MUMBAI: Cine Musicians Association (CMA) has debuted its presence, albeit in a small way, on the world wide web.
The association recently launched its official website that aims at helping the members of CMA to network and also update them on the happenings of CMA and the music industry.
Member of the CMA managing committee Hemant Trivedi says, “I had several meetings with the CMA members and told them about having a web presence. I convinced them about how it will help the musicians to network and facilitate easy communication. Though the move comes a bit late, we have to move ahead with times,” he says. In addition, CMA is also guiding the non-initiated members to use the Internet. “Some musicians get intimated by technology, but if they can master an instrument, learning just to ‘click’ should not be really difficult for them,” Trivedi feels.
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One of the main advantages of having the website is to let the common man, industry professionals and the production houses to get in touch with the musicians directly. “Most musicians get work through co-coordinators, they have to be paid commission (that is the industry practice) but many co-coordinators also turn out to be frauds,” he says. “On cinemusiciansassociation.com, we have put up the names of the members along with their contact details and area of specialisation to facilitate easy communication – now anybody can get in touch with them. The website also has a rate card for different categories of projects which gets upgraded every year,” he says
Presently, the CWA is in talks with music stores, Bhargava Musik and Furtados, for sponsorship to maintain the website, “We are not into profit making, we just want the website to have a sustained presence and have some sponsors enough to pay for expenses like the domain space and site maintenance,” Trivedi says
The association that presently boasts of 1000 members is one of the largest organised musicians’ associations in South-East Asia – this was also one of the reasons, it got a complimentary space at the Palm Expo 2009. Some of the key members are veteran musicians Haripraad Chaurasia, Shiv Kumar Sharma and Pyarelal Sharma.
Trivedi says, “One of our main agenda is to get the economical conditions of musicians secured,” and this has direct co-relation with conservation of art, he feels. Parents today do not encourage kids to take up music as a profession – it’s just a hobby because many believe this profession doesn’t pay consistently – If we do not change this mindset, where will we get our future generation of musicians from?” he questions
The CMA which is registered under the Indian Trade Union Act (1926) has been formed by its pioneer members in the year 1952. The association is also affiliated to the Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE) which is the parent body comprising 22 associations like those of singers, dancers, actors, writers, technicians etc who has been serving the Indian Film Industry from its very advent. The current President chair is headed by Bhushan Chawla.
