Being an Independent Artist in India

I am an Independent artist and I was not aware of this term before I landed in Canada. So, let me explain what it means in simple words, for those who are not aware of this term. An Independent Artist is someone who is not affiliated with a Music Company or a Record Label, produces his/her own music and reaches out to his/her audience directly.

Independent Music is an essential part of the music industry in Europe, North America and Australias. An Independent Artist gets an almost equal exposure to a Record Label backed artist on in radio, print or TV media in Australias, North America and Europe and there are no differences between an independent artist and a label backed artists in terms of awards eligibility (Grammy etc.). In fact, there are several separate Indie Awards too where only Independent Artists are eligible and record label backed artists are not allowed to participate.

Why am I telling you all this? I will try to explain. I have published three full length music albums so far, all of them from Canada. When my first music album ‘Meera The Lover’ was published in 2009, I had never thought of making it available in India. However, after the popularity of ‘Meera The Lover’ in North America and rest of the world, there was an increased demand from my fans in India, to make it available for them as well. So I started looking at ways to do so. But I was frustrated to know that there was almost no way for an artist to release their work directly in India and that they must go through a label. So, we got into talks with one of the biggest record labels in India. They liked my album and agreed to release it in India through their label I was very thrilled by this, but did not like the contract I was given to sign, because it was too restrictive and required me to give up my rights to all the albums to the label, so I didn’t go for it. At that time (in 2009-2010), it was a standard practice for the labels to assume all rights to the music of their artists. However, later in 2012, things had changed a bit and with some efforts, I got a Record Label who agreed to let me keep all rights to my album and agreed to enter into an agreement for distribution only through digital platforms such as Gaana, Saavn, iTunes India, Wynk etc. and physical music stores such as Landmark, Crosswords etc. A little later, I released my second music album ‘Monologues’ in 2013 from Canada, which was also made available in India through the same Record Label and that too for distribution only both on digital platforms and physical stores. I even had some interviews with leading FM channels such as Radio City, My Fm etc. and they played the songs from my new album too. I was happy that things have finally changed. But when I released my third music album ‘Parallels’ in 2016 and , again wanted to make it available in India, so I went there and set up everything through the digital platforms directly, without even going through a record label. Following this, I contacted the same FM channels who had interviewed me earlier and played my songs. But this time they said they don’t entertain non-Bollywood artists. I was puzzled and frustrated too. I probed further and finally understood the reason why they did not want to air any non-Bollywood songs, and I would like to share with you all because I believe you must know what is happening.

Initially, when music and cinema started in India, there were Music Companies such as HMV, EMI, Polydor, Columbia etc. who produced music and Movie Production houses such as RK Studios, Navketan Films etc. who produced movies. Music Companies had all the facilities such as recording studios and infrastructure to promote their music on Radio, TV, print media etc. Music Companies used to produce both film and non-film songs and we were able to listen to both types of music (film and non-film songs) which were sold on Vinyl records which an individual can’t reproduce at home. So, if two neighbours wanted to listen to a music, both of them had to purchase separate vinyl records. Because of this, we got an opportunity to listen to non-film artists such as Jagjit Singh-Chitra Singh, Anup Jalota, Pankaj Udhas, , Sharon Prabhakar, Shweta Shetty, Suchitra Krishnamoorthy, , Kailash Kher, Shaan, etc. Even film music artists such as Mohd. Rafi, Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle etc. recorded non-film music which was released by big labels. This continued until mid eighties.

In late eighties and early nineties, technology changed and cassette tapes were introduced. Music Companies also started publishing their music in cassettes and the market for vinyl records started going down. Looking at the opportunity, Some new companies started manufacturing and selling blank cassettes such as T Series, Sony etc. Now an individual could buy a blank cassette and fill it with his/her choice of songs from a local music store. Suddenly, a large chunk of money started going to the cassette manufacturing companies, and not to the music companies who released the music. The cassette manufacturers started getting richer and eventually decided to become Music Companies themselves. Big companies such as HMV, Polydor, EMI, Columbia started having a tough time. Still. Both – the old music companies as well as the new cassette companies continued producing both filmy and non-filmy songs and we could listen to some great artists.

Technology changed further and CDs came into picture along with CD replication being possible on computers, which further hit the old music companies. But the CDs too, lasted only fora very short period as very soon MP3/WAV downloadable files were available on digital platforms such as iTunes, Gaana, Saavn etc. Slowly, even the downloads became almost free as people used to pay only once and share songs with their friends and family for free. Let me ask you, when did you buy music last? At least not in last 4-5 years, right? So now Music Companies were losing money instead of making it. Even the new cassette and CD manufacturing companies stopped making money through selling music. However, they were in better shape than the old music companies. So, a lot of old Music Companies such as HMV, EMI, Polydor etc,. got absorbed by now rich T-Series, Sony and new enterprises such as SaReGaMa, Venus, Times, Zee etc. The new companies saw no incentive in doing only music because of the losses, and decided to become movie production houses themselves. Now, since, these Music Companies moved to Movie Production, it made sense for them to promote their movies through their movie songs. So, they started buying all available slots on Radio FM channels, TV and print media. Hence, now all FM and TV channels play only movie songs and all print media prints only movie related news because they get paid. Now there is no place for non-film songs on any media. That’s why we don’t hear anything non-film songs these days and that’s why in 2016, Radio channels refused to interview me or play songs from my new album songs.

Naive artists in India still believe that someone will give a chance to them. There are a lot of very good Independent artists but they don’t get any acknowledgment unless they find a way to get a chance to sing in a movie produced by one of the big labels who are now movie production houses. The big labels understand this, and literally sell the opportunities to sing a song on their banner to the aspiring artists. So, the music companies that paid money for playback singing, now ask for money from singers, because they know that all the slots or radio, TV and print media belong to them. The audience doesn't know all this. All they hear are the same songs played repeatedly on radio, TV and hear the stories about same songs and artists on print media, so they naturally believe that the artist must be really good. If a good artist releases their own song, it never gets aired on radio or TV, and there are no stories on print media. The audience believes that since they haven’t heard about these artists on radio or TV or in any newspaper, they must be really bad. But now there is social media, which cannot be fooled. I believe that this is the best time for the Independent artists as they can publish their songs directly on social media and there is no mid-man between an artist and it’s audience. All that needs to happen is that the audience needs to break free from the shackles of the big labels who feed them garbage on radio, TV and print media through dictatorial promotion. The audience must learn to appreciate good music irrespective of who has released it. Once that happens, and it will happen very soon, the golden days of non-film music will return, and we will again have amazing artists such as Jagjit Singh ji, Pankaj Udhas ji, Anup Jalota ji etc.

~ Vandana Vishwas