Sometime back Google launched an online Bollywood music service called Google Music India. On opening the site, I was curious about the licensing issues etc being from a background where I had read about software and music industry patents, DRM, etc. I asked Glyn Moody, the famous tech blogger and journalist, and he told me about such things existing in China. In fact I'm writing this article inspired by him.
It was almost 2 months back. Then I found that Google had partnered with saavn.com, an Indian site providing legal streaming music( Google won't do illegal business obviously! ). Now though, it has 2 more partners: in.com & Saregama, a music company that dominated the market earlier under the mane HMV(His Master's Voice). Now Google music India also provides Telugu music, in addition to Hindi music.
I am yet confused about the license issues and treaties it has with the music industry, but yeah, having streaming music free will only drive up album sales as they don't get to download it, still get to "sample it". You like it and then buy it, much like what bookshops provide.
On the other hand you have some piracy sites, the most popular being Songs.pk. In Pakistan, due to certain anti-Indian sentiments, you have a host of piracy sites catering to Bollywood audience. Another reason is the oppressive regime in Pakistan that doesn't let all movies be released etc, that leads them to pirate it. Songs.pk and similar sites surprisingly draw ads from even famous Indian potential advertisers like Amity University. The funniest part is that sites like apniISP.com get ads from distributors of the movies whose content they are pirating( most probably due to advertising distributors' agencies): look at the screenshot here--
Only time will tell what dominates, but definitely Google made the plunge at just the right time, as now the bandwidth is appreciable good in India and has a good per capita internet usage.
It was almost 2 months back. Then I found that Google had partnered with saavn.com, an Indian site providing legal streaming music( Google won't do illegal business obviously! ). Now though, it has 2 more partners: in.com & Saregama, a music company that dominated the market earlier under the mane HMV(His Master's Voice). Now Google music India also provides Telugu music, in addition to Hindi music.
I am yet confused about the license issues and treaties it has with the music industry, but yeah, having streaming music free will only drive up album sales as they don't get to download it, still get to "sample it". You like it and then buy it, much like what bookshops provide.
On the other hand you have some piracy sites, the most popular being Songs.pk. In Pakistan, due to certain anti-Indian sentiments, you have a host of piracy sites catering to Bollywood audience. Another reason is the oppressive regime in Pakistan that doesn't let all movies be released etc, that leads them to pirate it. Songs.pk and similar sites surprisingly draw ads from even famous Indian potential advertisers like Amity University. The funniest part is that sites like apniISP.com get ads from distributors of the movies whose content they are pirating( most probably due to advertising distributors' agencies): look at the screenshot here--
 |
| Screen shot-- notice the ad by EROS for its new movie Challo Dilli |
Only time will tell what dominates, but definitely Google made the plunge at just the right time, as now the bandwidth is appreciable good in India and has a good per capita internet usage.
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