MUMBAI: He secretly confessed to Midival Punditz being his favorite indie band. Having come down to India for the Nokia Music Connects 2013, an Indiantelevision.com initiative, he was a panelist on a discussion titled ‘The Streaming Story’. Radioandmusic.com’s Disha Deshpande caught up with Brandon Bakshi, Executive Director – Writer/Publisher Relations, Europe & Asia, BMI at the venue, about the trends he has observed in the publishing industry in India and the USA, as well as the Indian music scene.
What does BMI do for the artistes?
We track their performances in the United States, making sure they submit set-lists to us since they are important. In case of AR Rahman it would be cue-sheets for movies registrations and distribution of their work. Gurdas Mann, for instance, does a lot of tours in America and when he does, he provides us with set-lists which help us track. If his work is being used anywhere, he can be notified and paid for it.
How do expand your reach BMI’s reach in India?
I try and make it a point to come and visit India on a regular basis and set up meetings with publishers, label companies and production houses. I have been to India twice this year. My colleague Frank Liwall, who works at Royalty Networks, and I visit Times Music of India, SaReGaMa, Yashraj and Tips to help set up BMI publishing entities for them, so they have a vehicle to help publish their works in America. I do not do the registrations but if I bring them in contact with someone like Frank Liwall, we can set up a Times Music USA or a SaReGaMa USA buy loading the titles into the system to make payments back to IPRS in India, the composer’s share, the author’s share and the USA sub-publisher gets their 50 per cent.
What are the latest trends you observe as a publisher?
Well, BMI is currently getting real revenue from cable TV. Artistes can have their music used on outsourced, for example, not only do you get the artiste fee, synchronisation fee and registration fee which the publisher generates. This is a real trend. Also, we are looking at more collaboration between western and Indian artistes to have some sort of a pop cross-over.
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Do you think that Indian artistes will have greater exposure if their music was used in films?
I do. I also think that can be achieved if they co-wrote with international composers and artistes. Because there is a mystique about Indian music, and it is not just all Bollywood, there are several different genres, and I think they deserve to be exposed.
In India, films are done differently. It is a work for hire system. The lyricist and composer do what they want with the music. I do not know if they sell the rights of the music. It is probably because of the copyright laws here. There need to be conferences that can help monetise what is going on, and the lyricist and producer need to join a society like IPRS which protects their rights, find a good publisher that can register their works and register their cue sheets and notify other societies around the world that they need to be paid for their works.
Apart from NMC, what other projects are you looking at during this trip?
I am currently meeting up with old colleagues and friends and I am trying to drum up new businesses. An Australian team is down in India doing a song-writer camp at the Yashraj Studios and I helped find them an executive producer for put in Bollywood sliders and facilitating Indian composers and lyricists introductions with their Australian counterparts.
What trends do you see in the live music scene in India?
When I first came to India about five years ago, there weren’t many western artistes that were performing. No one would go even if they were, except if it was a mega star like Shakira. But today you see more of cross-over potential. There are fabulous musicians here. I have a BMI writer here from Bombay and lives in London too, who is conducting composers symposiums at Yashraj, and facilitating records and hook-ups.
Western artistes come to India not just because of the music festivals here. I think the music speaks for itself.
Have you heard any of our Indie sounds, that might have left an impression?
In EDM, my favorite act remains Midival Punditz. When I am down in India, I make it a point to go blueFROG and Hard Rock Café and check the local music out. Since my parents live in Goa, I get to hear a lot of good music when I go visit them. India has some amazing sounds.
