ITV

Category: Music and Youth

  • B4U Network strengthens its leadership teams to drive future strategic growth

    B4U Network strengthens its leadership teams to drive future strategic growth

    Mumbai: B4U, one of India’s leading entertainment networks with its popular channels including B4U Music, B4U Movies, B4U Kadak, B4U Bhojpuri and the newly launched Dhamaka Movies, have inducted new leadership to unlock significant value that drives future strategic growth of the organisation.

    Pawan Sharma has been roped in as chief revenue officer, Alok Shrivastava as head of digital monetisation & Mithilesh Champaneri as its chief people officer.

    “I am elated to join B4U, a company that carries a great legacy of showing best-in-class music, regional and movie content. I am looking forward to working closely with management of the B4U network and leading a highly talented revenue team as we enter into our next phase of growth,” said Sharma who most recently was with Josh Talks as its business head. He has also worked in leadership roles at Network 18, Walt Disney, UTV, Big FM, Star Network.

    Alok Shrivastava, who will lead the digital team comes with 16 years of experience with companies like Idea Cellular, Tatasky, Saregama and Shemaroo with extensive experience in digital monetisation. In his last stint at Shemaroo, he handled PNL for digital video platforms. “As Business head digital, my first focus area is to ensure effective monetization of all the existing digital assets across different platforms followed by venturing into different other content categories with a sharp focus on ROI. I also strongly believe that well defined processes and business intelligence are the prerequisites for scaling up any business. Therefore, this would be another key focus area,” said Shrivastava.

    Mithilesh Champaneri, who joins in as chief people officer and head HR, has 15 years of experience and most recently was with WPP.

    “Human Resources will be a strategic partner to attain organisational excellence by developing and inspiring the true potential of company’s human capita & providing opportunities for growth, wellbeing and enrichment. We at B4U will also thrive to be certified with a great place to work,” said Champaneri.

    Mandeep Singh commented, “At B4U we are always excited to induct disruptive minds that help us drive relevant growth across levels and functions.  As we pivot towards our next phase of growth in making B4U a stronger platform for our audiences, trade partners and internal cast members, I am thrilled to welcome Alok Srivastava who joins us as Head – digital monetisation, Pawan Sharma who will be heading our revenue press release function as chief revenue officer and Mithilesh Champaneri who will be heading our human resource function as our chief people officer.  Shrivastava, Sharma and Champaneri are tremendous professionals with rich domain expertise, strong leadership and people management skills. They will add significant value to our network in their respective roles that prepares the network in its next and robust growth phase. Wishing all of them great success at B4U.”

  • Sony Music ties up with The Estate of Michael Jackson to release ‘Thriller 40’

    Sony Music ties up with The Estate of Michael Jackson to release ‘Thriller 40’

    Mumbai: Thriller 40, a double CD set featuring Michael Jackson’s original masterpiece Thriller, including never-before-released tracks that Jackson worked on for the Thriller album, has been announced by Sony Music and the Estate of Michael Jackson in honour of the album’s 40th anniversary. More than 100 million copies of the album have been sold worldwide.

    Thriller‘s immersive audio mixes by Serban Ghenea and John Hanes are now accessible at several DSPs, such as 360 Reality Audio on Amazon and Spatial Audio on Apple Music.

    Walmart and Target both sell the original Thriller album on vinyl. The Target exclusive comes with a Thriller 40 slipmat, but the Walmart exclusive has a different cover. The original Thriller album is available as a hybrid SACD and an ultradisc one-step 180g LP via Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab (MoFi). The MoFi one-step is produced at RTI and is strictly limited to 40,000 numbered copies. It is derived from the original 1/2″ (or 30 IPS) analogue master tapes, which are converted to DSD 256 and then to analogue console and lathe.

    The 40th anniversary of the best-selling album of all time is commemorated by the publication of Thriller 40. Last week, the immersive experience in Düsseldorf, Germany, marked the beginning of the pop-up events and global activations planned to celebrate the masterpiece created by the ‘King of Pop.’ Next up is the weekend-long immersive event beginning 21 November in New York.

    The Michael Jackson channel will be available exclusively on SiriusXM and will run for a short time to honour the illustrious career of ‘The King of Pop,’ from his early work with The Jackson 5 through his solo work.

    From 23 November until 22 December, The Michael Jackson channel, which features a Thriller special hosted by Steven Ivory, a friend of the Jackson family and a musicologist, will be broadcast on Limited Edition 2 (channel 502) and The Groove (channel 50).

