On Sunday afternoon Nepali singer Anil Singh posted a note on his Facebook profile expressing his displeasure against Nepal’s music industry. The title of the post was ‘Thoughts to commit suicide’. The musician rues the fact that Nepali music industry, including FM stations and Television channels, have refused to pay a royalty to him.
The artist also claims that his YouTube channel got suspended because of someone’s copyright claim. Moreover, he has written that music companies like Indreni Cassette Centre, Music.com, Samjhana Audio Video, and Reeyaz Music have violated the contract with him since he only had the agreement for five years. The artist, furthermore, pleads the FM stations and televisions to pay the royalty for airing his songs.
Girish Khatiwada, a popular musician, says, “It is not just Anil’s problem but most artists who started their career before YouTube face the same thing.” He added, “There’s no culture of paying royalties to artists and instead everyone wants to make quick money out of Nepali musicians.” This is not right. He sounded serious.
The problem faced by Anil Singh might not be a lone case since other artists echo similar voices. The lead singer of Abhaya & Steam Injuns, Abhaya Subba, wrote on her Facebook that Nepali musicians are succumbing to the Internet trends and changing consumerism.
It is the time that Nepali music industry pays a royalty to musicians in Nepal so that we don’t have to see artists fading away.
