Sony Music rocks to cash-counter jingle, eyes more movie rights

Sees 50 pc jump in revenues as K3G, Lagaan prove money-spinners

Krishna Gopalan in Mumbai

Sony Music Entertainment India will acquire the music rights of two to three Hindi films during the current year. The company is expected to begin discussions with producers over the next few months.

“The cost of acquiring the rights to Hindi films have stabilised and rational pricing prevails,” said Shridhar Subramaniam, Director - Marketing, Sony Music. According to him, the cost will depend on the kind of producers Sony Music is willing to work with.

Sony Music India’s revenues for the third quarter ended December 31, 2001, are expected to be about 50 percent higher than the corresponding quarter for the previous financial year. A large chunk of this is expected to come from the sale of the music of “Kabhi Kushi Kabhie Gum.”

The company’s other plans will be to push “Mega” which is Sony Music’s brand for the devotional category. “We are also bringing to the market a variety of local music that includes Dance Masti and an album with Javed Akhtar,” he said. Mr Subramaniam clarified that his company was not looking at acquiring any music labels during the current year.

“Sony Music had three big Hindi film releases during 2001 - “Lagaan”, “Asoka” and “K3G.” Sources in the music industry have indicated that Sony Music acquired the rights for “K3G” for about Rs 10 crore.

“We will be breaking even on the project over the next few days,” said Mr Subramaniam. The music for the film has so far recorded a total sale of 4.8 million which comprises music cassettes and compact discs (CDs). Music cassettes accounted for 97 per cent of total sales while CDs contributed the remainder.

Sony Music’s biggest musical hit to date has been “Kuch Kuch Hota Hai” which sold in excess of seven million units. “We are confident of K3G overtaking that figure and becoming the year’s biggest hit,” he said. He added that sales for K3G have been around 1.5 million units per month.

“Lagaan”, the other big release from Sony Music has clocked sales of 3.2 million units. “Effectively, ‘Lagaan’ and K3G have together sold approximately eight million units during 2001,” Mr Subramaniam said. While emphasising that acquisition costs seem to have finally ‘rationalised’, he added that there was a market for good quality music and the question was how to make money out of it.