and we are here to protect the rights of the industry.

Has the PPL been taking a closer look at licensing music for events? How do you monitor events?

Event licensing forms a very big share of revenue to PPL, particularly from public performances in the international market.

We have a team of a hundred employees to keep an eye on the events in cities. We have also outsourced eight agencies who work on a commission basis on a larger scale, and also direct sale agents who have access to information about events. The problem is we have not penetrated in all the 500 cities in the country and are currently focusing on only 40-50 cities and have not touched more than five to 10 per cent of the events market. Although the big events are easy to figure out, the smaller ones are still untouched.

What is the current number of companies under PPL?

From 60 companies within our fold some years ago, we now have 140. The increase is largely because music labels want to retain their content with us. Also, PPL controls a large amount of music, 100 per cent of international music, a sizeable amount of Bollywood's old and new content and has a good presence in regional content like Telugu, Gujarati and Marathi.

What can you do to lessen the effects of music to music transfers?

Music transfers via bluetooth are hampering the growth of the industry due to easy availability. One solution could be manufacturing handsets with restricted formats where there is no easy conversion of formats, but manufacturers would be loath to accept this idea.

Another solution would be easy access of music to people who do not want to opt for CDs. The industry has already started issuing licenses for putting up jukeboxes and kiosks at public places with easy operations and minimal rates. With lesser prices, we hope consumers might opt for buying music. Other plans include having a DRM block so that songs can be downloaded but cannot be forwarded via bluetooth. The problem here is that there is a need for thousands of kiosks throughout the country. While all these steps may reduce piracy, it is not possible to eliminate it completely.

How does the PPL track websites offering pirated ringtones?

Full track downloads is a big problem even in international markets. In the past, India was an exception owing to the limited proliferation of Internet and bandwidth speed, but Indian music was downloaded abroad on a large scale. Now, we need to keep a track on servers worldwide. Also, the IFPI based in London helps us to keep track of international websites. Companies hosting these websites either block their websites or get legitimate licenses to operate legally.

Does this mean that the PPL will be posting higher revenues this fiscal?

Today, the issue is not about music industry or the PPL but about physical versus non physical music. The monetisation of music is undergoing a radical change like in Korea, where 50 per cent of the revenue comes from physical formats and 50 per cent from non physical like wireless, events etc. India is also going the same way and is the second market after Korea where the revenue is equally divided. We are doing really well.

So, where is the music industry headed?

Physical sales continue to be on the downward curve. A few years ago, chartbuster albums sold a million copies, but today, the benchmarks of hits have changed to only a few thousand copies. People are using music increasingly but the value is not coming back to the music industry. It can also be attributed to a shift in terms of utilization, from CDs to pirated MP3 CDs and media like radio, internet radio, IVR radio. The losses from physical sales cost the industry about Rs six billion (Rs 600 crore), pirated ringtones and full track transfers via Bluetooth cost about Rs three to four billion (Rs 300-400 crore) affecting the industry to the tune of about Rs 10 billion (Rs 1000 crore) annually.

Is there any other way to deter pirates?

The police suggest we reduce our prices to compete with pirates. But it is not possible, as the only similarity seems to be the raw plastic CD cost. The pirates do not pay for IPRS, VAT, excise duties, income tax arising from the profits. There is no cost of content, marketing and promotions, and the pirates sell only hit content in the market, so there is minimal risk involved. So, there is no way we can compete with the pirates. All we can do is punish them when found guilty.

Ameen Sayani - "AIR can co-exist with private players"

Source: Radioandmusic.com

Behno aur Bhaiyo...main apka dost Ameen Sayani bol raha hoon...aur aap sun rahe hain Binaca Geet Mala", these mesmerising lines still have a recall value across generations. The man behind the golden voice, Ameen Sayani chats with Radioandmusic.com’s Anita Iyer tracing sixty years of evolution of radio, penetration of private players in the radio space and changes in the radio fraternity over the decades.

You have been a part of the radio industry since the heydays of All India Radio. Which do you feel were the milestones in the Indian radio sector over the years?

The then I&B minister B V Keskar had slightly offbeat ideas about what should be allowed on air and what should not be. He took some disastrous steps, the most important being the ban of film music on AIR, which, at that time had a rich library of film music. It was a golden period of Indian cinema with the best singers, composers and lyricists being a part of the industry. Radio was the greatest home entertainment medium. At the same time, Radio Ceylon started and the listenership shifted from AIR to Ceylon.

Radio Ceylon didn’t have proper announcers in place but it clicked with the audiences only because they played Hindi film music. By 1950, Radio Ceylon had set up a regular unit of broadcasters for commercial work in Bombay. My brother Hameed was the Programme director of Ceylon and he brought in good sponsored programmes and commercials. By 1951-52, Ceylon had a host of sponsored shows like Lipton Ke Sitaare, Binaca Getmala, Ponds Hit Parade, Polsons quiz kids, S Kumars ka filmi mukadama etc. With the commercials came feature film publicity, which gave colour and variety to Radio Ceylon broadcasting.

