Higher Audio Rates are Ruining Market, says Aditya Music\'s Umesh Gupta

Umesh Gupta, who owns the top brand Aditya Music, welcomes producers to the audio domain as they can understand the business much better. He claims that audio rates have touched the roof, making it difficult for individual makers to recover their money. “Higher audio rates are ruining the market,” he says in a chit-chat with Deccan Chronicle.

Leading production house Vyjayanthi Movies are arriving in the audio industry? Aren’t you worried?

We welcome popular producers into the audio business, and we are happy that Vyjayanthi Movies is joining the party. They will understand the pros and cons of the audio business, and it augurs well for the industry. As audio companies are entering film production, we don’t mind producers stepping into the audio industry. In a digital era, young producers are finding it easy to launch their audio labels and trying to expand their business interests. Earlier, Suresh Productions launched its label as SP Music, so there is nothing new about producers getting into the audio business.

Aren’t you worried about the growing competition? We heard that audio rights are sold for Rs 18 cr per film, unlike Rs 2 or 3 crore in the past.

We are not worried about competition because there is enough space for everyone in Tollywood. But I am more anxious about the rates touching the roof and making recovery very difficult. I can’t quote figures, but the audio rates have gone up by 10 to 15 times and have disturbed our market a bit. The rates are so high that it is becoming difficult to cover our investments even if the songs are chartbusters. Just imagine the plight of audio companies if star-studded film bombs at the box office, and there were few big disasters in recent times. I hope producers will re-think audio rates and make business more viable for us.

Bollywood audio companies like Sony Music and Saregama are making inroads into Tollywood.

We know that many Bollywood audio companies are rushing to the south and Tollywood, hoping that every film will be another ‘RRR or ‘KGF’ but this is not true. Just recently, a few star films that rocked at the Telugu box office bombed in Bollywood. Hence, it is just a myth that all Telugu films have pan-India appeal, barring a few movies. The game of the audio business has not changed much because individuals cannot recover their investments while we are surviving. After all, we have 3000-odd movies, and our catalogs are helping us out.

On changed market strategy and the days of platinum functions?

Those golden days are gone, and we must adapt to new-age marketing. We used to release the audio three months before the release of star films, and audiences would step into theatres humming those songs. We celebrated varied platinum disc functions after counter sales crossed Rs 1 lakh or 2 lakh. Nowadays, songs are uploaded on digital platforms, and reactions of good and bad are much faster. With cassettes and CDs going out of fashion, we must recover through streaming and millions of views. However, we are game for new strategies and following the same to keep our legacy flying high.