Singers set to get royalty on songs
Highlights
It's like a dream come true to legendary singers like P Suseela,S P Balasubrahmanyam and Jesudas to get royalty for the numbers they had been singing since decades. It is a boon for present and future generation singers as well. At last, the singers who never claimed any royalty for their songs which have been being played on radio, TV and Internet and also in form of ringtones in mobile phones, have organized themselves to stake their claim.
S V Suryaprakasa Rao
Chennai: It's like a dream come true to legendary singers like P Suseela,S P Balasubrahmanyam and Jesudas to get royalty for the numbers they had been singing since decades. It is a boon for present and future generation singers as well. At last, the singers who never claimed any royalty for their songs which have been being played on radio, TV and Internet and also in form of ringtones in mobile phones, have organized themselves to stake their claim. They recently founded an orgnaization Indian Singers Rights Association (ISRA) which is made a constitutional body by the government under Copyright Act of June, 21, 2012.
The ISRA had its first meeting in Chennai at Accord Hotel with legendary singers S P, Susheela, Vanijayaram, Sujatha, Mano, Hariharan, Jesudas under the chairmanship of its managing director SanjayTandon. They expressed their happiness over smooth beginning of the process to pay royalty to the singers. After the meeting, all the singers appeared before the media to clarify that the demand for royalty is being made in a humble manner. “We are not fighetrs we are only artistes destined to entetain people,” said SP. Hariharan and Jesudas said that they were not getting anybody's share . “In addition to what producers and music diriectors get on each song, we get our just share,” they said.
Detailing the functioning of the body Tandon said that they had a special machanism in which field officers would collect the royalty money for each and every play of songs composed from 1963 after careful monitoring of hits, plays in Internet, radios, TV channels and mobile phones. The collected money will be paid to respective singers by ISRA. All the leading singer's meeting is a bid to understand their rights, post the recent amendment in the copyright law that entails them to get a share in royalties as well.
While leading singers from Bollywood held an event last month to showcase their unity, singers in Kollywood too have joined the bandwagon now. As Susheela rightly put it in the opening speech, they celebrated the meeting as a birthday. “This is really a birth of realisation of long-cherished dreams of singers.” Many young singers like Kartheek Harini, Tippu, Sowmya Rao expressed their happiness and described it as a boost not only for them but also new generation singers to come .
Next Story