Was there any other reason for the decline in AIR’s listenership?

In 1947, after Independence, a large number of broadcasters, news readers, announcers went to Pakistan, the most notable among them the Bokhari brothers. Under the I&B regulations, announcers were not supposed to chat but present everything in a morose fashion, reading from a script. So, AIR became terribly boring and listeners preferred Radio Ceylon.

What then led to Ceylon’s declining popularity in the 1980s?

What hit Radio Ceylon was the reception on the short waves that started dwindling in the 1970s, because the transmitters had become very old Also, the short wave bands became very congested and by the 1980s, listeners could not hear the station well. By the late 80s, the reception almost vanished.

So, your show Geetmala was shifted to Vividh Bharati…

Geet mala, the commercial programme started on Radio Ceylon in December 1952, shifted to Vividh Bharati in 1989. Initially, it used to be Binaca Geetmala which later became Cibaca geetmala. It was further taken over by Colgate and so my show was called Colgate Cibaca Geetmala on Vividh Bharati!

Why couldn’t Vividh Bharati keep its numero uno position?

In 1979, when Vasant Sathe was made the I&B minister, he revamped the commercial rate card for Doordarshan. By the 1980s, when sponsored shows started on Doordarshan, Sathe thought of raising the rates of Vividh Bharati by five times. On increasing the commercial rate, the business immediately crashed by 25 per cent and there was absolute chaos.

Did the drop in the listenership of Vividh Bharati pave the way for the rise of the private players later?

Incidentally, just after Vividh Bharati started dropping, independent FM was given time slots on Vividh Bharati transmitters to go on air. Some of the pioneers were Radio Midday and Times FM, which picked up listenership and earned money within the permitted time slots. But these were discontinued soon. The initial two sessions of bidding for privatisation of FM radio were scrapped and it was only the third bidding that worked in favour of the private players. There has been no stopping them since.

You have worked with private FM as well as AIR? How has the listenership changed over the years?

My show ‘Sangeet ke sitaro ki mehfil’ with one hour episodes went on air on Red FM for about two and half years, completing 204 episodes. They used to air fresh episodes on Mondays and Tuesdays, with the repeat telecast on other weekdays. So, I was on air every night on Red FM when it launched.

Overall, listenership doesn’t change much except for the fact that each generation has its own likes and dislikes. My show on Red FM is still broadcast in Dubai, New York, Atlanta and New Zealand.

What are your views on the contemporary FM stations?

I think they all have the same style of speaking, the same songs being played over and over with the same formats. But there are many energetic youngsters with loads of aspirations; who have the capability to become great stars in broadcasting. The FM channels need to have more variety, change the voices, formats, and develop an individual character of each station so the listeners can be segregated.

What has been the USP of your shows?

I guess it was the pre-planning of episodes and the way various components were linked that worked in my favour. Everything right from the signature tune of the show, to my entry, to the commercials, sharing personal experiences was beautifully linked and one could never switch off the radio. We also had all sorts of stunts, halla gula like the current RJs but made the listeners curious about the show to keep their ears glued to the radio.

Where yours shows scripted or were they impromptu?

I was trained right from childhood to read from a script without seeming to be doing so. That reading had a lot of advantages; you could plan your script in advance without wasting time and build in any sort of link. Each producer had his own script writers. I used to script half of my programmes myself, until I started producing shows for both Vividh Bharati and Ceylon. Then, I had 30 programmes a week, so I had a whole team of outstanding script writers who used to write scripts for me.

What is a major difference between RJing in your times and today?

Today the RJs are totally ruled by computers and do not have complete freedom on their show. Their time is limited and within that time slot, commercials, talk and music have to be pushed in. On failing to follow the time constraint, the computer cuts the RJ talk off, so it’s more or less automated. Even the songs played are shortlisted by someone and the RJ has no say in it.

In Geetmala, I remember doing an episode when Neil Armstrong had stepped on the moon, so I had an episode with all the songs linked to the moon. So, you could do almost anything you wanted. But the positive change is the announcers today are chatting more than we used to in our times.

Will permitting news on private FM stations wean the listenership away from AIR?

We have many newspapers with different points of view, yet they all work. So, even AIR can co-exist with private players with permission to air news. There can be regulations to see that nobody misuses the medium by airing biased views for personal agenda.

Finally… how do you react when you hear your patent style ‘Beheno aur bhaiyo…’ and your voice being imitated repeatedly?

It’s hilarious, because I don’t talk in that manner any more. Whenever I hear people imitating my voice, I just hold my head and can’t help laughing!

