MUMBAI: Besides licencing organizations and societies of the Indian music industry, prominent playback singers of the country have also put on their sleeves to combat rampant piracy.
For this year’s World IP Day on 26 April, leading vocalists of the country like Sonu Nigam, Mohit Chauhan, Shaan, Shankar Mahadevan, Kailash Kher and Sunidhi Chauhan have come out and rendered a musical anthem to make their fans realize the importance of their creativity. The anthem titled, ‘Salaami Ho Jaye’ is created on the music compositions of noted composer Shamir Tandon.
The multi-singer/collaborative song is a one-of-a-kind initiative of Flipkart’s recently launched digital music store, Flyte. The anthem will release on Universal Music and will be available as a free download on the music store .
The anthem is a positive counterpoint to online piracy by focusing on celebrating Indian music artistes’ creativity. The song’s lyrics appeal to the fans to support and respect the intellectual property (IP) rights of their favorite artistes by opting for legal avenues to buy music.
Besides leading singers, Zanai Bhosle, Asha Bhonsle’s granddaughter, has also sung the last few lines, making her debut with the anthem.
“As per the recent FICCI reports, the illegal music industry in the country is ten times the size of the legal music industry. One of the critical steps towards reducing piracy is to make consistent access to legal digital content available. That is what we hope to achieve with Flyte. With this song, we hope to sincerely appeal to fans who hold their musical idols in very high esteem- asking them to respect the creativity of these artistes by supporting legitimate ways of acquiring music”, said Flipkart VP – digital Sameer Nigam.
Universal Music India head of digital & business development Ashish Joshi said, “When Flipkart came up with the idea of launching their digital store, Flyte, it was a natural association with the brand to come up with a song that inspires music lovers to acquire music through legal routes. As a music label, it is a matter of pride to be a part of an initiative which talks about saluting the creative fraternity and cherishing their efforts, thereby taking a positive approach to combat piracy. Globally, this is the first time that the biggest artistes of an industry have come together with an anthem of this nature to inspire music fans to go legal.”