MUMBAI: Indian Music Industry is currently valued at approximately at 850 crores, which is still behind neighbouring country, China, whose music industry is currently valued at 1000 crores.  China's Music Industry was marred with piracy; 99% of their market was consumed by piracy eight years ago. However, today in 2018, the piracy in the market has collapsed.  The general conception is that the Chinese government took measures to clean up the dirt. Fact says that industry players came together to frame policies and fight the mammoth obstacle of piracy. International Federation of Phonographic Industry Regional Director Kwee Tiang Ang, who is popularly known as KT, recently shared pointers of how China fought with obstacles and make music industry a profitable business for every stakeholder.

-  Tencent, the streaming giant of China, has exclusive tie-ups with all major three labels in the industry.

-  Chinese Industry has moved to subscription industry and that has helped.

-  Chinese Music Industry is also taking efforts to monetise the shift of free to paid music. A recent survey showed that 90% of internet users use license audio streaming services.

-  Last year, recorded-music revenues in China grew by to $292.3m.

-  Within that, streaming revenues grew by 26.5% to $204.5.

In any case of a cross-over between India and China, the speaker also pointed out that Indian movies have fund strong grounds, with movies like Dangal and 3 Idiots collected amazing box-office money, unlike the Indian music. Indian classical music is the most unlikely to find an audience in China. Open collaboration is quite sought after in China, therefore Indian rap would find high interests. 

While agreeing to that fact that exclusivity of going into these platforms is not necessarily a correct deal, but in China, these deals, were game changers. Indian market can, thus, have improved ways to license with streaming services to make it more profitable.

The dream for Indian Music Industry to rank in the top ten by 2022, doesn’t seem far-fetched, however, necessary steps have to be taken to attain this target in the near future.