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Rina Chandran

CHENNAI, Jan. 13

BUCKING the trend of signing on hot boy bands and mega movies, Virgin Records (part of the EMI Group) hedged its bets with the compilation of Indipop albums and niche film music last year, relying on "real" musical talent and innovative marketing.

It has stuck its neck out and reaped the benefits, said Mr Shameer Tandon, Marketing Controller, Virgin Records (India) Pvt. Ltd.

"An album does not sell because of the label; it sells because the music is good," Mr Tandon said. "So we're looking at music that not everyone else is doing, and testing the waters for what we want to do." When the company first set up shop in the country nearly five years ago, it merely distributed its international products - mostly classic rock from the EMI stable and pop from Virgin. A year later, it made a foray into Indipop, with such artistes as Shaan, Shubha Mudgal and Alisha. The mandate was clear: they had to be "intrinsically good" singers, not models, and the label would try to refresh their image and the music in some manner.

Its most recent launch was Shweta Pandit, for whose debut album, Main Zindagi Hoon, Virgin entered into an arrangement with Hindustan Lever for use of the famous Liril jingle in the lead song. "Artiste-building is like brand-building - you have to see what you can do with the artiste, and be aware of what you cannot do," Mr Tandon said.

The company then made a foray into Indian classical music, and has released 20-30 titles so far, including such well-known names as Bhimsen Joshi, Pandit Vishnu Mohan Bhatt, Hariprasad Chaurasia and Shiv Kumar Sharma. Here, too, Virgin recorded some artistes at live concerts or historic locations to give an "ambient experience" that's different from a studio recording, Mr Tandon said.

Recently, the company also entered film music in a modest way, with the soundtrack for a small-budget English film, Let's Talk, from Equinox Films. The film is making the rounds of the major metros, and the music - an urban, contemporary arrangement of thumri - is inspired by the film, and not actually in the film, Mr Tandon said. He expects that the album will sell about 20,000 copies.

Its next film project will be actress Raveena Tandon's Stumped, a film that looks at heroes of Kargil and on the cricket field. "We're looking at music that not everyone's doing, and films that other record labels will be wary of," said Virgin's Mr Tandon, who has written two songs on the album. "It's risky, but the economics are also lower - signing on a Yash Chopra or Rajshri film will cost a couple of crores."

Another low-risk, high-reward strategy is compilation albums featuring best-known tracks of artistes such as Shaan and Shubha Mudgal. Virgin first launched Shaan's Bhool ja and other hits, which was a big success. The single, Bhool Ja, had been released three years ago, but didn't have a video and so was not very well known. With that album Virgin expected to do about 25,000 units; instead, the album has sold over two lakh, Mr Tandon said.

Virgin has now launched Mudgal's "Dere Dere and other hits." The album comprises all her songs that have had music videos in the last six or seven years. Virgin added Dere Dere, first released over three years ago, and is making a music video for the song, Mr Tandon said. Typically, only two music videos are made per album, at the cost of about Rs 8-15 lakh each, so even some very good songs may not be that well known.

Going forward, Virgin will mine its existing repertoire for good music for compilation albums, Mr Tandon said. "A `best of' album appeals to the value for money psyche - the consumer assumes that these are the best tracks as they've been made into videos," he said. "And it's more economical for the label to exploit the assets it has and work on existing repertoire rather than create a new one."

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