Commemorating World Music Day, IPRS launches #KNOWYOURMUSIC campaign

Mumbai: Celebrating World Music Day, India’s only Copyright Society representing the authors, composers, and publishers of music – The Indian Performing Right Society Limited (IPRS) & Dolby Laboratories (a leading global innovator and developer of audio, imaging, and voice technologies) have come together to launch the campaign, “KNOWYOURMUSIC” to highlight the multiple genres of Indian music and create a more engaged audience. The launch will commence with a panel discussion on Monday, 21st, June 2021 at 5 pm with eminent personalities from the music industry like Atul Churamani (Managing Director of Turnkey Music & Publishing Pvt. Ltd), Shantanu Moitra (National award-winning Indian music composer), Hemjit Maloo (Director, Veena Music Pvt. Ltd.), Abha Hanjura (Popular Indian folk musician) and Abhinav Agarwal (Founder, Director Anahad Foundation). The session will be moderated by Mayur Puri (Lyricist, Screenwriter, and Actor). Registration to watch the panel discussion can be done on the following link- https://bit.ly/2TDPrrN.

Further, the initiative will witness participation from Anahad Foundation (an NGO that works for the Recognition, Preservation, and Evolution of Indian Folk Music), who has come on board as a member of IPRS joining hands with the society to reach out to the segment of folk music creators who have been left unnoticed and unexplored. Commencing the journey, IPRS would be enrolling over 100 folk artists, who are authors and composers as its member. Additionally, Dolby is on board with IPRS for this campaign, as they come together to reciprocate the sense of responsibility and reinvent how songs are made and experienced. With Dolby Atmos, the music comes alive and puts the audience inside the song in a whole new way, so that they feel it fully without limitations. It connects the listener with the artist’s vision and brings them closer than ever to the songs they love thereby creating a more engaged audience for the future of music and its creators.

Over the years, India has been recognized for its unity in diversity. Comprising of 29 states, each state has its mother tongue, traditions, culture, and therefore own style of music that contributes to the innumerable forms of music inhabiting varied cultures. In today’s world, music has become our constant companion and digitalization has made it easily available to one and all. Almost all forms of music can be accessed through a handheld device, but do we consciously engage with the music we are listening to? Do the minutiae of the music intrigue us or have we become passive listeners of music? What will be its impact on the creativity and cultural heritage of a musically rich country like India? These are the questions that constantly concern the music creator community.

While new trends and technologies will influence the way Music is created, distributed, and discovered, IPRS believes that it is also the responsibility of the stakeholders in the music industry to help nurture an environment of a ‘more engaged audience’. With this ethos, IPRS (Copyright society supporting authors, composers, and publishers of music) is taking a step forward to uphold the rich cultural heritage and legacy of music and its creators through the campaign, “KNOWYOURMUSIC”.

On this occasion, Mr. Javed Akhtar, Chairman of IPRS said, “Enriched over millennia, Indian music has always stood out by its vast cultural diversity. Music styles like Folk, Ghazal, Devotional, Instrumental, etc. have been presented by the music creators in unison to celebrate life, love, joy, loss, and the human condition. However, we have realized that a vast number of today’s audiences have limited exposure and knowledge of these styles of music and their creators. It is time we purposefully indulge in music and help to build a community of a more engaged audience, thus fuelling a flourishing future for music and its creators. To address this crucial concern IPRS has initiated the #KNOWYOURMUSIC campaign to unfold the rich musical heritage of India and simultaneously create a forum to initiate engagement with music.”

On the launch of the campaign Mr. Rakesh Nigam, CEO of IPRS commented “With this campaign, IPRS aims to initiate a transformation in the way people are consuming music, thus making music just not a passive consumption habit but a work of art and creation that audience would take notice of and love to engage with. Through the wide-ranging performances and sessions every month, IPRS looks forward to educating the audience on different styles of songs and music and the stories behind their creation. The more the audiences know about the music they are listening to, the more informed decision they will make.”

“Folk Music has always been a powerful part of our historic & ongoing domestic repertoire for ages now. In recent times we have seen huge examples of folk tunes being used in the mainstream like Badshah & Payal Dev in Genda Phool that just took the folk sound to the next level. I have huge confidence that this is a beginning of a resurgence of homegrown music that has great cultural relevance in the global music scene” added Devraj Sanyal, MD & CEO, India & South Asia at Universal Music Group
Backgrounder: The Indian Performing Right Society Ltd. is India’s only Copyright Society registered under the Copyright Act, 1957, and counts more than 6,500 of India’s best-known authors, composers, and music publishers as its members. The IPRS is authorized under the Copyright Act, 1957 to carry on the business of granting and issuing licenses in respect of musical works and literary works associated with musical works assigned to it by its members as well as collect and distribute the royalties to its members including the authors’ statutory royalties, for the exploitation of these works either by way of live performances and/or recorded music through any medium except when exhibited as a part of a cinematograph film shown in a cinema hall.