To cap off a busy summer that has seen us at Brighton Music Conference, Liverpool Sound City, The Great Escape, MIDEM and in Los Angeles, the end of August saw me spend two weeks in India at our Mumbai office. It’s always enlightening to visit India as it’s a country with a music scene that’s just as vibrant as its food, textiles and architecture.
Whilst in Mumbai, it was a great opportunity to catch up with some of the songwriters based there that are signed to the Anara Publishing roster. I had the chance to sit down and catch up with Anurag Shanker, Siddharth Basrur and Tejas Menon. They are all working on new music so watch this space for more news! Along with the rest of our roster, they are always open to collaborations so if any songwriters are interested in writing with the Anara Publishing roster based in India, get in touch with us.
Bollywood and beyond
The first word that you think of when you think of Indian film is probably Bollywood. This is a thriving industry which accounts for around 95% of the Indian Box Office. But, there are also a number of independent productions that are now being made locally in India for platforms such as Netflix and Amazon Prime. Myself and Malini visited a number of these production houses working across film, tv, commercials and web series in order to promote our roster and source new licensing opportunities.
My second week in Mumbai was spent as part of a larger UK delegation for the Department of International Trade’s (DIT) music mission to India. Each year the DIT partners with UK music trade organisations the BPI, AIM and the MPA to bring together UK companies and give them a better understanding of the Indian market. Whilst we have been working in India since our launch, we always feel that attending these trade missions is beneficial in order to keep up to date with what is happening in the market. It is also a good opportunity to connect with fellow UK companies and this year we were also joined by a delegation from Norway.
The trade mission itself comprised of a variety of events. This included talks with companies from within different sectors of the Indian music industry such as those working at streaming platforms, publishing companies and in the live industry. We were also invited to a networking reception at the Royal Norwegian Consulate to connect with companies from Norway and India.
All About Music
The focal point of the trade mission week was the All About Music Conference. This has become an event not to miss as it brings together the whole music industry based in India. Whilst there, I took part in the “Meet the UK” speed networking session, where delegates were invited to come and speak to me about our music publishing services and I was able to meet a large number of independent composers and songwriters. All About Music is a dynamic, lively event full of stimulating and important conversations, so it will certainly be something that is part of our conference calendar moving forwards.
Whilst music publishing isn’t as established as it is elsewhere in the west and there are still challenges in this market, I have come back to the UK energised and excited about the many opportunities that are in India.