MUMBAI: Times Music CEO Mandar Thakur gave a brave reply on being questioned by Bigg Boss fame Pooja Mishra at the recently held FICCI Framed 2019. He was a part of an intriguing session titled, Let's Dance to the New Beat: Will India face the music, when Pooja quizzed him, 'if a record label takes care of licensing, IPRS post signing an artist?'

Thakur staunchly replied, “The record company is not the artists whole and sole. The record companies job is to market the record of that artist and to ensure royalties flow back. It is the job of the artist and his/her manager to do everything else including the showcase, IPRS, copyrights.”

He further gave some valuable suggestions to artists to enhance their career. He shared, "Artists need to invest in the eco-system, go find a lawyer,  invest money in yourself and don’t come to us on your own to negotiate a contract. It can’t be an emotional discussion." 

Go find a manager and not a moneger. There is a large difference between somebody who manages your show and somebody who gets you a career. Most people have agents posting as managers. So, if an artist makes these kind of investments, you are actually making an investment in yourself," he said, while citing difference between a manager and a monegar. 

Lastly, clarifying on the role played by IPRS in safeguarding music created by an artist, he concluded, "IPRS is like a stalk exchange. IPRS will not protect your stock, their job is to collect royalties from people wherever your song is publicly performed and remain those back to you."

The other members on the panel were Spotify managing director Amarjeet Batra, One Digital Entertainment co-founder and COO Gurpreet Singh, music composer, singer Tony Kakkar, and choreographer and influencer Melvin Louis.