MUMBAI: Reliance ADAG’s music label, Big Music has sent a notice to Synergy Media Entertainment Limited’s My FM for not paying the music label for usage of its music.
My FM, which is available in 17 cities, has now stopped playing music owned by Big Music, till the issue gets sorted out.
Says Big Music Head of Publishing, Sanjay Tandon, “Since they are not paying the particular amount demanded for our music, we sent out a notice to them stating to either pay up or not play our music.” According to Tandon, while My FM is resisting payments, other stations have complied with the label’s conditions and have paid up.Big Music, a relatively new entrant to the music scene, is not affiliated to the Indian Music Industry, which collects music royalties from FM stations through its licensing arm PPL. The PPL has given set revised tariff rates of Rs 1,500 per needle hour or 20 per cent of net advertising revenue, whichever is higher. Independent players like T Series, Big Music and YashRaj Music have however, opted to chart out their own tariffs and negotiately independently with FM stations.
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On being contacted, My FM CFO Vijay Garg clearly states that the music label is asking for an exorbitant amount which may or may not be the same for all the sations since the prices in the industry keep varying. “We are currently negotiating and our fight is going on,” he said. Stressing on the turbulent times the radio industry is going through, Garg said his company has also stopped playing songs belonging to the library of Speed music, a label which mainly has a library of Punjabi songs.
The fight over royalty issues is likely to get murkier in the coming days. In May this year, the Supreme Court in its judgement dated May 16 stated that the Copyright Board is a constitutional authority to decide on royalty rates for the industry for automatic licencing.
