'The monster of bollywood is here'

In town, Sona Mohapatra tells TOI that iTunes of Indian music isn’t available since most labels don’t want transparency.....
You’ve returned to performing in Kolkata after two years. What’s changed about this city’s listeners?
I’d like to perform a lot more in Kolkata, especially for colleges and students. It’s a city that seems to have a genuine love for the arts in general and live bands in particular.Unfortunately, I think the monster of Bollywood seems to have crept in. This was one audience and the only market in the whole country that seemed to have been looking out for more independent and original music. Members of the media, who are the tastemakers, are partly to blame for this.
It’s often said that many Indian music labels are on the verge of bankruptcy. Is it the listeners who want free downloads or a certain gap in marketing music that’s responsible for this?
Music labels across the world, not only India, in their traditional dinosaur avatar are on the verge of bankruptcy or are relying heavily on their old catalogue to barely survive. They haven’t really anticipated the changing consumption patterns of the consumers for their product. One can’t blame the consumer for it. It’s the job of record labels to be able to monetise it and make a business out of it. Live music is thriving. Why aren’t labels thinking about investing in live venues and live cafés ? Today, we have iTunes. This is something music companies should have anticipated and partnered!
Why is Indian music still unavailable on iTunes?
I recently met Denzel Feigelson. He has played a key role in setting up iTunes. On asking him about why iTunes hadn’t come to India as yet, I was shocked to hear that it’s mostly to do with the labels not wanting to make things transparent and thereby sharing possible royalties with composer creators and artistes.
Ram Sampath is on the committee that is debating over copyright laws. What changes would you suggest regarding copyright?
My partner, Ram Sampath, was part of that committee and has since then moved out to make way for the legendary Gulzar. I feel if we want to be serious world players, it’s just a matter of time before we get rid of our feudal exploitative mindsets and treat the creators, writers and idea makers of our country as collaborators and partners. Giving them a share of returns for something that they have given birth to literally is a basic decency that the whole civilised world follows. Fortunately, the Indian government has woken up to this.
Should a singer share the percentage of losses with the producers?
This ‘loss- sharing’ kind of talk only smacks of ignorance. Composers and authors are looking to give a stake in the IP that they create, in the music only, not the film per se. Singers are due a stake in the public broadcast of their voice. The producers have the biggest stake in the music revenues also since their films are the raison d’etre for this music. Nobody is asking for a stake in the film or the revenue it makes. If the music does well, all stakeholders will proportionately benefit in the ratio of their respective shares. If it doesn’t, none will benefit. So, where is this tangential googly of ‘loss sharing’ in the film coming from?
You’ve also been a major advocate of releasing singles digitally. Isn’t this trend soon going to make music labels redundant?
The consumer wants value of every buck spent. I’m the first mainstream artiste to have put out Diljale out as a single and it went on to become the highest steaming video in the global network of a mobile company. Twenty countries. The second to my video was one by Pearl Jam. Music labels could be great partners if they just got more visionary and also believed in being transparent and fairer to the artistes.