Page 43 - Forbes India (December 2015)

live events, they bet really big on it in THE NUMBER an immersive cultural experience.
2013 with the launch of the Supersonic OF ORGANISED Although they haven’t scaled up,
Festival. “Strategically, the decision primarily by virtue of their format
was clear,” says Jaideep Singh, senior EVENTS IN INDIA which depends heavily on a unique
VP & business head at Viacom18’s GREW FROM 3,631 venue, these festivals are successes in
Integrated Network Solutions. “We their own right. And they’re not alone.
were not entering the live music space IN 2013- 2014 TO In September this year, Universal
to appeal to a few thousand people.” 4,233 IN 2014- 15 Music Group bought a 50 percent
A significant driver of this effort stake in Enchanted Valley Carnival
was Nikhil Chinapa, who had by (EVC), a music festival held in
now moved to Viacom18. Supersonic Aamby Valley City near Pune, for
was built on the lines of Sunburn, on 59th on the British monthly DJ Mag’s an undisclosed sum. “We want to
the back of Chinapa’s experience in list of the world’s “Top 100” DJs. create a unique festival that will
creating stellar festival lineups. While Percept, OML and Viacom18 welcome people who want to try
both the festivals have largely relied and their respective flagship events something different both in terms of
on the tried-and-tested formula of make up a majority of the music experience as well as music. We plan
bringing global EDM stars to Indian festivals that are held in India to do a three-day camping festival
shores along with a mix of lesser today. This is thanks to the spin-offs at a reasonable price,” says Sanyal
known Indian and foreign talent, that take their festivals to places of Universal Music Group. This
there is some divergence between like Shillong (NH7 Weekender), December, the festival will feature
the content these two have on offer. Daman (Sunburn) and sometimes artistes like Fatboy Slim and DJ Tiësto.
Sunburn has focussed on EDM, even beyond Indian borders.
while Supersonic has attempted to While these three big labels GalvanisinG the troops
create a more eclectic electronic dominate, there are several other Consequently, the events continue to
music lineup. It has, for instance, noteworthy music festivals that dot grow, both in size and number. The
hosted Pretty Lights and more India’s musical landscape. Ziro, a EEMA/Ernst & Young white paper
recently Skrillex, both of whom don’t festival in Arunachal Pradesh, brings estimates the number of organised
necessarily fit the narrow definition together independent acts from events, of which music festivals and
of a mainstream EDM artiste. across genres to the eponymous events are a major part, to grow from
Both these approaches have small hill town in which it is held. 4,233 in 2014-15 to 5,329 in 2015-
yielded results in terms of drawing Some other notables are Magnetic 16. Significantly, they continue to
audiences. However, there remain Fields, which is held at Alsisar Mahal provide a fertile breeding ground
concerns about the sustainability of near Jodhpur in Rajasthan, and for upcoming talent. “You play at a
a model that is based on drawing big the Hornbill Festival in Nagaland. festival primarily because you can
stars who demand substantial pay These festivals go beyond music and play to a much larger audience,”
cheques for performing in India. attempt to provide audiences with says Udyan Sagar, a DJ who goes by
Although Supersonic, which is the name Nucleya. While audiences
a direct competitor of Sunburn in at clubs and smaller gigs may be
Goa, was Viacom18’s flagship event, familiar with an artiste’s music, music
it was followed by a number of other festivals allow artistes to reach new
launches. These included a whole audiences, he says. And that’s not all.
gamut of genre-based music festivals. According to Tej Brar, artiste
“It is Bollyland (a music festival manager at OML, about 75 percent
based on Bollywood music) that is of an artiste’s revenue comes from
going to be huge in the live space. live events, while the remainder
We want to take Bollyland across the is generated by endorsements.
globe as the audience for Bollywood Record sales, the original barometer
music and EDM is increasing,” says for an artiste’s success, have now
Mohamed Morani, director, Cineyug, become a peripheral statistic in
an event management company terms of revenue generation.
that works with Viacom18 to create From being the single largest
Bollyland. This October, DJ Chetas revenue stream in the past, record
who came into the limelight because sales, or more commonly, song mExy xaviEr
of his gigs with Bollyland, was ranked Shailendra Singh, joint Md of Percept limited downloads are increasingly used as

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