Railways bid to make journeys musical hits royalty hurdle

But, the Indian Performing Right Society (IPRS), a body which issues licences permitting usage of music within India, has demanded a hefty royalty from the cash-strapped Railways, leaving authorities of the national transporter baffled. The IPRS has demanded money at the rate of 25 paise per day per passenger multiplied by the number of passengers travelling in a train daily. This would be multiplied by the number of trains and further multiplied by 365 days.

Hit with the massive quote, the Eastern Railway has decided to scale down the number of trains they want to play music in. From seven trains as planned earlier, they now plan to implement the move in two Rajdhanis and two Durontos out of Kolkata. But even then, the musical journeys are going to cost them nearly Rs 16 lakh a year, an amount Railways thinks is exorbitant for a non-essential service.
Following a meeting between IPRS representatives and Eastern Railway officials in Kolkata, the copyright holder decided to bring down the quote to Rs 10 lakh. Even that is proving too much for Railways. The condition is to deposit the amount with the society before getting the authorisation.The zonal railway recently sent an ‘urgent’ message to Delhi to resolve this issue.

“We have written to the Railway ministry to take up the matter with the ministry concerned and work out a solution that involves us paying just a token amount,” R N Mohapatra, Chief Public Relations Officer of Eastern Railway told The Indian Express. “We are not in the business of playing music. We are only transporters, so why charge us so much?,” he added.

Based on the inter-ministerial deliberations, the Chief Commercial Manager in the zonal railway will take a call.

Avishek Basu, regional manager of IPRS, which comes under the HRD Ministry, said: “We have asked from railways what we demand from other organisations like Air India. They all pay us as the approved tariff. Even Commonwealth Games paid us a copyright amount.”