[cr-india] "Radio should pay more for music"

[sajan venniyoor]

According to the rates negotiated by some particularly dim-witted element of
the CR fraternity, community radio stations in India will need to pay Rs.480
per needle-hour of music to PPL and IPRS. If the music content exceeds two
hours a day, we are told, there's an additional charge of 4% revenue share
as well. (The same brilliant negotiator also ensured that schools and
colleges - mostly profit making private institutions run by and for the
urban elite - pay only Rs.50,000 a year to IPRS, while rural NGOs have to
pay out three times that amount: Rs.150,000 per year. I don't remember any
NGO being consulted on this).

According to the story below, a commercial radio operator - with a range of
100 kilometres and unlimited commercial time - pays Rs.660 per needle hour
to PPL, and the commercial FM people find this extortionate.

To put things in perspective, ASCAP and BMI put together (the two major
music rights agencies in the US who represent several hundred thousand music
publishers, composers and songwriters between them, compared to the 137
music companies represented by PPL in India) charge just over two dollars
($2.019) from Low Power FM stations in the US. That's about Rs.80 day, or
Rs.6.73 per hour for 12 hours.

Correct me if I am wrong, but does this mean that a community radio station
in rural Jharkhand needs to pay 71 times more in music royalties than his
counterpart in urban New York?

Sajan
**
*Radio operators should pay more for music content: PPL
*
*By BIBHUTI BASNETH
Indiantelevision.com *(30 April 2008 3:00 pm)

NEW DELHI: With plummeting record sales, Phonographic Performance Ltd (PPL)
feels they are charging under reasonable limits for the music content to the
radio industry.

Says PPL CEO Vipul Pradhan, "Almost all the content that the radio plays is
music and we are charging only Rs 660 per needle hour, which I feel isn't
excessive by any means. The price was set by the government and I, myself,
am complaining about the rates fixed. If I were to set a rate for my
content, it would be no less than Rs 2,400 per needle hour."

Pradhan says that the Association of Radio Operators of India (AROI) is
acting like a shopper in Palika Bazaar trying to buy an article worth Rs 100
for Rs 50, not even realising that the marked price is beyond reasonable.

Complains T-Series president marketing, media and publishing (TV) Vinod
Bhanushali: "Because of the music that's been made available to general
public by the radio fraternity, our sales have been dropping. Unlike the TV
stations which play only a portion of the songs, the radio stations play the
entire thing. The royalty rates is fixed, whether the content comes from
T-Series or from any other sources."

The government has fixed Rs 660 as the tariff in 2001 and that the rates
haven't been revised since, adds Pradhan.

Reacting to Radio Mirchi's $1 million (Rs 40 million) offer of free
commercial time (FCT) to music companies for campaigning against piracy, PPL
feels that such a drive will not carry much weight.

Calling the Radio Mirchi's offer of FCT as a media gimmick, Pradhan says,
"No one has so far contacted us regarding the offer. Just making a public
statement is not enough. If the radio station is serious about its offer,
they should come forward and talk to us and get whatever they're looking for
from individual music companies."

He thinks that the radio industry may have some ulterior motive to the FCT
statement made at the Ficci Frames. Perhaps it is a means of pressurising
the government to allow them to air current affairs and news content.

Talking about piracy related issues, Pradhan feels that a more educated
action was required from all the bodies involved.
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