If you can't beat them, make peace with them. That's the mantra that the Indian Music Industry, the association of music companies, has adopted after its 30-year war against piracy. It will legitimise the practice by issuing licences, but for a small fee.
IMI is close to launching a programme – Music Mobile Exchange (MMX) – mainly to curb mobile chip piracy which refers to downloading music from the web or illegally copying it from cassettes or CDs and then transferring it to mobile phones.
“We have completed the pilot for MMX across three districts in Andhra Pradesh (Hyderabad, Guntur and Vijayawada) and we plan to roll out the services across the country within a month. The trials were conducted across 2,700 shops, which were indulging in mobile chip piracy. After legalising them, we will move over to other parts of the country,” IMI Secretary General Savio D'Souza told Business Standard.
IMI represents over 50 companies including big labels like Saregama, Tips, Venus and Sony Music and accounts for over 75 per cent of legitimate music sales in the country. The organisation conducted no fewer than 20,000 raids between 1996 and 2009.
The music industry’s annual revenue stands at around Rs 600 crore, even as it loses around Rs 1,450 crore to piracy every year. Of this, music piracy (copying of CDs, cassettes and DVDs) alone accounts for Rs 600 crore, mobile chip piracy around Rs 300 crore, public (DJs, rallies using music without permission) Rs 200 crore, radio stations Rs 100 crore and TV and Internet Rs 150 crore.
According to D'Souza, mobile chip piracy shops charge anything between Rs 5 (per song) and Rs 100 (per CD) to transfer songs to mobile phones. With users selecting their favourite numbers, this comes much cheaper than buying a CD or a DVD.
The industry body will charge anywhere between Rs 1,500 and Rs 5,000 per month (depending on sales) to issue the shops a licence.