Radio MUST head Pankaj Athavale - For us, the most important thing is to sound interesting and intelligent

Source: Radioandmusic.com
Mumbai University initiated its community radio station – Radio MUST 107.8 FM in February 2008. The unique initiative completes one year next month. Airing content initially for four hours, the CR now broadcasts 13 hours of programming. In a conversation with Radioandmusic’s Anita Iyer, Radio MUST head Pankaj Athavale looks back at the year gone by, initiatives of Radio MUST and sustainability of CRs in India.

Can you introduce your radio station to our readers?

Radio MUST started a year ago, backed by Mumbai University, and follows a talk format. Our main concern is to air content relevant to the community and also exhibit it in a the conventional ‘FM’ manner to lure listeners.

What content do you air on Radio MUST?

We give information about anything which is informative, but the packaging plays a very important role where the RJs speak in typical FM style. We primarily have programmes in Hindi, English and Marathi languages.

Students are our primary audience; we have segments like music shows where we profile musicians, bands and college students. We air capsules on economics, history of forts across Mumbai and Maharashtra, ‘did you know’ factoids from the animal world, environment, health tips by doctors, book reviews, food reviews, psychology shows, English speaking tuitions, snippets on e-waste. We have listeners calling us for civic issues with complaints concerning BMC leaving road pits, water shortage, SRA schemes, municipality rules, traffic rules, etc.

Also we have started field broadcasts where our jocks send live links. Like, for an economics convention, we would be placing the cell phone next to the speaker and airing the convention live.

Has the concept of talk based radio station gone down well with your listeners?

The talk concept is new to India and there are not many takers as there are many music based radio channels available. For us, the most important thing is to sound interesting and intelligent, otherwise the listeners would move to the next channel. Our content is divided into 70 per cent talk and 30 per cent music. The music is non commercial and original - created by bands, individuals and students form the university. We air songs composed and written by the students rendered by Shankar Mahadevan. Youngsters inclined in their area of interest need a platform to showcase their music and MUST radio provides them with a platform.

You have partnered with Germany based Radiojojo for content?

To increase the content of international music, we have tied up with Germany based Radiojojo and are exchanging music and content. Also, we are trying to talk with radio stations in Australia and Canada for content. In India, we are talking with Jadavpur University in Kolkata.

When does Radio MUST go on air?

We started with a four hour broadcast, mornings 7-9 am and evenings 7-9 pm run completely by freelancers. Now, we have a team of freelancers, editors, producers and RJs, operators and technical staff who come in twice or thrice a week. Our strength is 20 people who multi- task and the university pays them a stipend on a weekly basis.

As we gathered momentum in terms of making the programmes, we added a slot in the afternoon from 1-3 pm. Later on, during the admission period, we gathered promotions of University departments, courses and tied up with institute providing distant education, going on air from 8 am to 3 pm, gradually going on air from 8 am to 9 pm. Radio MUST is the only CR in India to go on air for such a long time. We are planning to start night slots as well.

Do you have enough content for 13 hours?

Out of the total 13 hours, we have six hours of live broadcast and other hours are scheduled. Also we are open to exchange content with other CR stations as it helps us to reach out and also increase our content. Also, we mix the fresh content creatively with old content so that the listeners don’t feel bored.

Who are the RJs who host your shows?

Anybody who wants to go on air has to take a voice test and sit on live recordings with RJs. Then we put the RJ into co-host mode and then when you attain proficiency, you can go on air on your own. Many RJs coming here do not have any professional courses to their credit but over a period of eight to 10 days, they do a fantastic job. It’s the passion for radio that connects them even after they enter into the professional world.

Radio MUST is essentially a nursery for radio aspirants, there are people who have come here and learnt a lot of things and are working with other commercial radio stations. The overall setup, software and technologies here are like any commercial radio station. There is no age group for RJs on our station; we have students from the eighth grade who host a show, ‘Science hour’ on Saturdays.

Also, we have trained a couple of girls from nearby slums and on 1 December, World Aids day, we had four HIV positive girls on our show. These girls are undergoing training at our station now and would become jocks soon.

What is the radius of your reach?

In the suburbs, we reach areas like Sion, Matunga, Dadar, Vikhroli to Goregoan Aarey milk colony on the other end. In the western line, we are heard in areas of Bandra, Khar, Vile Parle, Santa Cruz, Chembur. We reach out to a radius of around 8-10 kms with good frequency in cars too. As a community radio, we have our drawbacks when it comes to reach but we are constantly working on the technicalities for better reach.

You have tied up with Tagg.in for your SMS service?

Tagg.in is a free SMS based networking site where we have created a MUST radio group. Started five months ago, we have an impressive subscriber base of 2000 registered members for our tags. Through Tagg.in, we send SMS alerts about the shows lined up and give out numbers to call and discuss issues. This helps us in attracting listeners and also creates a better connect with them.

You would also be extending your on air presence on the internet?

