Music is a passionate art form, but it is also
a cut-throat business. How do you balance
these two? Does your personal taste ever come
in the way of your businessstrategies?
First of all, from the time I started my business, I have
put away my personal taste in music. I have constantly
tuned my ears to what the public likes to listen. It is
difficult to run a music label in India if you don’t have
an ear sense and aren’t hands on. Mine developed as per
the taste of listeners and that has helped us grow so far.
Content has always been important and relevant in
our business. I keep tuning my ears constantly.
You took the reins of a successful business at
a very young age. How did you deal with the
pressure of following your father’s footsteps?
The power my dad gave me, till today, has been the
guiding force behind this music business. I am just
running it on his behalf. I have always told everyone
that my father is the actual owner of the business and
I am just running it for him. At the age of 19, I was a
total newcomer. There was a lot of pressure. I got great
support from my uncle, mother, wife, sister and we
have very old staff who have been with us for several
years. My father ran the company for 15 years but I
have been running it already for about 20 years now.
Your father was a walking, talking music machine
who was always relentless in his efforts to
produce trailblazing music content. Is it safe
to say that Bhushan Kumar is a fastidious,
workaholic business mogul just like his father?
I just follow my father’s footsteps. The only difference
is that I take decisions after much thought while he
was very quick in taking decisions. Of course, 90 per
cent of his decisions were always successful. You
can certainly say that I’m working just like him.
In the post #MeToo India, there’s a growing
demand for equal rights for women inworkplace,
including stringent policies and rights?
What’s T-Series’ stand on these issues?
We follow all guidelines as mandated by law. There are
systems and processes in place to deal with such issues.
Our office is a comfortable and safe environment for
women. People who start working with us, never leave
us. We have women who have been working with us for
15 odd years. We conduct meetings with associations and
do our best to ensure our employees feel safe and secure.
People in the industry claim that T-Series controls
a large percentage of the market share in themusic
industry in India. How much of that is true?
Does that means that T-Series has a monopoly
over the market and no label or producer can
become successful without its intervention?
That is not true at all. The percentage keeps on changing.
If I have Bollywood music coming at a stretch in
one go, my percentage will increase. It is not fair to
say that we are a monopoly in India. For most films
that I am producing, the music is done by me. That
does not mean that outsiders are not making music.
There are other music labels buying other music
too. I know what my listeners want and make music
accordingly. It is all about entertaining people. We
make non film music that is stronger than Bollywood
music. Today there are no means of calculating
market share. If you see our radio play out to see
how many T-Series songs play in a day, sometimes,
it is 50, and other times it could be 30 or 40 also.
Earlier it was based on how many cassettes we sold
and our sales were the maximum compared to other
labels. But today, if you are listening on a streaming
site like Jio, Saavn and have listened to 15 songs, the
probability of T-Series songs being played is only five.
The home-grown music scene has seen surge in
the number of Independent music labels these
days. What advice would you give young label
owners to become as successful as you?
Being a big music label has a lot to do with your
catalogue. It is not impossible but is definitely
difficult. For a big label also to become profitable
immediately or even in five years is difficult. We
have made a catalogue in over 35 years. Sixty per cent
of your revenue comes because of your catalogue.
I have seen many labels that were launched but
had to close as they were not able to sustain.
With the growing influence of streaming
services like YouTube, Apple music and
Spotify inIndia, how has the revenue model
for big labels like yours has evolved?
It is a very good sign! Earlier, we were fighting
with websites like songs.pk, who were generating
revenues from advertisers. It is a great thing that
now we have streaming sites like Youtube, Spotify,
Gaana, Wynk etc who are legal and give correct
revenues. In the earlier days, we were dependent on
distributors and now it’s easy to serve our listeners
through these platforms. Music business has grown
to a large extent. It is systematic, well-planned and we
get proper reports. Now, we just need to concentrate
on content across different languages and genres.
We are also making films with all actors present at
the moment. We have about 20 releases this year!
Yours is the only Indian label to have paid a
great deal of effort and resources into publishing
religious and devotional genres of music. Where
do these genres fare in terms of revenue output?
Devotional is a great deal for us. My father has made
everything possible in devotional music. There is nothing
for us to make now as he has made everything! He was
the first to make aartis available to people. He came
up with a concept for the old people who couldn’t read
books, instead made it in an audio form for them. That’s
the way Gayathrimanthra, Mrithunjaymanthra came in.
Today, we have them all available online and are listened
The
Score Magazine
highonscore.com
13