Music labels spar with film producers over soundtrack costs

Depending on specific contracts, streaming platforms pay music labels between 50 paise and ₹2 per stream

- Lata Jha

Music labels are struggling to monetize their rights, often unable to even recover the amount they shelled out to purchase a Hindi film album. Audio streaming platforms have lowered their pay rates (sum paid per stream for a song) by about half over the past few months, as audience preferences shift away from music to other genres of entertainment such as stand-up comedy and podcasts on YouTube.

But this decline in listenership, and the resultant fall in revenues have failed to move producers to lower the price at which they sell their film music rights to music labels, who in turn license them to streaming platforms. Producers backing big-star projects have been particularly rigid when it comes to renegotiating prices, leading to fewer music sale deals happening lately and rights of multiple movies lying unsold, industry executives said.