The domestic music industry has lost a whopping Rs 1,800 crore (Rs 18 billion) in the last three years owing to several reasons such as piracy, judicial leniency, Article 52(1) (j), lack of optical disk regulation and boom of private radio channels.
"Piracy is on the verge of devastating an industry which is already suffering from tremendous losses every year. Though the music industry is taking several steps to curb the problem, the situation is so grim that if the enforcement agencies, stakeholders and government do not take notice, the music industry will have to head towards closure resulting in the death of India's talent factory," Vijay Lazarus, president, Indian Music Industry said at a press conference on Monday.
Indian consumers must be willing to pay a proper price for the music they listen to other wise the industry will close down, J F Ribeiro, who heads IMI's anti-piracy operations, said.
"There can be no piracy if the original music companies shut shop owing to lack of revenue. Indian customers must learn to pay for the music they listen to," Ribeiro explained.
Matters have been further compounded owing to the proliferation of FM radio channels. "They too must a pay a proper price to music companies. Globally, law and enforcement play a very important role in curbing this crime.
However in India, judicial lenience enables even offenders to get away with the minimum level of punishments and this is a major hindrance in combating this problem.
We plead to the judicial authorities to adopt a stricter view towards the offenders and also expedite the legal proceedings against the defaulters," Savio D'Souza, general secretary of IMI, added.
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