The Hindu Business Line : Marketing musical talent

Indipop suffers from underexposure and high promotion and marketing costs. Also, it lacks superstars who can help maximise returns from shows and album sales.

A RECENT list of the Top 10 most influential people in the music business named Kurt Cobain (of Nirvana), Sir Paul McCartney, Yoko Ono and Simon Fuller. Simon who? He is the creator of the Spice Girls, and often referred to as the sixth Spice Girl for his role in launching them and making them famous.

Vinod Nair's name is not on that list, but the man who conceptualised, created and promoted A Band of Boys, believes the band - positioned as India's first boy band - will change the way Indipop is made and marketed. Their debut album, Yeh bhi, Woh bhi, has sold two lakh copies in a month, and the boys are booked solid for the next six months for live shows in India and abroad, says Nair, the Managing Director of Clea PR. The album was produced on Nair's Musicurry Records, and Clea PR handled publicity and promotion.

Perhaps this was all just a gimmick; perhaps Nair's formula of creating superstars - a package that includes distinct branding, positioning and promotion - will be the best thing to happen to the industry. Whatever the verdict, it is clear that the Indian music industry is in need of a shake-up.

A recent CII report notes that entertainment is now regarded as a commodity, and so has to evolve according to demand and supply. Nair concurs, pointing out that while there is an abundance of talent, it is not packaged or promoted well enough. "Just like any other FMCG, the aim must be to position, package and sell each band differently," he says. "Otherwise, there is a danger that everyone will look the same."

Marketing is especially crucial for Indipop because it lacks the kind of budgets and exposure film music has. "Indipop needs a special effort as the music has to be first heard before people purchase it," says Shridar Subramaniam, Director - Marketing, Sony Music Entertainment (India). "Film music gets easier mileage as it is connected to the stars, but the Indipop artiste needs to be established as a brand first."

But the industry lacks the kind of superstars who can perform to packed shows and drive album and merchandise sales, and that's what's keeping it from maximising returns from royalties, shows and merchandise, says Nair, who also wrote the lyrics on the album. "It struck me as rather strange that the West churns out superstars on a daily basis but in India, where we have three passions - films, cricket and music - we only have superstars in films and cricket," he says. Convincing as that sounds, Nair was turned down by pretty much every record company. "I was convinced they would see the potential, but they were very closed," he says.

The reason for their reticence is not hard to find: the Rs 1,100-crore Indian music industry (of which the organised sector accounts for about Rs 700 crore) has been plagued by falling sales, rampant piracy and rising costs of promoting artistes. In fact, world over, music sales declined by five percent last year; music executives blame Internet piracy, the growing media clutter and the high cost of marketing new releases.

In India, sales of pre-recorded audiocassettes yielded Rs 30 crore in 2000, according to CII. Film music continues to dominate the industry, and accounts for between 65 per cent and 75 per cent of total sales; Indipop, a catchall term that includes everything from Hindi/English pop to bhangra to remixes, makes up about 15 per cent of sales. Music companies bear all costs and risks, including the cost of financing, manufacturing and distribution, and the cost of unsold stock - which, in the case of films that bomb at the box-office, is quite high. But because the returns are so much higher for film music, as compared to Indipop, the rosters of music companies are heavily weighted in favour of film music, despite the higher costs to make and promote it.

Indipop, which started off on the right note about 10 years ago, has suffered from reduced exposure on one hand and higher costs of promotion and marketing on the other. Ten years ago, it did not cost much to make an album or a music video, and recording studios actually gave discounts for non-film music, says Atul Churamani, Vice-President - Artistes & Repertoire, Saregama India Ltd. "Costs of recording and marketing an album have gone completely insane - from Rs 2 - Rs. 5 lakh then, to a minimum of Rs 1 crore - Rs. 1.5 crore today," he says. Nair concurs, claiming to have invested Rs 1 crore to create the band and another Rs 1 crore to market it.

The initial success of artistes like Baba Sehgal and Shweta Shetty encouraged more companies to jump in, and when MTV, and then Channel V, added film music to their mix, exposure of Indipop came down significantly, says Churamani, an industry veteran who commissioned the first music video for MTV by Jasmine Bharucha, and has promoted such acts as Sehgal, Shetty, Alisha, Daler Mehndi and Shaan. The average album today sells only about a third of what it did, Churamani says.

