MUMBAI: In the times of fast emerging new markets, a novel and lucrative one is steadily growing and making its place in the ever flourishing Indian music industry.
The music industry in India is estimated at more than Rs 5 billion (Rs 500 crores) at present. Though Bollywood music forms 60 per cent of that, the rest is divided into other genres including the international music albums.
Now, Universal Music in association with P9 Integrated wants to cash in on the non film music pie of the Indian music industry to market products. P9 Integrated’s Tejaswani Arvind says, “We want to help brands make sales through non film music and we want to exploit the big sales international albums make in India. At the moment the music industry attracts more than Rs 100 million worth of advertising revenue of which Rs 50 million is shared by international albums.”
Marketing via music is chiefly done by embedded content, which means a product’s salient information is featured inside the music pack and is also splashed on the cover at times. There are different methodologies implied for varied products. For example, a cell phone company will include the video of the song or offer ring tones of the music video to attract subscribers.
Another interesting aspect of the music marketing is the kind of ads that it attracts. The ads mostly belong to cell phone companies, liquors and apparels. “Though, the range of products is limited at the moment, it is slated to broaden in the coming time,” adds P9 CEO Navin Shah.
Throwing more light on the music marketing is Universal Music MD Rajat Kakkar says, “The music industry has a huge potential for advertising and we are yet to witness it. Now, our forthcoming releases will target the advertising potential more vigorously. We are starting with the international albums since they have a huge following in India.”
At present, the foreign albums account for only six per cent of total music sales in India. But, the other aspect of the reality is that the purchasing power of these six per cent is equal to the revenue generated by 30 per cent of Bollywood music sales.
Some of the upcoming releases of Universal Music on which many brands would be piggy riding include artists like; Rihanna, Bon Jovi, Sir Paul McCartney, 50 Cent, Mark Knopfler, Will I Am and Eminem.
