The Indian Music Industry’s efforts recently managed to take a positive turn when Calcutta High Court passed an order banning 104 music sharing websites in the country. Given the gravity of the situation, one would expect the industry to welcome the news with open arms, but that’s not quite the case. Instead, they feel that it is a rather superficial solution to a problem that’s rooted deeper than legal bodies can fathom.
Subir Malik, founder member and manager of Indian rock band Parikrama puts up a pragmatic stance when he says, “If Metallica couldn’t prevent Napster from pirating their music, I don’t see how a judge sitting in Kolkata plans to tackle the problem by banning just 104 websites.” Being part of a band that has always given away its music for free on their official websites, Malik says that they believe in pirating their own music before someone else does it. “When we started off in 1994 as an English rock band, less that four per cent of our population spoke English; so there was no way they were going to buy our CDs for `400. It is human nature to grab things for free; it’s wrong, but it’s there,” he adds. Composer-guitarist Ehsaan Noorani feels the problem lies in the industry being film-driven, not artist-driven. He says, “The music is dependent on films and unless the equation among the producers and record labels and musicians doesn’t change, things won’t move forward.”
Music director Sajid Khan (of Sajid-Wajid fame), whose composition Tere Mast Mast Do Nain from Dabangg, was one of the most downloaded tracks of 2010, is not ready to resign to the menace yet. He says, “I think any step towards anti-piracy is fantastic. People are willing to buy everything today, but not music. It’s not fair to deny the industry its rightful share.”