In a flash

“There has been a paradigm shift in the way music is consumed. First it was cassettes then came CD and the now the consumption pattern is rapidly moving towards other platforms like radio,Tv,internet and mobile. We have seen maximum growth in the mobile vertical and internet is also catching up with improved bandwidth and growing internet penetration. As a mobile is a very personalised device and Gen next being very individualistic,music on mobile has huge potential. Micro SD cards and USB Flash drives are the future carriers of content and are in sync with the changing consumption behaviours,” comments Neeraj Kalyan – Vice President (Publishing & Digital Content),T-Series. According to him,the initial response has been overwhelming. After Blue,Radio,All The Best,Main aur Mrs.Khanna and London Dreams,they will take out Bollywood compilations followed by regional and devotional titles. “Our next big ticket title is 3 Idiots. We are giving in a 2 GB micro SD / USB a minimum of 50 or more songs,10 DVD quality music videos,10 truetones,wallpapers,animations,themes and other mobile applications. We shall soon be launching full length movies as well in this format and our first release is going to be Wanted,” says Kalyan. However,he lists out two main challenges to this business – high price of the blank micro SD & USB coupled with equally high price volatility,and illegal side loading by the retailers. “For this,we are acting very strongly and have started raids with the help of local police. Recently,few retailers were arrested in Bhatinda,Nagpur,Bangalore and Jaipur in such raids,” he tells us.

Airing his concern is film Jail’s music composer Shameer Tandon who feels Hindi film music in a pen drive is still at a very nascent stage. “Hungama had tried with chips earlier but it didn’t work for the cost of manufacturing of the pen is so high that it will not bring down the cost of carriage,and add to it the cost of copyright. At 500 – 600 bucks,there’ll be very few takers,and that’s why Saregama,Venus and Tips are not even remotely looking at this business,” he remarks adding how there is no difference in music quality,no benefit and distributors are not taking great interest too.

But all’s not that dull. After getting a decent response on Do Knot Disturb,Preeti Puri,VP Public Relations Reliance Big says no one’s interested in buying a CD anymore. “Nobody sells tape-recorders anymore,CD players will phase out too. People are used to compact lives and mobiles for it makes so much more sense now. Plus,there is market demand now and this will control piracy to an extent. It’s expensive,but everything takes time to settle down,just like DVD players!” That’s yet to be seen. In the meantime,flash it!