FICCI-KPMG-Report-13-FRAMES

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The power of a billion: Realizing the Indian dream
Branding of content and building
branded properties
Seeking to capitalize on the longevity inherent to musical
content, labels and event organizers are seeking to build
enduring brands around music platforms, events and
services.
Several lifestyles brands are associating themselves with
live music events and concerts in order to engage with
target audiences and create an experiential property.
These arrangements are made for long terms in order to
unlock value. Brands contribute 60 percent of revenues
under a sponsorship arrangement. 84 Properties such as
Eristoff Invasion, Bacardi NH7 Weekender, The Great Indian
Oktoberfest, and Sunburn have built such properties for an
ultimate experience.
Similarly, Universal Music India has launched a division in
2012 to create brand anthems and corporate jingles which
can be monetised through music sales.
Bundling music services with the services of telcos and
internet service providers (ISPs) can ensure in a win-win
situations for both parties. While bundling enables music
services to reach mass market — leveraging telcos’
and ISPs’ established commercial footprint and billing
structures — music services help telcos and ISPs to
enhance their service offerings and reduce churn rates. In
April 2012, Deezer, a French web-based music streaming
service, partnered with T-Mobile to offer unlimited music
streaming service on select mobile tariff plans in Austria. 88
© 2013 KPMG, an Indian Registered Partnership and a member firm of the KPMG network of independent member firms affiliated
with KPMG International Cooperative (“KPMG International”), a Swiss entity. All rights reserved.
Universal Music Group has started a ‘music launcher
project’ for HP. A launcher is embedded on to all HP laptops
and provides users instant access to Universal’s music
catalogue. The launcher will be embedded on over 2 million
devices and is accompanied by an annual subscription to
the music service powered by Universal Music India. This
project is currently active in about 21 countries. 84
Coca Cola India’s Coke Studio@MTV has established
a dynamic music property that brings together diverse
artists from different genres and countries to one platform
and has set a benchmark for music lovers. The second
season was the highest downloaded musical project
across all platforms and is amongst the most successful
and the highest ‘pre-booked’ album last year on Flipkart 85 .
Similarly, Bacardi India’s Dewarist, a TV show won bronze
medal at Cannes Lion 2012 Awards for Branded Content
and Entertainment category. The show’s official YouTube
channel garnered over 1.7 million views, making it the top
rated brand channel in the country at the time. Through
distribution of the 10 collaborative tracks created during
the show, Dewar’s India facebook page generated over 3.2
million social engagements and over 120,000 download 86 .
In the near future, brands are expected to drive music
properties and create an enriching experience that drives
the audience and is at top of the mind for brand recall.
Adoption of new revenue models
In order to generate new revenue streams, music
companies are now embracing various digital distribution
models and licensing content to online music services.
Major online music services companies such as Spotify,
Flyte, Apple’s iTunes store and streaming sites such as
Gaana.com, Saavn, Dhingana etc. generate additional
revenues through licensing agreements. 84 These include
pay-per download to ad-based music streaming and paid
streaming models.
Saavn is set to launch a paid subscription model in March,
2013 for its streamed music service for the Indian market.
The product will initially be available on Apple’s app store
with a monthly subscription fee of INR 215 after a 30 day
free trial. Apps for Android and feature phones are also
planned. Key features include ad-free listening, offline
listening on up to 5 devices per account and allowing
consumers to sync multiple devices over cellular or wi-fi
data connections 87 .
84. Industry discussions conducted by KPMG in India
85. Radioandmusic.com November 1, 2012
86. Radioandmusic.com, June 25, 2012
87. Medianama.com, February 12, 2013
“
With cost effective streaming, constant
improvement of digital infrastructure
and digital delivery of content – the
biggest opportunities in the digital music
world is yet to be unlocked. Website and
application developers have to stay ahead
of the technology, build trust with users on
payments and use advertisers only where
delivery of content is free for the end-users.
The winner will be someone who can be
innovative at the same time continues to
engage with his customer and ensure that
content cannot be pirated or downloaded
illegally from their platform.
“
- Anand Kumar
Patner,
Sand Hill Counsel
Simplified music discovery to encourage
consumption of newer genres
Social media platforms are enabling easier discovery of
varied genres and thereby allowing artists’ exposure to
larger audiences. South Korean artist Psy’s ‘Gangnam
Style’, is an example of international visibility and success
achieved through the social media platform. The song
premiered on YouTube, crossed the one-billion views mark
in December 2012 and emerged as the first ever video to
break that barrier. 89 Its success is indicative of growing
interest in new genres by audiences and the emergency of
music discovery as a tool to achieve greater success.
While Bollywood music continues to command a dominant
position in the Indian market, the non – Bollywood music
space has witnessed a considerable activity. Both regional
and international music have seen a good traction among
the audience. Various industry players are taking steps to
encourage consumption of new genres of music.
Electronic Dance Music (EDM), a popular music genre
has seen growth in audiences and leading to successful
EDM music festivals in India. “ContraBass Records”, India’s
first purely electronic music label, is being introduced by
Universal Music India. It is a sub-label set up by Universal
Music India to cater to the growing population of purely
Electronic Music listeners in India 90 .
88. http://thenextweb.com/eu/2012/04/26/deezer-partners-with-t-mobile-to-offer-unlimited-musicsubscriptions-with-mobile-tariffs-in-austria/
89. http://youtube-trends.blogspot.in/2012/12/gangnam-style-crosses-one-billion-view.html
90. Radioandmusic.com, November 21, 2012