    Michael’s monumental achievement broke Grammy records, broke down musical barriers, and permanently altered the boundaries of pop music and music videos.

    Since its debut on 30 November 1982, Michael Jackson’s Thriller has spent more than 500 weeks at the top of the Billboard album chart and has amassed over 100 million sales.

  • Zing introduces short video content series ‘Tiny Tales’

    Zing introduces short video content series ‘Tiny Tales’

    Mumbai: Zing has launched Tiny Tales, a digital-first short-form video content series aimed at gen Z. The first launch is Tiny Tales – Pyaar Tune Kya Kiya on 1 October, which is a heartfelt extension of Zing’s marquee show Pyaar Tune Kya Kiya, featuring endearing stories of love, friendship, and much more.

    It just takes a moment to fall in love. Staying true to its theme of love, Pal Bhar Mein, Tiny Tales will feature six stories of up to six minutes each, acting as a prelude to an exciting development regarding the channel’s iconic show – Pyaar Tune Kya Kiya.

    Tiny Tales – PTKK will be first launched across Zing’s YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram handles and then on television with fresh episodes every weekend for three weeks. Because Zing is all about community, it has been forming tribes under the banner of “#ApniVibeApniTribe.”

    The latest one, the PTKK Tribe, has joined the likes of the existing Music Tribe and the Rizing Hallyu Tribe. Tribe members are treated to curated content and exclusive contests, which keeps them highly engaged.

    Each of the six stories will revolve around the characters’ finding love in quite unlikely settings. Whether it’s in an office or a hospital, these heart-warming and relatable stories will strike the right chord with gen-Z. The stories will feature a host of fresh and young TV artists such as Richa Rathore, Alisha Praveen, Priyal Gupta, Gaurav Amlani, Aanchal Srivastava, and others.

    Commenting on the new series, Zing chief channel officer Arghya Roy Chowdhury shared, “Zing is now home to entertainment that the youth/gen-Z loves. This has been on the back of modern stories in the form of music, movies, and series that celebrate them and their spirit. As a brand that serves the young, we understand the importance of moving ahead with the changing times. Today, our audience is present across a spectrum of mediums to entertain and stay connected. With the launch of Tiny Tales, we are excited to create digital-first content that converges with our repertoire of broadcast content. We look forward to taking Tiny Tales to greater heights with our stellar line-up of content.”

  • Indian Performing Right Society targets Rs 60 crore revenue from public performance, says CEO Rakesh Nigam

    Indian Performing Right Society targets Rs 60 crore revenue from public performance, says CEO Rakesh Nigam

    Mumbai: During the past two Covid infected years on-ground events took a severe hit. This had an extremely negative impact on the revenues generated from live events and public performance of music. However, with normalcy returning The Indian Performing Right Society (IPRS) CEO Rakesh Nigam is optimistic about generating revenue of Rs 60 crore from public performance for the current fiscal. The revenue generated will increase from fiscal 2019-2020 (pre-covid), which was Rs 52 crore. The overall revenues generated at IPRS from across verticals for the fiscal are pegged to be above Rs 300 crore.  

    “IPRS has started engaging with a lot of people. We have taken a proactive stand with the users, who are also coming out of the pandemic. We will consider giving them discounts and ask them to pay for music.  People are now positive about taking licences. We have boosted our on-ground team to meet the growing requirement. We have adopted a 360-degree approach and are trying to motivate people to get licences to play music in public. We also try and give discounts to coerce them to take licences.”

    He adds that there is more advertising taking place on digital platforms like YouTube which will benefit the music industry. There is a revenue share and so there will be income growth. However for subscription-driven OTT platforms or music used for television, there won’t be an impact from ad revenue. The festive season has more of an impact on public performance and on anything that is driven by revenue share. “The festive season for us in public performance is a full six-month period. It starts in October and goes on till March. In the summer, things slow down and during the rainy season not much happens. Apart from this, in October corporate events, general events, parties, etc., all start taking place.

    The mood today is very positive. We expect a growth in consumption, which was on a standstill for the past two years.  As malls have opened, footfalls in theatres have increased. Things are looking bullish across the country. Recently, malls had stopped using music to cut down on costs and save every penny. Now they are willing to spend money and take licences. They use music in the background to create the right ambience.,” Nigam points out further.

