With the explosion of the independent music and video industry in India, and the rise of independent bands, artists and producers, it is a great time for creators to collaborate and share content that benefits each other. Now, more than ever, creators need to look outside their existing channels to cross pollinate. For example, I find that more and more video content creators (across genres such as short format, long format, episodic etc.) are stalling their work when it comes to the soundtrack because they do not have access to film composers and appropriate funding. Although this may seem like a roadblock for some it is not necessarily a place to halt. And with regard to the audio side of the spectrum; when the time comes to create visual content a lot of artists and bands hesitate to reach out to independent filmmakers because of budget constraints.
Reaching out to professionals is now easier than ever before and doing so through a good channel is definitely preferred. Sometimes, there may be a piece of the puzzle that you feel will cost a ton of money but, in fact, it might come for free or on a revenue share basis. After all, the artist/producer/director may be interested in having their work reach a wider audience or in building their portfolio. Moreover, such collaborations are incredibly fruitful for the industry as newer audiences get exposed to refreshing content. Besides, having readymade material is sometimes easier for certain creators to process and reference to in their work. All you need to do is to find a collaborator and start a dialogue!
This does not apply just to the independent music industry:
Even Bollywood has started looking within the independent music scene instead of working on their age old formula. It definitely gives a new edge to the work when you license pre-made music for your video project and this has become the norm in the west; music supervisors make a living doing this. Though it has slowly begun with the rise of indie-turned-mainstream production houses like Phantom and Drishyam there is scope for a lot more development on this front.
We cannot ask for the moon so we need to start small. At Horus Music India, we encourage our artists to network in order to explore wider opportunities for their work. Similarly, on the publishing side of things we are in touch with a host of production houses and music supervisors and we send out relevant music to them for their projects. So if you have music that you think would be great in a film or want to know more about such opportunities don’t hesitate to get in touch with us via: hello@anarapublishing.com.
