(L-R) Sabbas Joseph-Founder, Wizcraft International with Singer, Sunidhi Chauhan

Curtain Falls on ‘All About Music’ as Industry Veterans & Professionals Applaud the Initiative

by  Shantanu Jain Entertainment | September 20, 2017 | Feature

All About Music TM Talent Management Truly Musical LLP Taj Lands End

While Day 1 of India’s first ever exclusive music conference ‘All About Music’ was high on networking and content, Day 2 of the initiative took the convention objective even further as key stakeholders of the music industry came together to raise dialogues on the issues that concerned them.

Also Read: Every Aspect of 'Music in India' Decoded on Day 1 at All About Music

The second day of the convention was flagged off, as Ed Peto, Founder, Outdustry shared with the audiences the insights in the world of music from Indian and Chinese markets. Next on stage was noted Singer and Music Producer, Amit Trivedi, who in an unplugged conversation with Mandar Thakur, COO, Times Music, narrated his journey in the Hindi movie industry. Revealing the process that goes behind his music, Trivedi commented, “I am absolutely a director’s composer and I completely follow the script of the movie. I do method composing and it is very exciting to create music this way.”

All About Unconventional Success

The first-panel discussion on Day 2 of All About Music featured artists like Nucleya, Raftaar, Raghu Dixit and Shirley Setia in conversation with Atul Chiramani, Founder & MD, Turnkey Music & Publishing Ltd. sharing their unconventional success stories.

Talking about his entry into the world of music, Raghu Dixit stated, “Coming from a Tamil Brahmin family I was into Bharatanatyam but was teased as it was an effeminate thing for a boy my age to do. Holding a guitar when I started singing I realized that my heart vibrated every time I did it, which even continues till date.”

Music Producer Nucleya shared, “Music was all around me when I was growing up. But I realized that classical music wasn’t for me as I did not understand it, and the same was the case with Pop music. You also need to understand film music to create it. I took a lot of inspiration from classical music and would notice the complex beats and decided to incorporate this element into my music as well.”

Bollywood rapper Raftaar remarked, “I am nowhere related to the industry and I started rapping like a wannabe. Iconic bands like Eminem, Linkin Park are what I have grown up listening to and I was very fascinated to see how their lyrics rhymed. It was then when I thought to myself that this is something that even I can do.”

Sharing her journey, Youtube Sensation Shirley commented, “I always loved singing but there was a time where I was struggling for a chance to be on stage. It was then when I thought why do I depend on people to give me opportunities like this. It was then when I did one of my first cover of the song Tum Hi Ho and that’s how my journey started.”

All About Brands in Music

Another major highlight on Day 2 of the convention was a panel discussion on the subject of ‘All About Brands in Music.' On the stage were Gurpreet Singh, Co-Founder, One Digital Entertainment; Kiran Druz, Head of Brand Partnerships, Sony Music; Sahith Sethuraman, Brand Manager, Bacardi Trademark India & South Asia; and Vinit Karnik, Business Head, Entertainment, Sports & LIVE Events, Group M. The panel was moderated by Harshad Chavan, MD, Toast Events.

Talking about the brand philosophy of Bacardi behind investment in music, Sahith shared, “We invested in music as it is the only form of entertainment where there are no barriers and receives undivided love from the audiences. For us at Bacardi, we understand that passion cannot be converted into numbers.”

Vinit Karnik remarked, “A lot of elements in the music industry need to come together to lure brands today as brands have been the biggest consumers of original music. Today, merely stating numbers of attendees at a music concert will not fascinate clients, they need to send value addition to their brands. Hence, if an organiser shares with the clients the value their event will offer to the brand and the profiles of their attendees and how it will benefit the latter, that will go a long way.”

All About LIVE Music

The fate of the LIVE Music industry in the country was also decoded at the convention as Nitin Arora, MD, Katalyst Entertainment; Saugato Bhowmik, Business Head, INS & Consumer Products, Viacom 18; Shreyas Srinivasan, Founder, Insider.in; V.G Jairam, Co-Founder, Oranjuice Entertainment; Vijay Arora, Director, Touchwood Group; and Roshan Abbas, MD, Geometry Global Encompass Network (Moderator) came on the stage.

Kicking off the discussion, Nitin Arora stated, “The LIVE Music space in India is approximately around INR 7200 Cr. today, out of which around 70% consists of music in private and social events.”

Vijay Arora added, “The numbers stand true owing to the fact that social is the biggest market for LIVE music as that segment is growing at the rate 15-20 percent every year. In India, weddings are not just an event, they are in fact, opportunities for people to showcase their wealth.”

Highlighting the problems in the ticketed events in India, Saugato shared, “The lack of competent infrastructure matched with the fact that people don’t want to pay for tickets and rely on ‘Jugaad’ instead is one of the many reasons why ticketed events in India are struggling.”

He further added, “We feel that India today is buzzing with music festivals but the reality is that very little is happening. I can count only 9 tours and festivals in memory right now and this is in a country where there are over 700 million youth. Permission of clearances is still a hassle we deal with.”

Sharing his opinion Jairam quoted, “Transparency is one of the biggest problems in the industry today as people just don’t want to share the ticket numbers. GST has helped to bring down the tax burden on organisers, but unless we are transparent we are just one incident away from this honeymoon period being over for all of us.”

Other Highlights

Throughout the day All About Music also saw one on one conversation sessions with noted Bollywood Singers Sunidhi Chauhan and Arijit Singh. Through the one on one conversations, both singers shared with the audiences their journey into the music business and the obstacles that came along the way.

Other important panel discussions at the event included sessions on Copyright & Legal, Revenue Management and Music Management and workshops on Youtube for Music, Copyright, Mixing and Mastering, Music Production and Songwriting by Industry veterans such as Ehsaan Noorani, Loy Mendonsa, Priyanka Khemani, Shadab Rayeen and others.

The two-day music conference All About Music took place at Taj Lands End in Mumbai on September 18 & 19, 2017 and is a property of TM Talent Management and its subsidiary Truly Musical LLP. Music industry veterans and professionals gave a standing ovation to Tarsame Mittal- Founder, TM Talent Management for creating the first-ever platform for music industry professionals in the country.