    “The fervour is across the country. Everyone is waiting to go out and break the shackles, be free and enjoy. So, retail sales are going up. Malls are quite positive. The mood picked up in August. The festive season is Diwali through Christmas.” IPRS, he says, has started engaging with clients. They had asked for discounts in the previous two years which the IPRS had agreed to help during a very difficult period.

    In terms of the growth in the number of artists and music publishers, the growth has been over 50 per cent, he says. “During the lockdown, we made everything digital. We made the online application process as smooth as possible. Only the signature on the statutory documents has to be done offline. We have also held digital seminars and campaigns to reach out to music creators and publishers to tell them that IPRS is a society to extend support. We also reached out to music authors and composers who felt the brunt of Covid. We gave financial support. This sent out a positive message that we are an organisation that does not just collect royalties. We also help when it is required. As a society, we help the less privileged members. We gave financial relief to a lot of members during the pandemic. As a result of all our initiatives to help and support we have also grown in numbers. From 4,000+ we are now a community of over 9000 songwriters, composers and music publishers from across the country. We have seen this growth in the past three years. During seminars, we focused on the fact of learning and earning. We educated people on the new things that are shaping the music industry and careers of those associated with it. How can they be at par with things happening around beyond music creation? What is happening on platforms like Youtube? What is metadata? And all that is relevant for them to reap the best benefits as a creator and publisher.”

    IPRS also aims to educate music users through our campaign that speaks about fair pay and fair play of music. #LicenseLiyakya? is the message. “Why not pay fairly for the usage of music? This encourages creativity. 90 per cent of people online listen to music. We are bullish. Why not ensure that you subscribe and pay for music? That is how we have come up with the campaign. If there is no music at your event, how will it sound? Please help us serve you better by paying for the music. This will encourage authors and composers to create better music for them.” In terms of IPRS members, he said that they can play their role by letting copyright societies like IPRS know where their music is being played. “They also have to push to see that those places obtain a licence as that will only benefit the music creators and publishers.”

  • PM Modi remembers the late Lata Mangeshkar on her 93rd birth anniversary

    PM Modi remembers the late Lata Mangeshkar on her 93rd birth anniversary

    Mumbai: On the 93rd birth anniversary of the late Lata Mangeshkar, prime minister Narendra Modi shared his interactions and affections with the legendary singer. “Remembering Lata Didi on her birth anniversary. There is so much that I recall… the innumerable interactions in which she would shower so much affection.”

    To honour the contribution of Lata Didi to the Indian music industry and her efforts as a Bharat Ratna Awardee to bring laurels to the nation, Modi stated, “I am glad that today a chowk in Ayodhya will be named after her. It is a fitting tribute to one of the greatest Indian icons.”

     

     

    Lata Mangeshkar, who was born in 1929, is well-known for her incredible voice, which has infused charm into hundreds of songs and continues to be a favourite of many people today. Starting her career at the early age of 13, she dominated playback singing for many years. The most talented singer in the Indian cinema industry, also referred to as the “Nightingale of India,” was born in Indore on 28 September 1929 to classical musician Pandit Deenanath Mangeshkar and Shevanti.

    Lata Didi’s siblings, Meena Khadikar, Asha Bhosle, Usha Mangeshkar, and Hridaynath Mangeshkar, are also well-known figures in the Indian music and film industries.

    5,000+ songs by Lata Didi have been featured in more than 1,000 Hindi and 36 foreign films. The famous song, “Meri Awaaz hi Phechaan Hai,” sums up her career that lasted more than 80 years as India’s most well-known and renowned vocalist in a very beautiful way. Other masterpieces of melody that Lata Didi created and will live on forever include: “Lag Jaa Gale,” “Tere Bina Zidagi,” “Ae Mere Watan Ke Logon,” “Aap Ki Nazron Ne Samjha,” “Pyaar Hua Ikrar Hua,” “Aaj Phir Jeene Ki Tamanna Hai,” and others.

    On the occasion of her birth anniversary, a number of other distinguished individuals have paid tribute to the master singer. Many artists created tribute artworks for her.

     

     

  • Striking the right note: Clef Music Awards’22 unveils the winners in a glitzy ceremony

    Striking the right note: Clef Music Awards’22 unveils the winners in a glitzy ceremony

    Mumbai: It was a scintillating Saturday night at Mumbai’s Sahara Star hotel as the stars aligned to stage the second edition of Indiantelevision.com’s Clef Music Awards 2022.

