Source - http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/4178908.cms?prtpage=1
Don't be surprised if you walk into a Landmark store and are greeted with a 'Jai Ho' rather than the usual 'welcome' or 'may I help you'. With Slumdog Millionaire sweeping the awards ceremony with eight Oscars, two of them for music director AR Rahman, retailers and music labels are leaving no stone unturned to cash in on Raha-mania with special collections and prominent displays. "We've put up posters that say 'Slumdog Rules' and are making sure Rahman albums and collections get good visibity and airplay at all our outlets. Slumdog Millionaire, both the book and the music, started flying off the shelves post the Golden Globe awards. And there's been crazy demand today with the Cademy awards as well," Landmark head (marketing) Lijin Thomas told ET. The RPG Group's Music World has a similar tale to tell. There'll be focus on Rahman collections and our stores will highlight the Oscar win, a spokesperson of Spencer's Retail said. "The next step will be to talk to music labels and figure out if they're planning any new albums, collections or covers. Our stores will prominently display the full range of Rahman's music," he added. T Series, which has the rights for two of Rahman's latest albums, Slumdog Millionaire and Delhi 6, is working on a best of Rahman collection. "We're planning a Rahman Signature series which will be three or four-CD packs that will pack in the best of his muscial genius. It will be out in the next couple of days," said T Series senior general manager (marketing) Arun Kumar. Mr Kumar said they expect a 25-30% increase in offtake of Rahman albums in the coming months. In all, it has the rights to seven ARR titles, including all of the music director's releases last year, Jane Tu Ya Jane Na, Taare Zameen Par, Ghajini. The company, for which 40% revenues come for its digital business, has an exclusive tie-up with Hungama.com for digital downloads. Moserbaer will follow a parallel path, releasing all time favourites of Rahman's compositions- Rang De Basanti, Humse Hai Muquabla, Guru, Dilse, Yuva and Bhagat Singh, as a package titled Rahman the musical maestro, for Rs 294. "We have been collecting these movies over the years, and this is, of course, the right time to use them profitably," said Moserbaer India entertainment business COO G Dhananjayan. The company bought the six movies in this collection for a total of Rs 2 crore, and expects to sell 10,000 sets in the first month. It has two more such collections- one in Hindi, and another in Tamil, up its sleeve. "People want to see Rahman when they enter a music store now. So, Rahman is a brand for any music label today," Mr.Dhananjayan said. However, Music label old-timers say the bulk of business now comes from digital downloads than hard copy sales in terms of casettes and CDs. Reliance Big Adda has been seeing a 40% increase in the consumption of Rahman related music content in its livestreams. "Over the past 24 hours, our 20,000 strong Rahman fans community has seen a 50% jump in activity. The young, digitally hooked crowd is out there, searching for content from their youth icon Rahman," said Big Adda COO Shivanandan Pare. Music labels have also adapted by selling rights to different. "We've licensed various companies for digital downloads of all of Rahman's movies in our list. It includes telcos like Airtel and Vodaphone, MP3 kiosk companies like Mango DVM and some web portals," says Ghanshyam Hemdev of Pyramid Audio, which has the rights for the most number of Rahman's movie titles in Tamil, 26 in all, including hits like Gentleman, Bombay and Muthu. An official of Saregama in Chennai told ET enquiries had already started pouring in from music stores on how much they in increase supplies of Rahman's scores. "Demand is likely to increase three-fold as shops which used to take around 50 units a day have been asking us if we could start supplying 150-200 from tomorrow," the official said.