Despite more avenues for promotion, because of increasing clutter and the importance of television, music videos have become almost the only way to promote music. "But since videos have become increasingly expensive (Rs 8-12 lakh), the economics of videos as a promotional tool have flown out of the window," Churamani says.

One way to get around videos would be to step up exposure from live concerts, radio and the print media. Corporates must be roped in to sponsor and promote concert tours, as shows provide a direct connect with audiences that can translate into greater album sales. Various companies have used music videos and albums as a branding tool - from Runa Laila endorsing Nescafe to the Liril jingle in Shweta Pandit's recent album - but while this practice helps spread the cost, concerts are much more effective, Churamani says.

With the rapid growth in FM, radio can be a powerful medium of promotion. And, wider media coverage of new music acts and releases would also help, Churamani suggests. Even DJs at popular nightclubs and discos can introduce new music and give it wider exposure. "Our support systems need to be improved; until that happens, there will be an over reliance on music videos to sell albums," Churamani says.

Lost in the din of slick packaging and punchier promotion, however, is the basic tenet, musical talent. Indeed, many in the industry question the staying power of "MTV-bands", and point out that better promotion cannot make up for mediocre talent.

"It's a nice idea (promotion), but I'm afraid their marketing concerns are more important than music concerns," says Suchitra Lata, editor of an online magazine, The Music Magazine. "The bands are all just trying to be hip and western: there is nothing new to their music and they don't have a distinct sound, so I don't know if they will last."

"Studio-made" bands clearly lack talent but may get better exposure because they look hipper or have bigger budgets, adds Geoffrey Thomas, Head of Programming & Content - Radio Indigo, a WorldSpace network. "There are some talented bands, but some are just in it for the glamour. So I don't know if the right talent is getting the right promotion," he says.

Indeed, when Channel V launched Viva, the all-girl band, sceptics dismissed it as a gimmick to increase V's TRPs. Lata bemoans the lack of initiative among artistes and music companies alike to explore new genres and sounds for fear of failure; the result is re-mixes and music that sounds the same. "Nobody wants to take a risk, but if you give something enough exposure, you will find an audience for it," she says, adding that clips on the Internet and live shows must be better leveraged to promote artistes.

The existing system of identifying talent, which is mostly through demo tapes and recommendations, clearly needs fine-tuning: Saregama, for one, is currently developing a system which will incorporate more stringent measures and a long-term approach to new talent, especially with regards to Indipop, Churamani says.

Despite these discordant notes, there is no doubt in anyone's mind that Indipop will thrive and produce great talent. With the right packaging, Nair believes, artistes and record companies will get their due, and audiences their fill of entertainment. "I don't have a formula to make a successful band," he says. "But doing it this way is like the difference between a graduate and an MBA - an MBA's chances of success are greater."

How they got together

WHEN word got around that young, good-looking guys who could sing were wanted for a band, there was a deluge of applicants, Vinod Nair says. About 1,000 guys were auditioned last March - some even over the telephone - and from a shortlist of 250, whom Nair and musicians Hariharan and Leslie Lewis auditioned, six made the final cut. One dropped out, and the five became A Band of Boys.

They were Sudhanshu Pandey, (a model and actor), Siddharth Haldipur (a model, dancer and choreographer), Chaitanya Bhosle (Asha Bhosle's grandson, and a singer and theatre actor), Sherrin Varghese (a singer and actor) and Karan Oberoi (a singer and model). Before they sang a single note in a studio, the boys, all aged between 23 and 25 years, were put through rigorous training in Hindustani classical and Western music, choreography, stage craft, fitness and, even attitude.

"Indian singers are among the most talented in the world, but they fail to create the kind of mass hysteria an American pop star creates because they don't have an image," Nair says.

"The package - including how you talk, how you walk - is important for the emotional connect with the audience." In this case, it is the urban youth and, in particular, teenagers and young women aged 15 to 21 years of age.

MTV gave the band an "Ubharta Sitara" nomination, and a platform for its official launch on December 1. Today, the band has two music videos out, Meri Neend and Ishq, and the album Yeh bhi, Woh bhi has sold more than two lakh copies in a month, Nair says.

"The Beatles were the first boy band to create mass hysteria," says Nair. "Today, our band can give Boyzone or N'Sync a run for their money."

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