MUMBAI: The growing music industry has constantly attracted investors to invest in various areas of the industry- from live space to online properties. For many musicians and entrepreneurs involved in the music industry, looking for investment and understanding the mentality of the investor/s is critical. This was covered during the last session of the MRMC 2014.

The wrap-up of the conference ended on a serious note as panelists on the ‘Of All Things Finance’ session, moderated by IndianTelevision.com Group’s founder Anil Wanvari, addressed issues around investment in the industry. The panelist at the session was GSF founder Rajesh Sawhney, C.A Media India Advisors Pvt Ltd EVP operations Rishi Negi and Songdew Sunil Khanna.

Speaking about the music industry, Sawhney stated, “We are at a point of massive destruction.” He associated the destruction to the streaming sites, which are encouraging a business model that trains a whole new generation to use music without paying for it. There were many start-ups that GSF has invested in, in the past and had hoped to continue doing it. He believes in investing in multiple projects rather than one musicians or one project. “We want to venture into a space that has potential to grow exponentially. It is too much of a risk for us to fund one musician or project,” said Sawhney. Keeping this in mind, the company invested in Dreamworks and not just in movie.

Sawhney pointed out that the business model has become very complex because the music industry is getting disintegrated. He further added that musicians are becoming entrepreneurs as they promote their product among consumers now. He stressed that the industry can grow further if “new forms of finance wheels” could be put into place.

Negi believes that people want to venture into a space that will yield a product, and as investors they have to look at the various aspects of business. CA media has invested in OML, which holds a significant Indie live space.

Khanna, who has a television background before becoming an investor, invested into Songdew after he realised that the Indie music space started losing its charm due to lack of air-play on music channels.

Sawhney claimed that he has invested in the right people and will continue doing that.