Amaal Mallik on Mafia-like behaviour of Music Labels: Right now it's a Dog Eat Dog industry!

Lately, a lot has been discussed about the music industry and many artists have reportedly uncovered some of the darkest secrets. Music composer Amaal Mallik experienced a rather impulsive outburst on social media last month; wherein he lashed out at Salman Khan fans on Twitter, after they trolled the 30-year-old singer-composer for saying that Shah Rukh Khan was his favorite actor, despite the fact that Salman Khan gave Mallik his first break in the industry.

Amaal explained, 'why an artist' should always voice their opinion he said, “I don’t understand why it is a crime to voice that. Am I hurting an ego? If yes, what should change? Me hurting one, or those fans keeping one when their own superstar asks them to not behave this way? Fair question to ask.”

He added, “I have known how difficult artists find it to make ends meet because I’ve seen it happen at home. It’s what led me to always voice my opinion against any sort of injustice that I think can be rectified.”

During his interaction with Hindustan Times, he was quoted saying, “As far as the IPRS and Royalties issue goes, half of the creators I’ve had a chat with don’t even exactly know how this functions. They don’t seem to know their own rights and what they’re justified in asking for.” 

He also stated, “Musicians from outside India don’t work with us easily because we have no royalties for the musicians or the music producers in our country. We work on a buy out system. Music is a team effort and all of us, including musicians and programmers/producers, are also the backbone of a song along with the authors.”

Mallik ruled out some of the most shocking problems in the music industry and mentioned that upcoming musicians are partly to be blamed as well for always being at the receiving end of corporate politics, due to the lack of unity present within themselves.

“If an upcoming composer, singer, lyricist or music producer doesn’t waive off their rights, someone else is always ready to give in and immediately you are replaced. If I don’t agree someone else will as there’s hardly any unity within the music scene,” he said.

Speaking about the mafia-like behavior of music labels, Mallik maintained that “right now it's a dog eat dog industry” which has made them, as an industry, succumb to ‘short term success’ over longevity, not knowing, that latter will earn “us the buck” for a longer time and “the math” will be the same or even more. 

“Now, it’s tough to ask someone to live with a piece or art and let it grow on you. I have nothing against groupism, but at least make sure what you create stands a chance to meet with some quality,” he says.

“If an artists’ community showcases cohesiveness, no so-called mafia, and trust me it’s not one label or production house, it’s all of them, but, nobody can ever penetrate and swing things if artists are united. It’s a matter of perspective but I guess that will eventually give way to quality and in turn, business,” he signs off. 

Earlier, the entire nation saw Sonu Nigam’s outburst after Sushant Singh Rajput’s death. Nigam shared a vlog on his Instagram where he spoke about his concern in the music industry as he doesn’t want some other artists from the music and film industry to take such a drastic step just like Sushant.