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Tag: Sony Music

  • Mythik names Preeti Vyas president to steer content and partnerships

    Mythik names Preeti Vyas president to steer content and partnerships

    MUMBAI: Mythik, the tech-first entertainment upstart styling itself as the “Disney from the East”, has hired Preeti Vyas as president of content strategy, partnerships and consumer products.

    Vyas, who previously served as president and chief executive of Amar Chitra Katha, brings three decades of experience across publishing, retail and entertainment. At Amar Chitra Katha, she engineered the heritage brand’s revival, taking it from nostalgia act to profitable modern player while driving readership tenfold to over 6 million globally.

    Her career has spanned founding Fun OK Please publishing, the company behind children’s favourites like Toto the Auto, to senior stints at Future Group, Sony Music, Toys R Us and Crossword. She also piloted transmedia adaptations of franchises such as Tinkle and built licensing deals that expanded their reach.

    At Mythik, she will spearhead efforts to package mythology, history and folktales from the East for a global audience, tapping into new-age distribution and consumer products.

    Mythik, founder and chief executive, Jason Kothari called Vyas “a rare combination of strategic acumen and creative vision” and said her track record of transforming heritage brands would be key to realising the company’s global ambitions.

    Vyas herself described the role as “an opportunity to present stories from our ancient past at a scale never attempted before”.

    Alongside her corporate career, she sits on industry bodies including the Media & Entertainment Skills Council and the Advertising Standards Council of India, giving her a perch at the intersection of policy, talent and content. 

  • Duolingo & Sony Music partner to add hit songs to music course

    Duolingo & Sony Music partner to add hit songs to music course

    Mumbai: Duolingo, a mobile learning platform, has announced a partnership with Sony Music that brings popular songs to its music course. This new feature is designed to make learning music more fun and engaging by incorporating well-known songs into the curriculum.

    More than 60 songs from Sony Music artists, like Hozier, Meghan Trainor, Whitney Houston, and more, are now available so learners can study the foundations of music and practice their music theory skills, such as reading music, understanding note lengths, and differentiating notes by sound, sight, and key on a digital mobile piano.

    “At Duolingo, we’re constantly looking for ways to make learning more effective and entertaining,” said Duolingo head of business development George Audi. “We’re partnering with Sony Music, a leader in the music industry, to bring our learners a library of chart-topping songs they can learn to read and play.”

    “Partnering with Duolingo gives us the opportunity to bring our artists’ music to a new platform that promotes learning and cultural exchange,” said Sony Music senior vice president, sync licensing Jessica Shaw. “Music has the power to unite and inspire, and this partnership will help learners engage with music education in a meaningful and enjoyable way.”

    By integrating popular songs from more than 40 artists into the lesson experience, Duolingo aims to enhance learning retention and comprehension while making learning to read and play music more delightful for millions of learners worldwide.

    To get a closer look at the updates to the music course, tune into Duocon, the brand’s flagship global event, on 24 September 2024. Register for Duocon here.

  • Aditya Khanolkar joins Sony Music Entertainment India as the head of administration

    Aditya Khanolkar joins Sony Music Entertainment India as the head of administration

    Mumbai: Aditya Khanolkar joins Sony Music Entertainment India Pvt Ltd as the head of administration. Prior to Sony Music, Aditya was associated with Viacom18 Media Pvt Ltd. He brings over two decades of experience in administrative business with his rich and diverse expertise on the back of cost optimisation and automation.

    At Sony Music, he will be at the helm of scaling up the employee engagement experience, overseeing forecasting compliance management and budget management amongst others.

  • 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.

  • Sahas Malhotra named as CEO of JioSaavn

    Sahas Malhotra named as CEO of JioSaavn

    Mumbai: JioSaavn has appointed entertainment industry veteran Sahas Malhotra as its new CEO. With his appointment, the music company aims to continue providing enhanced holistic audio experience to consumers, it said.

