Zee Music partners with Fox Star Studios as launch venture

Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL) has now forayed into the music label space with its latest venture, the Zee Music Company (ZMC) with plans to acquire the music rights of over 20 major motion pictures in the financial year 2014-15.

It has already acquired the rights to the music of the Akshay Kumar-Sonakshi Sinha starrer 'Holiday' which is jointly produced by Reliance Big Entertainment, Sunshine Pictures and Hari Om Entertainment Company.

ZMC has also partnered with Fox Star Studios and signed the latter for the music of 5 of its Hindi releases for the year, including the Saif Ali Khan and Riteish Deshmukh starrer 'Humshakals', Hrithik Roshan and Katrina Kaif starrer 'Bang Bang' and one of the most anticipated releases ofthe year 'Bombay Velvet' starring Ranbir Kapoor and Anushka Sharma.

Punit Goenka, MD and CEO, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited said,  "ZEEL has always been a leader in the media and entertainment space, be it films or television, and branching out into the music label space gives us an opportunity to widen our business. The music industry is a large playing field and there is scope for us to explore the opportunity in this market. Technology has also emerged as a key transformer of the music industry and digital revenues are driving growth in the market. Since we are a content company, it is essential to own intellectual property as content is the king."

Anurag Bedi, business head and EVP, ZMC said, "It's a great space to be in, as music is something that is consumed universally. The Hindi film industry is currently in its best phase musically and there is a plethora of talent. We had been toying with this idea and finally we have entered this space."

Future partnerships of Zee Music Company include the big players; Dharma Productions, Excel Entertainment and other top studios.

Referring to the FICCI-KPMG Media and Entertainment Report for 2013-14, ZEEL believes that the music industry in India currently stands at a staggering figure of Rs 960 crores and projected figures for 2014 are Rs 1010 crores. The industry is expected to only grow over the years and reach Rs 780 crores in 2018.

The industry is however currently struggling with transitioning from physical sales to other streams of revenue like selling music libraries in the B2B space, talent management, music based events and even film productions. The B2B sales sector is growing mostly robustly for most companies since platforms like iTunes and Saavn are popular avenues to access music online for download and streaming respectively.