Music rights of Dilwale fetches record price, music label war heats up

The Musical War (Kabir’s Point of View)

Who’s Kabir?

Kabir is a young enthusiastic film buff. He is an advertising junkie whose family is not closely related to films. It’s his passion to keep a track on the insider happenings of the industry. From actor fees to the popcorn rates at PVR, Kabir knows it all. Every Sunday we will share Kabir’s point of view on one topic related to the industry.

The musical chairs of the industry

Music rights of a film are one of the key sources of revenue for a producer. Today all producers sell off their music rights before the release of the film since they recover some part of their investment immediately plus they get assurance of promotion of their film on television. To make this simpler

Rohit Shetty has announced Dilwale with Red Chillies Entertainment starring  Shahrukh Khan, Excel Entertainment has announced Bangistan and Dil Dhadakne Do. We may not have seen the promos of any of these films; in fact the shoot of ‘Dilwale’  has just started, but they have already locked in a music partner.  That’s how essential a music partner is to a film. Apart from satellite rights, it’s one of the most vital sources of revenue. Few production houses like Yash Raj Films and Eros International have their own music labels like ‘Yash Raj Music’ and ‘Eros Music’. However, for other innumerable films made there are a few big players that dominate the music market.

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The big players

The biggest player in terms of promotion and bandwidth for quite some time has been ‘T-Series’. They have the biggest library (catalogue) and have always been associated with some of the biggest films till date.

T-Series musical slate over the years (some of the big films for each year mentioned)

  • 2011 – Bodyguard, Singham, Don 2, Ready, Rockstar, Ra-one
  • 2012 – Talaash, Dabangg 2, Cocktail, Housefull 2
  • 2013 – Yeh Jawaani hai Deewani, Chennai Express, Aashiqui 2
  • 2014 – Kick, Happy New year, PK, Ek Villain, Ragini MMS 2, 2 States

The others player ‘Sony Music’ and Wild Card Entry ‘Zee Music’

Sony Music has always been the biggest competition to ‘T-Series’ over the years.  They have never been aggressive and most often selective in selecting their films.

Sony Music slate over the years

  • 2011 – FALTU, Shor In The City
  • 2012 – Barfi, Heroine, Student of the Year, Rowdy Rathore, Jannat 2, Ek Deewana Tha
  • 2013 –  Gori Tere Pyaar Mein,  Raanjhaana, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag
  • 2014 - Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania, City Lights, Hasee Toh Phasee, Zid

The new entrant – Zee Music

Between T-Series and Sony Music it was a given that T-Series was the monopoly. Now with Zee music pumping money to acquire the music rights of big films, the competition has just gotten hotter.  They made a reasonable debut with acquiring the following films

2014 – Holiday, Bang Bang and Shaukeen

Their forthcoming films include –   Gabbar is Back, Prem Ratan Dhan Payo and Singh is Bling.

The Music-game get heated

If we see the music-films slate earlier mentioned above we noticed that every year the big films have always been with T-Series essentially. However with new competition coming in the market and more monies being pumped in, it may be fair to say that the musical acquisition game has heated up. Case in point - Rohit Shetty’s Dilwale has been acquired for a whopping 19 Crore (reported) by Sony Music. Shahrukh’s earlier films like Happy New year and Chennai Express have been with T-Series. This one is a shift.

The big banners divided according to music labels this year

  • T-Series – Bajrangi Bhaijaan (already released Roy and Baby)
  • Sony Music – Dilwale
  • Zee Music – Prem Ratan Dhan Payo, Gabbar is Back

The figures being offered for music rights for big banner films are unheard of (almost equivalent to the cost of production of a mid-size film). Questions arise as to how will a music banner recover such a huge amount. However, on the other hand more competition only helps in improving the revenue for an individual producer.  With bigger films being announced each day the competition to acquire will only get hotter. While at this point of time in terms of content and catalogue it’s safe to conclude that ‘T-Series’ enjoys its monopoly, but one can’t also deny the fact that the new music labels are giving it tough competition.

Do share your thoughts on the article and comment on the most awaited music albums of 2015.

Also read other articles by Kabir

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70 Comments

  • Wow DILWALE with 19 cr. A record. Started to smash records even when it had just started to shoot.

    Good to know Sony n Zee have acquired big movies. T-Series monopoly will end soon in next 3-4 years.

  • Change is good, also we hope to have a new music director this time for the Srk movie. Some times you need to sift through over certain things!
    And Rohit Sheety Please! “don’t limit it to a mere 210-220 cr movie, make it a memorable & long lasting”.

  • T series again with Salman bajrangi bhaijan will be a chartbuster music and zee music will be bigger and better with prdp

  • T-series is good but it inflates collections too much.

