Here in the UK, we have a desi music market that is consumed with subject matters such as love, drinking and the macho ambitions of today’s youth, now compare that to a new study released via DNA in India, which highlights that devotional/religious music accounts for 52% of the country’s music sales.
So is devotional music the most wanted form of music in India Today?
“Yes,” says Devraj Sanyal, managing director, Universal Music. “We are a country with large numbers of religious people who love this kind of music. If we know a Ganesha album will work in a particular season, it makes business sense to push it aggressively around that time.”
In Punjab during the build up to Vaisakhi, the amount of artists and albums releasing is at its highest compared to any other time of the year, with 2011 seeing over 450 releases in the week leading up to the Sikh festival.
Figures compiled by Indian Music Industry (IMI), the umbrella organisation representing 142 music companies like Saregama, Universal Music and Tips among others, Bollywood music constitutes 40% of the Rs100 crore plus industry, while devotional music constitutes 52%.
India’s market is so diverse that the release of such devotional albums creates such a buzz in small towns and villages and that is something that is unique to India.
Bollywood is one industry that is not overly impressed with the success that devotional music has, “While many in the industry looked down on these singers, they can never match their outreach among masses,” said Devraj Sanyal.
What will be interesting to see over the next year or so, is how the digital revolution in India will saturate the market, with Independent religious acts/artists creating their own labels and releasing via new platforms, this will impact the larger labels, who in-turn are ready to start pushing such products with more and more expensive videos and direct marketing.
Devotional music is gearing up for a battle of bling, I guess you could say, only in India!
Desi Music Xpress.. 