IMI: Piracy turns out major threat

Televisionpoint.com Correspondent | Chennai
Even though music listening has grown in every segment, the music industry is in the doldrums. Piracy is turning out to be a major threat and is killing the melody in the Indian music industry.

"The music industry has witnessed losses worth around Rs 600 crore for the current year due to piracy. Music pirates are like petty pickpockets who steal small quantity everyday." said V J Lazarus, president, Indian Music Industry (IMI), on the sidelines of a training programme conducted for Chennai police to raise awareness about Intellectual Property Rights.

"With just one CD writer, a pirate can burn 12 CDs in an hour. On average, one can produce 72,000 CDs per year. If one CD is sold for Rs 50, a CD writer can produce compact discs worth Rs 3,60,000, assuming that it can churn out 7,200 CDs in its lifetime." explains Lazarus.

"The Indian music industry is also making losses because of music downloads on mobile phones. The loss through mobile phones is estimated to be around Rs 300 crore per year, which is triple the revenue earned by the music industry a year." said Savio D'Souza, secretary general, IMI.

According to Televisionpoint.com Intelligence Unit (TIU) survey of the entertainment industry, the conventional music industry over the last year has actually shrunk to around Rs 740 crore, when in fact it should be a Rs 1,500 crore industry. The complete report is available to the media professionals on request.