    “In this role, Malhotra will be based out of the company’s headquarters in Mumbai and lead its endeavors in a constantly evolving and exciting Indian market,” said the statement.

    Before joining JioSaavn, he was associated with Amazon Music as a director. He brings on board an experience of twenty four years in the entertainment industry, in building teams, film marketing, music P&L management, licensing, media planning, music publishing and product management.

    Over the years, Malhotra has also worked with renowned industry players like Sony Music India and Tips Industries. At Tips Industries, Sahas was leading the business at Tips Music and marketing for Tips Film production, in addition to leading extensive marketing verticals for the business.

    As the director of digital and new business at Sony Music India for  over 12 years, he successfully led his team to achieve revenue targets in the fast-changing entertainment industry. In addition, Malhotra also led Sony Music India’s digital P&L and mentored teams across media planning, media buying, promotions, marketing alliances and new business development departments.

    His impressive track record also includes extensive understanding of mobile value-added services, online music, online video marketing, syndication, media planning & buying, music publishing, TV, print & radio marketing, social media marketing, online advertising and film marketing.

  • Divo Music Partners with Sony/ATV to Expand Global Publishing Services in India

    Divo Music Partners with Sony/ATV to Expand Global Publishing Services in India

    MUMBAI:  Today, Divo Music, one of India’s leading digital media and music companies in music distribution and publishing, announced it has partnered with Sony/ATV Music Publishing to administer its publishing rights for overseas markets. Sony/ATV is the leading global music publishing company, which recently expanded into India's music publishing market.

    With this new partnership, Sony/ATV will provide publishing and administration services to Divo Music’s extensive community of songwriters, composers and lyricists and deliver new opportunities for their musical works on a global scale.

    Guy Henderson, Sony/ATV President, International, stated, “Sony/ATV India takes great pleasure in welcoming Shahir and his great stable of artists and songwriters to the Sony/ATV global family. We are very excited at expanding our Indian repertoire by adding Divo’s new and exciting talent to our global roster and we look forward to being part of their international success both now and the in the years to come.”

    Dinraj Shetty, Director, Sony/ATV India said, “We are thrilled to welcome Divo Music to the Sony/ATV Music Publishing family. We look forward to giving Divo Music and its artists transparent and efficient monetization opportunities for their works across multiple platforms, and I’m confident we will achieve great success together in this partnership.”

    Shahir Muneer, Director & Founder, Divo Music said, “We are glad to partner with Sony/ATV to help us with our music monetization on the publishing side of the business. Using their strong tech capabilities and our operational and content strengths we will be able to effectively generate a more streamlined approach to collecting our royalties from outside India. And the major benefactor won’t be just our organization but all the music directors and lyricists who are part of those musical works, as they will effectively get royalties faster and more comprehensively which otherwise may have been not reaching them. The digital music industry is booming and publishing royalties from digital is a very key factor and there is great scope to innovate and bring in new offerings. We look forward to our association with Sony/ATV in helping our music business journey.”

  • Play By The Rules With PPL India

    Play By The Rules With PPL India

    Phonographic Performance Limited (PPL) is India’s largest organization licensing and monetising ‘Public Performance rights’ and ‘Radio Broadcasting rights’ for over 3 million national and international songs across 340+ top-notch music labels like Aditya Music, Anand Audio, Lahiri Music, Muzik 247, Saregama, Sony Music, Speed Records, SVF Music, Times Music, T-Series, Universal Music, Venus to name a few.

    Each year the music industry produces hundreds of songs, many of which resonate with the audience and become a part of our cultural ethos. In the last few years, there has been an intense drive to increase compliance from users of copyrighted sound recordings for public performance purposes. Enforcement authorities as well as judiciary have played a major role alongside simplification and rationalization of tariffs by PPL. 

