Frenchman buys 25,000 Indian songs

A Frenchman (Mr. Forler) has bought the rights to 25,000 Indian songs - partly to make sure the composers and lyricists get royalties.The 54-year-old former French embassy employee paid $3m to buy or administer rights to compositions which include some by leading Bollywood composers and lyricists like KL Saigal, RD Burman, Javed Akhtar and Anu Malik. Mr Forler says the problem with most Indian music writers and lyricists is that they sign contracts accepting a one-off payment from recording companies or film producers without "realising the long term royalty potential"."The Indian music industry has huge potential. But if it wants to go global in a big way, it should adopt international practices of accounting and payments," he says ( Courtesy : BBC).

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