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Film buffs can now look forward to downloading songs legally, as companies release albums online. Syeda Farida reports
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LOG IN Happy days are here for film music buffs
Recently Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna made news for being the first album to go for a simultaneous online release. The list of media where Sony BMG broadcast the cover on the Internet is exhaustive, ranging from Itunes, Napster, Sony Connect, Liquid Audio, Verizon, MSN, Worldmedia and more with every website having its propriety format. Ifstar-spangled festivity marked audio releases in the celluloid world until now, Internet is the new fad and platform for the same.
Picture this: song tracks are available about 20-25 days before the film hits the silver screen, and this time on your screen. Blame it on the Indian diaspora abroad that still swears by Hum Aapke Hain Kaun, Main Hoon Naa and Kal Ho Na Ho, or on the MP3 savvy Generationext that prefers to stock up a single CD with film music arranged over numerous files (film wise) instead of buying many discs at a time. This is also a knee jerk reaction to mushrooming websites offering illegal downloads of Bollywood music.
"Sometimes the album might not be available or out of stock at the music stores, so the online option comes handy. It is not only a legal method to download music but also a source of revenue for the companies," says Umesh Gupta, managing director, Aditya Music India Private Limited. "We are planning to release Telugu film albums online," he adds.
"About 20-25 per cent of a film's revenue comes from overseas market. This move is to get overseas revenue for music as well. One more channel is being opened up for music lovers, if they can't access physical formats (CDs and cassettes) for any reason. Also, instead of buying an entire album, they can buy only those songs that they like," observes Shridhar Subramaniam, managing director, Sony BMG.
But will this trend of people logging in for music mark the end of offline, read the neighbourhood music store? "Online promotion of music as ring tone or song download in fact is branding for us. We have a lot of NRIs coming down to buy CDs here since they can buy discs for the price of a song download there. Plus music buffs who want to have a collection of their favourite artiste can find these volumes on the racks. Also DVDs of Ramayana and Mahabharata available in the physical format in store are popular. We also have special section for children," says Damodaran. R, area manager operations Andhra Pradesh, Music World Entertainment Limited.
"People are still going through the physical phase. Downloads of songs are limited to high-end handsets. Selling albums and songs online will happen in a big way here in the future. Logistically it will reduce distribution and transport thus the music will come cheaper," says Vinod Dhanushali, vice president, promotion and marketing, T-Series.
So, promos, contests and cut outs of Chiranjeevi and Abhishek Bachchan in stores will continue to attract film buffs to grab a copy from the offline stores across the country. But in the long run as car stereos and home theatres come up with disc changers and need to minimise rack space, the cassette might just vanish as the CD holder with files of films will sit snug next to the PC.
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