    In India, one tends to associate music with films or Bollywood music, but there’s so much more out there waiting to be discovered. Raising a toast to all such independent musicians & original music creators, the CMA awards honoured musical accomplishments for the period August 2021 – August 2022 in a one-of-a-kind celebration held on 24 September. The first edition of the event took place virtually last year due to the restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

    This year’s event commenced with a poignant moment as the ITV founder and editor-in-chief Anil Wanvari posthumously recalled the contributions of the industry’s legends and music veterans, namely Bappi Lahiri, KK Menon, Bhupinder Singh, and the nightingale of India, Lata Mangeshkar, all of whom we lost in the past year.

    The Radio & Music Clef Music Awards (CMA) integrates musicians, lyricists, composers, bands, record labels, from the Hindi & English language music fraternity pan-India as it celebrates talent across the musical spectrum, classified into over 40 categories, ranging from Hindustani and devotional music to rap, folk, ghazal, sufi, pop, electronic, and rock music.

    The jury members included eminent names from the industry, such as Abhijeet Sawant, Amit Sana, Ankush Bhardwaj, Atul Churamani, Bhaskar Pal, Divya Kumar, Heena Kriplani, Mayur Puri, Prashant Ingole, Sanjeev Kohli, Santosh Nair, Shikhar Yuvraj Manchanda, and Sunnyy Vyas.

    Notable names from the world of music, such as Leslie Lewis, Amit Sana, Kavita Seth, and Sonu Kakkar, to name a few, also marked their attendance at the event.

    Here is the full list of the winners who took home the CMA trophies:

  • Berklee Valencia and Netflix India jointly present Music Supervisor Workshop

    Berklee Valencia and Netflix India jointly present Music Supervisor Workshop

    Mumbai: Berklee Valencia and Netflix India have joined forces to create a Music Supervisor Workshop. The workshop aims to train the next generation of music supervisors to support online content production. 

    Berklee and Netflix’s three-day workshop aims to help producers and music supervisors understand how to collaborate more effectively, enabling participants to have an open conversation about music workflow, and how to efficiently manage strategy, planning, and budget to maximize the production value of a title.

    After the success of international series such as Money Heist (La Casa de Papel), Squid Game, and The Fame Game, Berklee and Netflix’s Grow Creative initiative partnered to develop the workshop for a group of aspiring music supervisors in India. Workshop participants had the opportunity to collaborate with composers and post-production supervisors across a range of films, series and non-fiction projects.

    At the conclusion of the pilot workshop, which took place in Mumbai participants received music supervision certificates issued by Berklee Valencia and Netflix. The ceremony was attended by the renowned Indian music composer duo Ajay-Atul, who interacted with the workshop participants. Ajay-Atul have been composing music for close to two decades and have produced memorable soundtracks such as Sairat.

    Speaking of this collaboration Berklee Valencia senior vice president of international learning environments and executive director María Martínez Iturriaga said “Music plays a key role in the construction of a story, and that’s why the role of a music supervisor is so critical in the success of an audio-visual creation. I can’t think of a better partner than Netflix to develop this innovative training program.” 

    He added, “In this workshop, participants get a global perspective of the role of the music supervisor, contextualizing it to the Indian market while acquiring a tangible series of skills that they can immediately apply to develop their careers.”

    Berklee’s workshop modules focused on creative management and legal aspects of the music industry. Through a series of master classes and case study presentations, instructors shared their expertise on topics including music supervision, copyright and contract management, A&R (artists and repertoire) for creative supervision, and composer strategy and spotting. 

    Netflix India music creative and production team Ramprasad Sundar said “At Netflix, we are deeply invested in building the creative community with skills and knowledge to continue to add value to the entertainment industry.” 

    “The Music Supervisor Workshop was rolled out in partnership with Berklee Valencia, and it received an enthusiastic response from the participants. We’ll continue to strive for excellence by bringing in global best practices and workflows to build and nurture the next generation of music talent,” he added.

  • Shemaroo FilmiGaane YouTube channel touches 60 mn subscribers

    Shemaroo FilmiGaane YouTube channel touches 60 mn subscribers

    Mumbai: Shemaroo FilmiGaane YouTube channel has hit the mega milestone of sixty million subscribers in the 60th year of Shemaroo. According to the data by influenex.com, Shemaroo FilmiGaane ranks third amongst the most popular music YouTube channels in India. The channel has a monthly viewership of five hundred million and it attracts around fifteen million views per day.

    The channel’s content appeals to people of all ages and is a treat for every Bollywood fan. The channel’s handpicked playlists undoubtedly generate nostalgic feelings that every individual can enjoy irrespective of their age.