    The implementation of digital initiatives such as PLUS have speeded up the process of obtaining a license and the response from businesses and event management companies has been heart-warming. India is now at par with some of the most developed markets in terms of copyright compliance and is seeing this revenue go back into the development of artists and repertoire.  In its endeavour to further increase compliance, PPL is consistently taking efforts to identify defaulters and ensuring that they are dealt with, under the relevant provisions of law.

    Commenting on the same, Rajat Kakar, MD & CEO, PPL India said, “I am delighted that there has been a huge surge in establishments taking on performance licenses for both background music and events. I am thankful to the users of sound recordings for coming forward to obtain licenses in large numbers. Also, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the enforcement teams across the country for ensuring that the rightful earnings of owners of sound recording are being protected. 

    The technology initiatives and professional work processes, at PPL, are ensuring that right owners are being fairly compensated. India is being seen as a shining example of copyright compliance and ethical practices by international agencies that seek to protect intellectual property rights. I urge the few misguided non-compliant users to come forward to obtain a license for usage of sound recordings for public performance and play music by the rules.”

    Under the Copyright Act 1957, each and every establishment or individual must obtain consent from the copyright owners of the music before they intend to play it publicly. PPL by virtue of controlling over 3 million songs, makes this process a simplified one by offering a single window license for usage of all its members’ works. 

    PPL’s dominant share of International, Hindi and Regional music is available to users for Public Performance and Radio Broadcast. 

    PPL encourages all users to procure the requisite License to avoid legal proceedings against them. As any offence under Section 51 & 63 of the Copyright Act of 1957, is an infringement of PPL’s copyright and punishable by law.

  • Sony Music teams up with TikTok to launch their smash hit single ‘Haaye Oye’ by QARAN Feat. the gorgeous Elli AvrRam and dance icon Shantanu Maheshwari

    Sony Music teams up with TikTok to launch their smash hit single ‘Haaye Oye’ by QARAN Feat. the gorgeous Elli AvrRam and dance icon Shantanu Maheshwari

    MUMBAI: Global music giant, Sony Music has teamed up with TikTok, the world’s leading short video platform for their hit single ‘Haaye Oye’. Sung by Ash King and composed by QARAN (of the Tareefan fame) the song video features the vivacious Elli AvrRam and dance icon Shantanu Maheshwari. The video has become a favourite amongst the Gen Z and is already known as the Love song of the year!

    Says Rohan Jha, Head, Sony Music Pop, “With Tik Tok being such a rage amongst the youth we decided to have a deeper integration with them. For the song, Tik tok has created a first of its kind musical sticker – which has been weaved into the video narrative. The tremendous response to the video and the deep audience involvement with Tik Tok have resulted in some incredible numbers and quality of participation. The association is one of its kind – and exemplifies what an engaging content and an involved platform can do together. ”

    Added Sumedhas Rajgopal, Entertainment Strategy and Partnerships Lead (India) at TikTok, ”As a platform that celebrates creativity, we are thrilled to partner with Sony Music to launch their latest single, ‘Haaye Oye’. With its easy-to-use tools, interactive features and intelligent discovery system, TikTok is fast becoming a launchpad for artists to promote their latest hits. We look forward to engaging more Indian music fans through exclusive content that encourages them to bring their imagination to life.”

    Directed by the ingenious and talented Vishal Handa, the song video celebrates young-love with an urban but chic Bollywood routine and a very unique hook-step that is sure to have a massive up-take by viewers.

    Choreographed by industry leader Ashley Lobo and Danceworx, the hook step has become a fad with the dancer community!

  • Sony Music acquires the music rights for 2018’s much awaited sports drama film ‘SOORMA’

    Sony Music acquires the music rights for 2018’s much awaited sports drama film ‘SOORMA’

    MUMBAI: Global music giant, Sony Music has acquired the music rights for Soorma – the greatest comeback story of the hockey legend Sandeep Singh.

