The second edition of Music Inc., Loudest.in and exchange4media’s music business conference, started in Mumbai on Friday. The first day of the two-day event saw interesting sessions on the OTT music industry, music rights and brands.
The conference was opened by Dr. Annurag Batra, Chairman & Editor-In-Chief, exchange4media & Business World. In his address, Dr. Batra mentioned how Music Inc. serves as a platform where music meets technology. He also touched upon some interesting topics such as how Spotify has made a mark for itself in the Indian market in a short span of time, rise of indie artistes and the influence of social media on the music industry.
“Music Inc. is a platform where music meets technology and brands. It is about the business of music. But you cannot have the business of music without musicians, without the people who create music. Loudest.in is the platform that covers this industry,” he said in his opening address. “We at exchange4media are in the business of building communities. We create soul connections while creating business connections at the same time,” he remarked.
Talking further, Dr. Batra spoke about how Apple and Spotify have shown an impressive growth in the recent past. “Last year in 2018, Apple music had 57 million subscribers. Spotify is the leader in OTT music. It came to India late, but has made a significant place for itself in the country.”
According to Dr. Batra, another advancement that has taken place in the music space is the growth of smart speaker. “There has been a boost in the Amazon Echo system. This technology is an advantage for musicians and music players. However, music charts as of 2019 have become lesser relevant. Major labels may lose their model in 2019. Indie artistes are gaining more prominence, he explained.
Batra also stated that streaming services are not that profitable any more. “Streaming services are becoming a major part of the music ecosystem. These platforms find it very difficult to be a market profitable service,” he remarked. “Article 30 came out with a new ruling that holds streaming platforms responsible for the files that users upload. YouTube and other streaming platforms are making artistes generate a good revenue,” he said.
Talking about the impact of social media on the music industry, Dr. Batra mentioned, “Social media is a great way for an artiste to build fan engagement. The only way artistes can leverage social media is by moving to the trending platforms. Instagram creates a wide revenue for artistes. Even Tick Tok is changing the music industry."
Concluding his address, Dr. Batra said no matter what culture you come from, everyone loves music. “If music is a place, ghazal is a city, pop is a wilderness, rock is a road and classical is a temple. I wish you two days of melody, learning and business,” he signed off.