Mumbai : After a session with the Rotarians, veteran Ralph Simon on a drive to Bandra quickly spoke about the changing trends in Indian technology to shaping up of Indian music scene.
Simon who was in the city to attend a two-day conference and for a session at Rotary Club of Bombay, said, “Indian technology is very advance. I have seen that development in the country.” He believes that Indians have the capability to lead the world in robotics.
A Londoner who has travelled across the world for his work commitments, keeps praising India and the talent here. Enthusiastic about a session with Bollywood singer Arijit Singh, he said, “India has really smart people.” He believes that India has to leverage that talent pool which is possible only by right managers and music talents. He added people like Tarsame Mittal of TM Talent Management and Vijay Nair of Only Much Louder, have been doing their own thing to make the Indian music industry grow.
He feels happy about the fact that young people in the country are moving towards streaming rather than buying music. Based on the success of streaming services like Saavn and other home grown streaming services, International streaming service like Spotify is looking at entering the Indian market. He stated that lot of young people are talking about Spotify which makes India attractive to the company. However, in the past many international streaming services like Guvera and Rdio have shut shops. The music industry has witnessed a hockey stick pick up for the first time in 20 years. “All of the major companies like T series, started to see real improvement in usage,” he added. The booming live music scene in India has worked in the favour of the industry.
“But there is one big thing that I am looking forward to and that is finding ways in which Indian artistes, writers and composers can start to make an impact internationally.” Citing the example of Bollywood actor Priyanka Chopra, Simon added three years ago Chopra tried to make an impact internationally. So, he strongly believes, “It is going to be an Indian super star that will create an impact internationally.”
But he adds the right mix to become a global artiste would be advice Indian artistes to record songs not just in Hindi but local languages like Telugu, Tamil and any other regional languages. Simon, founder and CEO of Mobilium Global Limited expressed that these forward looking Indian artistes should also record in Tagalog and Mandarin. “If an Indian singer sings in Tagalog even one chorus of the song, he will find new social media audiences,” he added. This approach will help them attract huge fan following in social media. There are many YouTube stars in the past who have moved from being a YouTube star to a global artiste. Recalling the act of Akon in Hindi, he said that after Akon’s song was used in a movie by Shahrukh Khan, his Facebook followers increased by 10 million followers.