    Directed by Shaad Ali and produced by Sony Pictures Networks Productions, Chitrangda Singh & Deepak Singh, the music has been composed by the hit trio Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy with lyrics by the celebrated and multi-talented Gulzar. 

    Commenting on the association, Sony Music India, Marketing Director,  Sanujeet Bhujabal says, “Soorma is a story that everyone needs to know and the movie is a real-life drama that unfolds for its viewers. It is one of the biggest comeback stories that will stay with you for long.  The magic of Gulzar Saab and the uber talented Shankar -Ehsaan-Loy have created melodies that are lyrically rich and fit perfectly with the story line and infact enhances it further. We released the first song last week and it has seen massive response and prior to the release we will have 3 more singles releasing.”

    Sneha Rajani, Head, Sony Pictures Networks Productions, “The songs in Soorma, have shades of romance, inspiration, sadness and hope which perfectly resonates with the film and its powerful story. We are extremely lucky to have a magical team put together the music of this film. To work with the legendary Gulzar saab and Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy has been an amazing journey in itself. We are delighted to have Sony Music on board, because we believe the music of this film will reach the hearts of millions of people worldwide.”

    The theatrical release of the film is scheduled for 13th July 2018. The first song, ‘Ishq Di Baajiyaan’ sung by Diljit Dosanjh is available on Sony Music’s YouTube channel and across all audio platforms for streaming and download. In total, Soorma will have 5 songs.

  • Sony music presents a unique musical experience with ‘7up madras gig’

    Sony music presents a unique musical experience with ‘7up madras gig’

    MUMBAI: Global music giant, Sony Music who are constantly pushing music discovery and development of new talent, present listeners with ‘7UP Madras Gig’. In its first season, this unique initiative will showcase musicians and sounds from the South of India.  Sony Music in collaboration with Knack Studios, aims to provide listeners with fresh new Tamil Pop music created by artists such as, Oorka, Sajith Sathya and Santhosh Dhayanidhi along with established artists like D.Imman, Leon James, Vivek-Mervin. ‘7UP Madras Gig’ will have artists explore and experiment with new themes and genres giving discerning listeners new and contemporary sounds by their favourite artists.

    Styled by Myntra with NAC Jewellers as jewellery partner, the first look of the digital property launches on May 14th while the weekly episode releases on May 22nd 2018.

    Says celebrated composer D. Imman, “7UP Madras Gig will change the way South listens to music. I am getting an opportunity to create themes to showcase musical and lyrical expression which is purely non-film. I am all set to get on the floor, I am sure my listeners will be surprised.”

    Adding on, President India & Middle EastShridhar, Subramaniam, who conceptualized the concept says, “The idea here is to give listeners a fresh sound created by the finest talent from theSouth. We are keen to start a Pop culture in South where we connect artists and fans directly and without the aid of a Movie. We feel this will give rise to a new genre also encouraging other artists to come forth for the next season.”

    PepsiCo India, Associate Director, Flavors Marketing, Gaurav Verma said, “7UP is a well-loved brand in Tamil Nadu, and has led several refreshing campaigns to bring together the state’s youth through different mediums like cricket, dance and drama. This is the second time that we are using music as a platform to connect with the people in Tamil Nadu. It is a universal language and 7UP Madras Gig is our way of saluting the rich and vibrant talent of the state. Through the platform, we look forward to bringing together talented young voices to the forefront of the music scene in Tamil Nadu.”

    Adds on Harish Raam LH, President and Co-founder, Knack Studios “We at Knack Studios have always had a passion for providing a world class platform for independent music and feel that Madras Gig will be a cornerstone in realizing that vision. This collaboration with Sony Music is exciting as they will provide the perfect reach for the artists while we offer our state of the art facility, ensuring a world class product.”

    Each Season will consist of 6 Audio Tracks, 6 Live Performance Videos and many more ancillary music content episodes that will appeal to the audiences.

    The first season begins on Tuesday May 22nd , so stay tuned to Sony Music’s YouTube channel.