The Hindu : Front Page : Tamil music industry to embrace digital distribution

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 26, 2006

Front Page

Front Page

Tamil music industry to embrace digital distribution

Karthik Subramanian

Record companies earned Rs.1.5 crore last year through ringtone downloads

Music going mobile

CHENNAI: South Indian film music industry is all set to embrace digital distribution. The choice will soon rest with the customer as the industry seeks to increase its revenue from unconventional sources.

Record companies have signed up agreements with content management companies to make available songs in different formats such as MP3 and wmf (Windows Media file) and distribute them through mobile phone networks and the Internet. The growing popularity of digital music players and the projected growth of convergence devices such as 3G mobile phones have set the ball rolling.

According to the South India Music Companies Association (SIMCA), which facilitates the sale of digital music for 39 companies, record companies have tasted success through ringtone downloads, which earned them more than Rs.1.5 crore last year and is set to quadruple this year.

SIMCA joint secretary S.L.Saha said it was time the tech savvy audience that prefers downloading songs to purchasing CDs was targeted.

Deals with portals

Apart from striking up deals with legal digital content distribution partners such as Soundbuzz, Next Gen Media Alliances, People Interactive and On Mobile Asia Pacific, the companies are working out deals with portals that allow free download of songs. Mr. Saha added: "We are demanding a share of their advertisement or subscription revenue."

Representatives of Soundbuzz, a Mumbai-based company, said in a day more than 5 lakh mobile music downloads take place in India.

Mandar Thakur, company's general manager, said the demand for rich media downloads would increase with the growing popularity of 3G mobile phones.

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