    Shemaroo FilmiGaane has been an entertainer with its wide collection of finest classics and beautiful melodies across genres from different periods. It is one of the most loved YouTube channels from Shemaroo that has songs from almost every mood for every Bollywood lover. The eras of songs offered range from the golden era of 1950’s to the latest numbers of 2020’s. It has audiences across the globe with many Indian diasporas tuning in to enjoy their daily dose of Bollywood entertainment.

    Speaking of this milestone, Shemaroo Entertainment CEO Hiren Gada commented, “We are thrilled to have touched this double milestone at Shemaroo. We are celebrating sixty years of our journey in the entertainment ecosystem, and our FilmiGaane channel reaching a whopping 60 million subscribers is a landmark moment for us. The fact that even the younger generation is hooked on retro songs just goes on to show that our content is very relevant to all demographics. As an organization, we stride to entertain through our strong repository as we curate content to connect with the consumers.”

  • ‘Dil Beats’ returns with new fourth season on MTV Beats

    ‘Dil Beats’ returns with new fourth season on MTV Beats

    Mumbai: Hindi music channel MTV Beats is all set to bring back the highly anticipated love show “Dil Beats” for the fourth season.

    This new season is named as ‘Unfiltered Love’ and will see popular musician and singer-songwriter sibling-duo Sukriti Kakar and Prakriti Kakar as ‘Love Queens.’ The upcoming season will feature eight love stories that reflect the true spirit of romance, starting 25 May, every Wednesday at 12 noon and 5 p.m.

    Supported with a cross-media integrated marketing campaign, MTV Beats’ “Dil Beats: Season 4” will have an array of activities to drive viewer engagement and widen its fan base. Viewers can immerse themselves in the world of Dil Beats Unfiltered Love through interesting activities on Instagram with the hosts.  They also stand a chance to win merchandise signed by them by participating in the #BAEmisaalLoveStories contest on Instagram Reels. Sukriti and Prakriti will also touch upon topics that are usually considered relationship red flags, in their segment #BehenSuno on the platform. The upcoming season will also be promoted across Viacom18’s vast network of television channels, said the statement.

    The new season will explore love in its various stages and compel viewers to rethink their definition of it. Each love story will be complemented with some of the best love songs, caller-interactive segments, signed merchandise giveaways and personal anecdotes shared by the hosts. The promo for season 4 is already out!

    Speaking on the success of the previous seasons and the launch of the upcoming season of “Dil Beats,” Viacom 18 head of youth, music and English entertainment Anshul Ailawadi said, “’Dil Beats’ struck a chord with the audience since its first season, thanks to its unique format and concept, and the viewership has only grown. Season 3 alone reached out to over sixty million viewers across India with engagement levels at an all-time high. Given the show’s popularity and vast fan base, we are certain that the upcoming season of Dil Beats will further cement MTV Beats at the forefront of the Hindi and Bollywood music space.”

  • Warner Music India inks music distribution deal with Vishesh Films

    Warner Music India inks music distribution deal with Vishesh Films

    Mumbai: Warner Music India has announced a strategic partnership with Vishesh Films to distribute the music of Bollywood films under the studio’s banner. As part of this partnership, Warner Music India will be releasing two iconic soundtrack albums—”Awarapan” and “Dhokha”—across all local and global streaming platforms, and radio and television broadcasters.

    “Warner Music India hopes to expand the soundtracks albums’ existing significant fan base and younger audiences to experience the rich music in them,” said the statement.

    “We are delighted to partner with Vishesh Films, a name synonymous with chartbusting music,” commented Warner Music India and SAARC managing director Jay Mehta. “With this partnership, we aim to re-create the musical magic of their super-hit songs by taking them to the newer and younger audiences of today.”

    The partnership aims to showcase music from the albums to new audiences. The hit soul-stirring tracks from “Awarapan” such as “Toh Phir Aao,” “Tera Mera Rishta,” and upbeat numbers such as “Mahiya” catapulted the love ballads to the top of the charts when they were released in 2007 and continue to rule fans’ hearts. Songs from the film “Dhoka” such as “Kab Tujhe” and “Roya Re” hit the right chord and have been equally loved by a huge audience.  

    “Warner Music India shared our belief that the music from our movies is immortal. This partnership is just the first step towards a long relationship,” said Vishesh Films director Sakshi Bhatt. “There are more exciting developments at Vishesh Films to come.”