The ways in which the Indian music industry is constantly attaining more important parts for its ecosystem is a cautious approach to copyright and royalty for the creators. They can be a musician, lyricist/writer, instrumentist and music publisher, whenever their work is heard or performed, a stable compensation can demand.
“Meditation has always been done to create artists (or ‘creators’ because they like to use as a umbrella word),” says Mayur Puri, a writer, lyricist and member of the Board of Directors in the Indian Performance Rights (IPRS).
In 2017, the IPRS was restructured and calls a “Big Learning Curve” a “Big Learning Curve” copyright law, intellectual property laws and the role of metadata and credit in Indian music ecosystems in 2017, in terms of “Big Learning Curve”.
Mayur says: “When I joined in 2019, we had only more than 4,000 members. Today, I have stopped counting, but we seem to have more than 18,000, which is also the fastest growth in the case of membership drive.” For manufacturers, writers, musicians and their legal heir and a publisher, one -time application for 2,200 can become members of IPRS with processing fee.
On the other hand of the stakeholders, Rakesh Nigam, Chief Executive Officer of IPRS, has increased the royalty distribution income in the financial year 2019 – 2020 from of 9 crore to ₹ 170 crore. He is more than an executing man, and indicates Mayur as being one with ideas.
In addition to signing licensing deals on copyright society, with important players like YouTube, meta and spotify, the outreach has been a more public level-in collaboration with Nagaland’s task force for music and art (TAFMA), who sent the singer-singer Abdon Match to a lyrical camp for a songwriters camp for a lyrical camp.
Despite awareness and campaigns, it requires a more systemic change to apply how copyright is kept holy for the creators. In 2012, the right to royalty was disqualified from the producer, and Mayur says that when things began to move. This means that no unit can force an artist to sign its royalty in exchange for a flat fee, although it is still a common task practice in the music industry. Mayur explains that “compliance”, then, becomes a major issue.
Mayur Puri, writer, lyricist and member in the board of directors in IPRS | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
However, he says, “In developed countries, you see that there is no resistance now because they have become part of the system, and they have understood and accepted the system. In India, in the last few years, most big stakeholders have adopted this system.
Challenges are certainly in a vast country as India, with a large extent for music. “We are getting royalty from people, but not from some broadcasting channels or radio,” Maya says.
The next step, according to IPRS, is to introduce more regulation to ensure the enforcement of copyright laws and the right to royalty. He says, “The government is now asking all the stakeholders of the music industry to come together and make a single window license, on which they are working. I don’t know how practical it is and how good it is,” to get the license to play/perform music, referring to the practice of music show organizers.
It is from the organizers. For music consumers, Rakesh says that a drive is required to bring people on streaming platforms such as Spotiff, Geosavan and others, which they have to pay the membership fee for that music. He said that from millions of active users on these platforms, only four percent are paying only to customers. Says Mayur, “Social awareness needs. People in India feel that music is independent, as there is no money to listen to music again and again. It does not work in that way.”
He hopes that artists get to live a “dignified, respectable” life and do not need to “struggle for basic things”. “Therefore it is important for people to believe that artists will have to pay and you cannot hear anything for free,” says Mayur.
Published – June 27, 2025 03:13 pm IST
