MUMBAI: The coming year may give a much needed boost to the music fraternity as three different music awards: the Mirchi music awards (that started in 2008), IMA or Indian Music Academy Awards which is patronized by the likes of Pt. Jasraj and Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia, and another Indian Music Awards, which is conceptualized by four music driven media professionals - gear up to recognise talent.

If we have a look at one of the music awards of the past, MTV property IMMIES instantly comes to mind - perhaps one of the foremost awards that recognized non-film categories in music. However, the IMMIES had to be discontinued after 2003. Reasons would be many – major music channels had started to drift towards becoming GECs, and to add to its woes, Indian pop music was on a downward spiral.

Today, more than 75 per cent of music releases are Bollywood titles, with the result that music awards have become an extension of the Hindi film industry.

When the IMMIES were around, it had categories like Best Performance in a Song (Male) which often went to -Shah Rukh Khan or Best performance in a Song (Female) which was bagged by the likes of Yana Gupta. Those days maybe over, but the Bollywoodisation in music awards hasn't stopped 

One of the most recent music awards to have caught the attention of the music industry are the Mirchi Music Awards - property of the popular radio station Radio Mirchi. When Mirchi started the Mirchi Music awards, it had senior members of the music fraternity partaking in the nomination process - and there is a reason for doing this, says Radio Mirchi chief operating officer Tapas Sen. I think most awards didn't last too long because they didn't have the blessings of the music fraternity. However, right from the inception of the Mirchi Music awards, we wanted the music industry to own the awards – so, Mirchi awards are by the music industry, of the music industry and for the music industry,... explains Sen.

The Mirchi awards are now moving into the second year in March 2010, but a question mark hangs over the event - will they include non-film music?  Maybe,... says Sen. We don't want to bite off more than we can chew. For us, it's not a one night event and we will be developing the awards over a period of seven to eight years – we aim to make the awards like the Grammies by then, so we are taking one step at a time,... he says. However, starting this year, Mirchi will be recognising music coming from down south too.

The second announcement of music awards came from IMA or Indian Music Academy Awards, who have been working on encouraging and promoting music since 2006. IMA's latest was the national level talent hunt that gave away scholarships to not one but six winners recently. Apparently, there are some similarities between the Indian Music Academy Awards and the Indian Music Awards as far as the concept goes, but Art & Artiste director Durga Jasraj remains unperturbed about the competition or the similarity, I think it's great that more people are organising music awards – more the merrier – but our perspective will be very different. Music is something that we work on 24/7. All I can say is that for us, the awards are not a one night affair,... she adds.

The latest entrants in the fray, Indian Music Awards director Pranayy J Anthwal says, "I believe we were the first one to announce that we would be recognising music from across genres because when we did our research, there was no one else. If other awards have now included non-film genres then it's great for the industry because more people will come into the fray and it's the music community which will benefit from this as each award will then strive to do its best." Indian Music Awards is conceptualised by a four member group of passionate music and media professionals namely Pranayy J Anthwal, Jatish Varma, Sameer Dixit and Shokat Babul.

Minor controversies aside, the good news is that the organisers are trying to look beyond and create a future for music. Apparently, all the three music awards would be turning their spotlight on the music makers in the coming year and most likely in the first quarter of 2010 and that too in Mumbai. The awards are working on a wide pan of categories that just don't focus on singers or composers but also sound engineers and arrangers. If media reports are to be believed, these awards will be on the lines of Grammy awards and will be inclusive of all genres of music. Though this sounds great, musicians are not as excited - "Well, they are all the same" is their common sentiment 

Known as the urban balladeer and the face of independent music, Rabbi Shergill sounds excited on being told about the awards, but his excitement dies down after he comes to know they will all be held in Mumbai. Shergill says, "Mumbai cannot be the hub of independent music - there's too much of Bollywood there. No matter how much the awards focus on non-film, the Bollywood angle somehow creeps in," he sighs  

If we look back the way film awards have fared, it's usually one film that bags all the awards, says composer Vivek Phillip. You will see the same film getting all the awards. Of course, it's good for someone who is receiving it, but they appear the same. I think for music, each of these awards needs to have some uniqueness or some USP," he suggests 

Sitar maestro Niladri Kumar says he would rather choose to perform than collecting awards. "I will never attend an award just to show myself. I would rather do a concert because for me playing music is more important than collecting awards," he shares. Echoes Kerci Lord, a well known senior musician and arranger, "It's a money spinning business. They (awards) want to create TV software, just like reality shows....

If we delve a little further into the business aspect, a senior event management head, who has organized several awards ceremonies says, An award function can cost up to 30-40 millions depending on the scale of the event. The organizers make profit from satellite rights of the ceremony and make a minimum profit of 15 percent from that alone....

But perhaps the question to ponder is why India, in spite of its rich musical culture and heritage, did not have any music awards yet. "In Indian music fraternity there is no real organization of people and in order to have credible awards you need someone with drive and deep pockets. But the question is not why we didn't have music awards. The question is why we didn't have a flourishing independent music scene," sums up Shergill.

Kerci Lord, who is known to call spade a spade, hammers the final nail, "All the awards are rigged and I don't believe in them. I think public appreciation is the real award," he concludes.