MUSIC SPECIAL..Music is alive

Music Is Alive

Depending on which part of the music ecosystem you belong to, it’s either the best or the worst of times. It’s tough for niche genres, record labels and stores that rely on physical formats. It’s a great time for large concert organisers, mobile device manufacturers and brands, all of whom are nimbly adapting to the new realities of how music is heard, shared and even created

    The year has begun with bad news for the near-century old HMV Group, best known for its logo of a dog listening to music on a gramophone. Crumbling under the weight of soaring debts, it is in serious danger of going belly up. The HMV logo itself has become a harbinger of things to come — a reminder of a rapidly fading era of physical music records — as consumers go digital.
    Conversely, the industry in India, once a target for stray shows by global artistes at the fag end of their careers, is seeing unprecedented growth. Even as attempts are made to resuscitate the HMV empire, in India music is riding the online and digital explosion — and brands are tripping over themselves to get a slice of the action.
    Their reason to focus on music, especially live gigs? The fertile target group that these events offer, as spendthrift attendees aged 18-40 throng the venues and give these firms a readymade audience for their products. As music has moved online, Indians have also matured in their listening habits, catalysing musicians to not just belt out covers of much loved western bands but push more of their own material to an increasingly curious public.
    "Of late, the indigenous music scene has evolved dramatically," says Homi Battiwalla, senior director — marketing (colas, juices & hydration), PepsiCo India. The company, which shot to fame with its ad jingle ‘Yehi hai right choice baby’ (featuring Remo Fernandes and Juhi Chawla), has made significant investments in music in India.
    Pepsi has backed the dub station at the NH7 Weekender, where young and established DJs play their tunes and supports both global acts such as Swedish House Mafia — whose farewell tour resulted in wild euphoria and winding traffic jams — and sponsors college festivals, which are the proving ground for upcoming talent. “I think Pepsi stands for pop culture. Without music the whole space is incomplete,” adds Battiwala.
    As the music scene has evolved, it is competing with traditional forms of entertainment such as Bollywood and cricket. “People are willing to pay big bucks for a concert today,” says Vijay Nair of OML, the firm that organises the Bacardi NH7 Weekender. “Where they once spent 100 for an Indian Ocean ticket, they are willing to dish out 2,000- 3,000 for a well run show,” he adds.
    Clearly, there's plenty of enthusiasm to go around. Nair expected to get not more than 10,000 attendees at the Pune leg of his weekend festival, but was astonished to see over three times that number show up. He says that the interest from brands has grown ten-fold. Rather than having to pursue them, as was the case several years ago, the brands themselves are approaching organisers.
    After hosting top DJs at the wildly popular Sunburn (some 100,000 people attended in 2011 and over 150,000 in 2012), Shailendra Singh, joint MD of Percept thinks that music as a branding vehicle has finally come of age. “What options do you have besides movies and cricket in India?” Singh recently contended. “For marketers, this is an opportunity to get the ideal audience to sell their products.” While Pepsi may have had a dub station at the NH7, other brands such as Tuborg, Canon, Absolut and Micromax too have piled on to the opportunity that live music represents. From a time back in 2008-09 when the music scene was dominated by a couple of shows and venues the market has literally exploded, with some 40 or 50 concerts expected to take place this year
    Music is also taking centre stage at the Sulafest in early February. Sula, a maker of wine, thinks it has a winning idea — market wine and wine country tourism as a luxury offering and promote music as a welcome accompaniment. Attendees tend to agree. From barely 300 people in 2008 for a single day event, Sulafest attracted 8,500 people last year. Brands such as Cadbury, Budweiser and even Rolls Royce and Peninsula Land have all backed this fest. The Brands Begin To Play
    It isn't live performances alone that are attractive. Proliferation of internet access — both wired broadband and more recently on mobile phones — has been a game changer in the industry. The ability to (legally) distribute content online (via YouTube and digital platforms such as Gaana, Saavn and others) has allowed musicians to reach a wider and more willing audience for their tunes.
    These numbers are music to brand managers ears. According to Nair of OML, some 80 different brand managers made a beeline for his Pune show and he's personally spoken to some 50 of them. The opportunity to follow the changing preferences of their target audience, was reason enough. “Music is a common language for India's youth,” says Manish Seth, director - sales and marketing for Bacardi India.
    Bacardi, for example, is using multiple brands to tap this opportunity. While brand Bacardi itself is now best known for supporting the NH7 Weekender, an electronic dance music fest, it is also leveraging its other brands to support this music revolution — Dewars with ‘The Dewarists’ a music collaboration show and Eristoff Invasion Tour for global acts such as David Guetta. "Each of our brands is sharply positioned to target this opportunity," says Seth.
    Beverage giant Coca-Cola was one of the earliest firms to spot this opportunity with its Coke Studio initiative. "When young people are interested in music, you have to give them something they don't already have. They are more interested in music than in consumption of any beverage," says KV 'Pops' Sridhar, chief creative officer at Leo Burnett, who helped devise this show’s desi avatar . "Coke had to find a purpose to enrich people's lives and is leveraging the enormous power of music."
    To try to make this connection, Coke Studio went from being Bollywood heavy in the first season to being more experimentative from the season two onwards. Coke expanded its reach using national broadcaster Doordarshan, added DTH platforms, made a big push on YouTube. And catered to the real world as well with live concerts. "In season 3, we have to rediscover ourselves and are in the process of making the platform broader to get a lot more first timers in," says Sridhar.
    But what do brands gain from this association? Many like Leo Burnett's Sridhar candidly confess that drawing a correlation between activity and market share is difficult. He explains, "It's not a direct corelation. I bring enormous happiness to your life and so you value me and keep my company. We are not talking to SEC A 18 + consumers and telling them to drink Coke, but giving them something unique and allowing them to participate. This brand was there before. What is new is the music."
rahul.sachitanand@timesgroup.com 

Rahul Sachitanand  ET 130130

When young people are interested in music, you have to give them something they don't already have. They are more interested in music than in consumption of any beverage
    K V Sridhar