MxMIndia

Tag: Shridhar Subramaniam

  • Sony Entertainment Talent Ventures India

    Sony Music & Pictures launch new entertainment company SETVI

    By Our Staff

     

    Sony Music Entertainment and Sony Pictures Entertainment have announced the creation of ‘Sony Entertainment Talent Ventures India’ (SETVI), a new entertainment company focused on creating ventures for media talent in India. Former CEO of Fox Star Studios India, Vijay Singh, named new CEO.

     

    Said Shridhar Subramaniam, President of Corporate Strategy and Market Development in Asia and Middle East, Sony Music Entertainment: “SETVI will leverage our expertise, deep local relationships and global reach to give talent the potential to scale, become household brands and fully realize their creative and commercial potential. The digital revolution and India’s unique start-up culture bring huge opportunities and SETVI’s role will be to partner with talent to build and serve their fans in exciting new ways.”

     

    Added Sanford Panitch, President, Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group: “Sony Group’s ecosystem in India offers far-reaching and unique opportunities for talent to build their brands in an authentic way.”

     

  • Subramaniam will continue as a board member

    Saregama’s Vikram Mehra takes over as Chairman of Indian Music Industry

    By A Correspondent

     

    Vikram Mehra

    The Indian Music Industry (IMI) announced Vikram Mehra, Managing Director, Saregama India Limited as the newly elected Chairman of the Board of Directors. This comes in lieu of the retirement of Shridhar Subramaniam – President India and Middle East – Sony Music India, effective September 27, 2018. Subramaniam will continue as a Board member.

     

    “Vikram’s experience as a global industry leader, as well as his deep understanding of music business made him the ideal candidate to serve as IMI’s next chairman of the board” said Subramaniam, outgoing chairman of the IMI board.

     

     

  • Stream-ripping remains  a major threat to the music  industry in India

    Music streaming drives 27% growth in Indian music

    By A Correspondent

     

    The total industry revenues grew from Rs 570.7 crore in 2016 to Rs725.6 crore in 2017. This increase in revenue by 154.9 cr is the largest since 2011 according to IFPI data. The revenues from music streaming grew at a rate of 37.26% and revenues from digital music now amounts to over 91% of the Indian recorded music industry revenue. There were two primary factors driving this positive growth in digital music consumption, i.e. increased data consumption in the advent of cheaper data rates and greater smartphone penetration.

    The digital revenue alone in 2017 was Rs665.6 crore which is greater than the combined industry revenue of Rs 570.7 cr in 2016 by almost Rs 95 cr. Shridhar Subramaniam, President, Sony Music and Chairman, IMI is optimistic about the state of the industry and says: “Last year’s figures were phenomenal and we were expecting the market to do well this year as well, but a 27% growth in 2017 has exceeded our forecasts. Going into 2018, our aim is to make music even  more accessible, affordable and unlimited. To sustain this growth the industry will start laying the groundwork for a subscription ecosystem.”

    The upward trend in adoption of music streaming services has certainly helped digitalize the recording industry but is not yet steering consumers away from consuming music from pirated websites. Stream-ripping remains  a major threat to the music  industry in India.

    According to an 2017 study by IPSOS for IMI, 94% of the 900 surveyed music consumers in India admitted to using some form of piracy to access music.

    Said Blaise Fernandes, President and CEO, IMI: “Our story in the past two years has been one of success as evident from an exponential growth in revenue. We’re glad that digital music is claiming a larger part of the pie in line with the global trends. Various initiatives undertaken  by the government like Digital India , Bharat Net, Cipam’s #lettalkIP program will enable the Indian music industry is  to out-perform most evolved recorded music industries in the digital domain and climb up in rankings in the coming years.”

    There has also  been a small shift from ownership to access and downloads to subscription in the last two years. With international players like Amazon Music entering the market this year, the industry stakeholders plan to steer consumers towards affordable subscription plans to deliver unlimited high-quality content.

    “While the 2017 figures may paint a pretty picture, Indian Music Industry is still greatly impacted by Digital Piracy and Value Gap.” addedVikramMehra Managing Director  of Saregama  “We must work together in curbing piracy through a multi-pronged approach involving various stakeholders at the state and central level .  We must also empower the rights holders to allow them control of the usage of their works in the digital domain and protect their right to fair remuneration. That’s the only way for us to ensure continued double digital growth in the coming years.”