    For e.g read this article
    Ek Paheli Leela has collected nearly same as on Saturday (2nd day) as on day one. Film collected around 3.75-4 crore nett on day 2. Film hardly showed any jumps, whereas registered minuscule drop at places across India. In rest collections are nearly similar to Friday. Film is doing just ok in single screens, whereas business in multiplexes is extremely poor. That’s one of the reason why film has failed to show any jump on Saturday. Ek Pehali Leela total collection after 2 days is approx 7.75-8 crore nett.
    [image]
    Ek Paheli Leela word of mouth is also mixed and don’t expect a big jump on Sunday (3rd day) also. Yes, there will be jump on Sunday, but it should be in nominal range. Overall film weekend collection is now heading for 13 crore nett range which is much below the expected levels.
    Collection Breakup –
    Friday – 4 crore nett.
    Saturday – 3.75crore nett (est).
    Total – 7.75 crore nett (approx).

    Ek paheli leela collections r 7.7cr in 2 days according to premium accurate site addatoday !
    But official is 10cr!

    This is too much inflation n manipulation….

    Take example of roy… In weekdays every site was reporting drop.. But T-series was reporting growth… Also huge difference in weekend numbers.. Around 35cr lifetime was inflated to 43cr..! TOO MUCH!

    Sony music is preferable

  • For Hamari Adhuri Kahani music rights they may kill each other LOL….as this film music bound to be bigger and better than all films that releases this year.

  • SRK didn’t start shooting for Dilwale but the movie already start broking records.. as Pritam is the Music composer so expecting a good music.

  • SRK/Kajol Combo , SRK/Rohit Combo + Pritem is working with SRK for the first time + Christmas release.. the reasons that why it is the most awaited movie of the year.

  • “Dilwale is not only about action or comedy ; there is a strong love story in the film ” – Rohit Shetty

  • Highest grosser on Eid – Chennai Express . Highest Grosser on Diwali – Happy New Year

    Now it’s Christmas time. Dilwale On Xmas 2015 ;)

  • Vishal Shekar couldn’t give a great music like OSO they failed a big time. hope Pritam gives a good, best music for the most awaited movie Dilwale as people are expecting.

  • Just for little trivia. …
    In 1993 ankhein was all time blockbuster with 13 cr collection……ashiqui sold nearly 2 cr music cassettes in 90s…average cassette prise was nearly 25 rs means total gross revenue nearly 50cr just by music…..

  • @Aman highest grosser Eid is Kick
    Highest grosser Diwali is Krrish 3 . Srk fanbase is too poor to give highest grosser.

  • King’s pr team have started varunwale’s promotion by manipulating music right fig more than 3times…

  • This is the start,why lallutards are crying with out seeing THE END.ONE FILM OF KING KHAN will shattered 2 films of bhal.

    EID’S HIGHEST GRISSER—-CE(422CR)
    DEEWALI’S HIGHEST GROSSER—-HNY(385CR)

    CHRISTMAS HIGHEST GROSSER—-DILWALE

    where is sallu+perfaketionist.

  • SRK is flope actor and dilwala will becom flope movie iam sure 2015 is salman khan year salman bhia long life king off india

  • @ JS ok so srk’s fan base is very poor but y ur favourite took too long to give a 200cr movie with largest fan base in india?

  • JS : Kick and Highest Grosser on Eid? What a crap joke, Don’t make fun of your own self idiot…
    Kick has less gross than 380cr (even less than Hny’s Gross) while Chennai Express gross is 430cr W-W…(Bhai is yet to break it.. he is still chasing SRK)

    SRK fan base is too poor to give HG? you proved by this that you’re Mentally ill & sick after all you are a bhai’s Fan.. SRK has 10 times mores HG than Salman in India and SRK has 100 times more HG than Salman World-Wide and SRK has 1000 times more HG than Salman in overseas.. even you know these facts really well..

    even if we just count SRK’s W-W, OS HGs then he’s given 16 HG while Poor Bhojpuri Salman’s First/Last HG in overseas was in 1994 (HAHK yes that Madhuri’s Movie) and since 1995 till 2015 he has not given a single HG… I hope you poor Mullu’s fans at least know the difference between 16 & 1 and if we count HAHK as Salman’s cameo than poor Golden Kela Heart has not given a single HG yet even after 30 years..

  • This article is pointless. It does not provide any useful information. People already know about these three music companies. People already know T-series is at the top, and it is not a rocket science that other two companies are here to give competition. Some details of how this companies process would have been informative.

  • The Music Rights of SRK’s Dilwale is much more than So called Bhojpuri Salman’s both Bhajrangi & PRDP. Once again SRK won and Mullu Salman Lost.. Once again SRK on top & Shera’s love last.. ( every time Driver can’t help & save you Golden Kela Heart…)

  • Why it will not break records before it releases? Dude it’s Shah Rukh Khan’s movie not a Chottu or Muttu’s Movie..

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