We are planning to launch a website where our content will be available offline. As live streaming is not allowed, we would have deferred shows which people can hear online. We would creatively mix the content where the listeners don’t have to listen to the same content repeatedly.

How do you fund the working of your station?

Mumbai University is funding us for two years and we have budget provisions for everything right from recurring budgets for paying stipend, hospitality, maintenance and working of the station. We would like to start selling our ad spots to sustain our radio station in the long run.

How do you plan to cash in on the permissible five minutes of advertising per hour?

Community radios are allowed advertising of five minutes, every hour which comes to 300 seconds every hour. We have 13 hours of broadcast, so we have 3900 seconds of advertising time to sell. If we sell 10 ads in an hour, it amounts to Rs. 100; accordingly it comes to 1000 rupees per hour resulting in revenue of Rs 13000 per day.

We plan to start airing ads from March, so that from the next fiscal year, we would try to get as many ads as possible.

Have you already started targeting advertisers?

We are in negotiations with a couple of advertisers and as a policy decision; the university has decided not to take ads from private coaching classes keeping in mind the ethos of the community as we are running a college radio. These policy decisions are made by our advisory committee headed by the Vice chancellor and Member Secretary of the Coordination Committee involved in the setting up of Radio MUST, Dr Neeraj Hatekar. We are prohibited from taking sponsorships from private parties but sponsorship from government and semi government bodies like NACO, postal services are permitted.

We didn’t push the advertising aspect earlier because we didn’t have a regular broadcast but now with 13 hours, we can do it. We have tied up with management students of various colleges where marketing students are selling spots for us.

How you compete with seven commercial FM stations in Mumbai?

It is not possible for a community radio to compete with a commercial FM radio. It is like a local cricket team competing with an international team and the only similarity is both are playing cricket. The audiences are the same but instead of competing we are providing a far better variation in content for the listeners from the songs played across all stations. Community radio is about creating creativity on airwaves.

What are the challenges of CR in India?

The key reason for failure of community radio is India is that people do not think of it as a social business and expect to earn money after the initial investment. Also, they assume that it is a one time cost where they invest for infrastructure and setting up a station but they are ignoring the daily working and maintenance costs. Community radios have to allot funds for initial two years and cannot expect ads till they establish themselves. Also packaging is of outmost importance to keep the listeners tuned to your frequency.

In Andhra Pradesh, CRs are doing well as all community radio stations of the state are linked with the Chief Minister through a hotline number; such a move is welcome in Mumbai and other parts of Maharashtra.

What is the number of CRs in India today?

Now there are 35- 40 existing stations and lot more are in the pipeline. The main issues faced by these stations are lack of professionals, funds and understanding to sustain the medium. There would be 400 which would spring in the coming year but only 40 might sustain. Packaging of content should be dealt carefully according to the needs of the area.

What is the initial cost of setting up a community radio?

Mumbai University invested about Rs 2.2 million in setting up our radio station but the community radio can be set up in something between Rs 8,00,000 to Rs two million. Your infrastructure will depend on the investment, you can reduce the size of your equipment, studio, production rooms etc. but the drawback of investing less is when the station wants to increase broadcast hours; it will need money. The community cannot afford to invest in community radio time and again. So, they have to invest a decent amount initially and gradually ads to sustain the mediums will start flowing.

Is it difficult to acquire license for setting up a community radio?

Government is very clear with the guidelines, codes and procedures of setting up a community radio and it is a non-tedious process. Community radios today have been divided into educational institutes and NGOs. Getting permission for setting up CRS for educational institute is easy but granting the same for NGO is an issue as their funding is not transparent. Government is scared that the NGOs would use it for their personal propaganda and branding, so NGOs are not getting licenses easily. As the number of educational institutes applying for license has increased, the government has further fragmented it into private institutes, semi private and government institutes.

Are there frequency issues in Community radio?

The I & B Ministry issues licenses in consultation with the Department of Communication. The available frequency for CRs is 88 MHz to 108 MHz and it might be difficult to get a frequency as there are already existing frequencies. For example, in Delhi, Delhi University and JNU have to share the same frequency, so the slots are divided between them in the evenings and mornings. Such problems occur only in cities where many commercial players already exist.

What do you aim for in the coming year?

Now, we have a dedicated team that has stuck with us for a long time and also the university has supported us throughout. We aimed towards broadcasting for eight hours but successfully managed to air 13 hours daily. It has been a learning journey for us. In the coming year, we plan more and more live broadcasts. We have many concepts in mind like networking all the daily wage earners at different nakas and providing them to contractors as per the requirements. Our basic aim is to provide information and entertainment and produce as much as content as possible. Also, we would be targeting advertisers to generate revenues for sustainability.

Are you working towards setting up other community radios?

I am helping two other universities- Narsee Monjee and Xavier’s for setting up their radio stations.