Almost two years ago, producer Vashu Bhagnani, known for adopting unique promotional strategies for his films, declared that the music of his then upcoming film 'F.A.L.T.U' would not see a physical release (CDs/Cassettes) for itself. While some raised eyebrows at this statement, others lauded his decision to do so as they felt it would curb down the rate of music piracy. That's another thing that Mr. Bhagnani did release the Music CDs exclusively at a leading music retail chain (Planet M) sometime later.

        Piracy is a virus that has infected the Indian Film Industry in a rather big way in the last decade or so. I remember I was in second standard when a neighbour, few years older to me, who also was a close friend, had brought a CD which had many as 90+ songs at Rs.30 . I was shocked as I knew that Audio CDs come nowhere less than Rs. 100. The only Audio CD we had had then was that of 'Devdas' (Universal Music) which was priced at Rs. 75 (introductory price is what the CD Jacket screamed out). I preferred buying cassettes which used to cost between Rs.55-60. As I grew up, I learnt about piracy. Today, when piracy, in the Indian market, at its peak; when pirated CDs/VCDs/DVDs are being sold at the price of candies, how many people would actually feel 'morally correct' to buy original CDs/VCDs/DVDs at exorbitant prices. No, I am not someone who supports piracy. I detest it. But, at the same time, I wish to pose a question to the producers/music companies-'How many people can afford to buy or would be willing to shell out 100+ bucks to buy CDs/VCDs/DVDs?' These days more and more producers are releasing the music of their films exclusively on the internet,(case in point being Race 2, Jayanta Bhai Ki Luv Story) hoping to put across the music of their films by making the listener pay for it, in other words, to curb Piracy. I wonder HOW? Internet is the hub of piracy today. Films, music...everything gets uploaded on illegal/illegitimate websites making internet users to download the same from them absolutely free of cost. Of course, there are legal sites to download music/ films from, but the number of people visiting the illegal websites are far greater in number. Even if the producers release their music exclusively on the legal websites, within no time the same are available for download on illegal websites. Songs are recorded in 16 bits and are released on the Audio CDs as such. However, songs releasing in Mp3 format over the internet are far from such clarity. Thus, the listeners do not get to hear the songs in the highest order of quality. These days, most music companies release Audio CDs and Mp3 CDs (in which they pack in a bunch of bonus tracks, tracks from other films apart from that particular film at cheaper prices) almost simultaneously or a few weeks after the Audio CD has released. The ‘MP3’ CD’s (though original) sound quality is not half as great as the Audio CD, thus the price is lower than that of the latter.

        A major reason behind the rise of piracy is the higher pricing of original Music CDs. Most of the music companies sell Audio CDs at Rs. 150+. Of course, the price tends to be lower for lesser known films or films which the music company has lesser confidence in. Yash Raj Films went a step further by releasing the Audio of their film Dhoom 2 (2006) on DVDs(apart from CDs and Cassettes).The price was almost equal to a movie DVD (Rs.299).The aim was to offer the listeners sound quality of the highest order. The high priced DVDs did not find many takers. T-Series, in 2009, started selling music on USB Drives. The first film to have its music launched on USB Drive was ‘Blue’.’Main Aur Mrs. Khanna’, ’All The Best’, ’London Dreams’ followed. That meant if one bought five albums, then one would have a collection of five USB Drives. These ‘Audio Drives’ were priced at Rs.600+. No wonder, this idea failed too. A decade ago, Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Devdas had made news for its music rights sold to Universal at an unheard sum of Rs. 12.5 crore. It is hard to imagine any music company paying that much amount to any producer these days as it would be impossible to recover such a huge amount through physical or even digital sales. ‘Kaho Na Pyaar Hai’ was the highest selling film soundtrack of the year 2000. It had sold approximately 80,00,000 units. A decade later ‘Dabangg’ stands out be the biggest selling soundtrack of the year (2010) and it sells just about 2,00,000 units. One can easily gauge the growth of piracy through this data. The only measure that can be taken in this regard is that prices of the Audio CDs (cassettes, anyways, have ceased to exist) should be lowered down. Eight years ago, Tips had priced the Audio CDs of Boney Kapoor’s ‘Bewafaa’ same as the cassettes, that is, Rs. 55. This was a very wise decision taken by the company and I am sure it bore fruits. Government needs to take strict measures against piracy. One often hears news of raids taking place in metros. However in small towns, you will come across music shops where you will not find a single original CD. There are hundreds of illegal websites thriving on the internet. These should be closed down. An artist works very hard to together a piece of art. Likewise, a musician, composer, lyricist, singer etc. works hard to put together an album or even just a song. It should not be made to ‘download’ free of cost. Their hard work should be bought and appreciated with one’s hard earned money.