Tarsame Mittal Spills the Beans On India’s Exclusive Music Convention ‘All About Music’

by  Shantanu Jain Business Events | August 8, 2017 | Interview

TM Talent Management Arijit Singh Taj Lands End WOW Awards and Convention Asia

Known as one of the leading talent management agencies of the country today, TM Talent Management announced the launch of India’s exclusive annual music convention titled ‘All About Music’ at the WOW Awards and Convention Asia 2017.

The initiative aspires to create, build and sustain the opportunities between the various verticals and markets of the music industry, evaluate global business prospects and create a gateway for international markets as well as address the shortcomings and roadblocks within the rapidly evolving music business. The music conference’s uniqueness lies in its universality without being biased to a particular genre or segment of the music industry and is scheduled to be held on September 18 & 19 this year at Taj Lands End, Mumbai.

In an exclusive conversation with EVENTFAQS, Tarsame Mittal, Founder & Director, TM Talent Management, spills the beans on what led to the conceptualisation of the initiative and what it will offer its audiences.

How was the idea of creating All About Music conceptualised and what was the objective behind it?

I have been in the talent management business for almost 10 years now and I have always seen the huge disparity that exists between the different segments of the business. The music industry in India is very fragmented while the perspective to make it a fully equipped and organised sector is quite potent. The objective of this conference is to bring together the different stakeholders of the music fraternity on a single platform through an inclusive open discussion that is not predisposed to any particular genre of music. In fact, this will be a first of its kind music forum in India.

Being in the business of talent management, I have been interacting with a lot of established and emerging talent, as well as music labels, publishers, copyright societies etc. and I have noticed the lack of communication and information which in the long run is detrimental to the growth of music business. I want to change the way music is standardized today. Conferences are like a mini industry reunion and serve as a reminder to everyone in the business to constantly empower and update themselves and everyone around them and that is what we want to achieve with All About Music.

What are the current challenges being faced by the Indian music industry today and how can these be eliminated?

The biggest shortcoming is that we are not a consolidated industry. While content is king, the consumer mindset still revolves around gratis consumption. The independent scene is not given an impetus as it should be vis-à-vis commercial music. Talent is constantly unaware when it comes to copyrights and other governing laws because there is so much ambiguity prevalent in the system.

Upcoming talent can’t find a foothold because there are not enough focused management agencies. Streaming services need to address the abysmally low royalty payouts per stream or the value gap. Our infrastructure and tax structure doesn’t give an impetus for large format IPs. India has never come from an artist-driven culture but from a song-driven culture due to Bollywood films and hence music labels market prefer marketing their content through radio and television vis-à-vis digital. However, live is unlocking the potential of the Indian market and will pave the way for everything else. 

​​What can one expect from All About Music and who should attend it?

The conference is meant for avid music enthusiasts who are keen to interact with the forerunners of the business and gain first-hand technical knowledge. We have speakers from different walks of life and different regions who will cover different subjects. So, while we will address how 70% of the music industry's revenues now come from streaming or how Bollywood film studios rely heavily on its musical score for box office success, we will also discuss how Punjab has a thriving music business that beats other regional markets or how a college going indie artist is making a fortune via the internet. We have a mixed bag of inspiring stories and lessons from different cities of the world, thus making the conference an educative forum. We want to do full justice to music as a topic and don’t want to restrict it to any particular region or genre. In the inaugural year, you can expect an overview of the Indian music industry with panel discussions, expert sessions, a networking hub & master classes.

​​Share with us some of the speakers we will see speaking at the convention?

​CEO of CD Baby and independent music propagator Tracy Maddux, Founder of Outdustry, a firm specializing in the Chinese recorded music industry, Ed Peto and Executive Producer of the US feature film Bernard and Huey, Rob Schwartz and Paul Brindley, Co-founder of MusicAlly will be the first line-up of international speakers to join the conference

Other names include Canadian music producer Spek- SVP of Creative and A&R at Reservoir, musician Arijit Singh, composers Amit Trivedi and Sunny M.R., Lyricist Amitabh Bhattacharya, Ashish Hemrajani of Bookmyshow, Shreyas Srinivasan of Insider, Nirmika Singh of Rolling Stones India, Mandar Thakur of Times Music, Vijay Nair of OML, legal experts Neeta Ragoowansi and Priyanka Khimani, Gurpreet Singh of One Digital Entertainment, Keya Madhvani of Twitter are some of the names to join the esteemed panel.

​​Do you plan to take All About Music to multiple cities or will this be an annual property in Mumbai only?  

Yes, we plan to make this an annual property but would like to be in Mumbai as Mumbai is the epi​​centre of the Music Industry. However, we want to include all regions and cities which influence the music industry and thus we are hosting several unconferences in Tier 2 & Tier 3 cities to set the tone for the main conference and thereby give a fair opportunity to every major player in the regional market as well.