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GEO FOCUS INDIA


POPULATION: 1.2 BILLION


£2.5 billion


Cost of internet piracy to the Indian music industry every year


Word on the Street >>> DISTRIBUTOR


Based in the heart of India’s film and music capital, Mumbai, Sound Team has been supplying the country’s pro-audio industry for over 15 years. We talk to company partner Shiv Sood about the current state of the market.


First off, tell me a bit about yourself and your background in the pro-audio industry. As a youngster I used to visit the music-recording studio my father Daman Sood used to work in and was intrigued by the audio recording process and all the fancy equipment. It was also around that time when the audio industry was moving from analogue tape recorders to DAWs. In 1994, Daman decided to start an audio consultancy and distribution company. I subsequently did a course in audio engineering and decided to get involved in the business of audio distribution. Today we distribute brands like Genelec, SSL, DPA Microphones, Manley Labs, Chandler, Brauner Microphones, Bricasti, Cranesong, Grace Design, Thermionic Culture, and Prism Sound in India.


India is recognised worldwide as a huge producer of everything from films to music. Has this large amount of content production created a healthy market for pro-audio equipment? The Indian music industry is largely based around music for films and there are very few artists who have successfully launched their own private albums. But we are seeing a trend over the past two or three years where independent artist and bands are producing music not related to films. I think it’s largely due to better market exposure and good audio gear being easily accessible. Today it really does not cost much to buy your own recording gear and make music. Overall I would say the market has a lot of growth potential going forward.


www.audiomedia.com


Have you seen any trends in technology purchasing in the past few years? Is there anything that could be unique to India? A lot of our customers are actually investing in analogue gear. Our customers realise that you can get only that far with audio plug-ins. They are looking at high-resolution convertors, summing boxes, bus compressors, etc. Customers today actually want to develop a unique sound of their own by hand picking the pieces of gear in their signal chain that define their sound; and this is not only the big audio studios but even music producers working out of their bedrooms.


In many other countries large-format recording studios are closing as people move to smaller facilities or mobile set-ups. What is the current state of the music recording industry in India? Large-format studios that have been around for the last seven to ten years are still actually in the market. We have not seen any of them shut down. But there are no new large-format studios being built. One of the problems has been that the music and film hubs are within the main city and with sky rocketing real estate costs it’s really making them unviable to build any longer. We are seeing a lot of music producers/ mix engineers actually set up their own studio. The situation where you earlier would have a studio owner (investor) and then have sound engineers run the place is literally disappearing. Today the engineers and music producers are investing in setting up their own space.


What about audio post-production? Audio post-production studios have been doing well as it still demands a facility to be run out of a proper commercial space. Over the past few years we have seen more quality post-production studios being built than music studios. Also there is a fair amount of competition to have the most current production platforms and invest in regular studio upgrades.


Are there any other sections of the market that are experiencing growth right now? The sound reinforcement market, audio post- production studios, film mix facilities upgrading to Dolby Atmos or Auro-3D. Cable television has begun to move to HD transmission and have seen some interest in studios and broadcast facilities upgrading to 5.1.


Have there been any significant changes to legislations, regulations, or laws that have affected the industry? Taxation in India is quite high, which is a dampener to growth. Import duties are around 30% and then you have VAT charged between 12% and 15% across different states. When you consider the Indian rupee has devalued by over 20% against major global currencies over the course of last year and with the addition to these duties and taxes it is making things a bit difficult. The government needs to rationalise these duties and taxes to help things improve. www.soundteam.in


April 2014 21


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