Ahmedabad : New year parties at various venues on December 31 this year, may see revellers dancing to music other than Bollywood numbers.
The reason being that Indian Music Industry (IMI) a conglomerate of music producers from major Indian labels have blacklisted some of the state’s top hotels as they failed to pay the mandatory usage tariff for usage of Bollywood film songs to the conglomerate.
Four prominent hotels in the city and three in Vadodara have been blacklisted by Phonographic Performance Ltd and Indian Performing Rights Society Ltd as the hotels failed to pay fee of Rs 40,000 to use music for new year parties.
Sowmya Chowdhury, country head, events, PPL, told TOI that parties see lot more expenditure on food, lighting and decoration but they do not give the due to music industry. “We do not want to harass revellers for the fault of party organisers. However, our men will guise as revellers and enter party spots. They will also record proceedings. If they are found violating the Copyright Act, we will serve them notices and initiate necessary legal action,” said Chowdhury.
He added that DJs also come under purview of the Copyright Act when they use music produced by Indian music industry. “The music is permissible if it is played at home or inside a car but when the owners of hotels use it for their profit, we can ask for our cut. If hotels fail to pay up the due, we can take legal action in the matter,” said Chowdhury.
However, Ahmedabad hoteliers were quick to hit back. Narendra Somani, a prominent hotelier and president of hotel owners association of Ahmedabad told TOI that all prominent hotels in the city have already paid mandatory fees to IMI for usage of Bollywood music. “However, they see New Year’s eve parties as a lucrative opportunity. IMI is thus asking for additional money since more people attend these parties,” he said.
Source: timesofindia
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