Kumar Sanu shares why singers made an association to get royalties: ‘Music directors, lyricists and music companies were all benefitting, why not the singers?’

In 2012, the Indian Singers’ Rights Association (ISRA) fought for the rights of the singers and got an amendment to the Copyright Act, 1957, giving birth to a new law ‘Performer’s Right’, from June 21, 2012. Singer Kumar Sanu was a part of this association. He recently spoke at length about what led to the formation of the Singers’ Association.

Sanu said that everything was going well until the music companies started to use the songs of the singers as a business to earn profits. He told Bollywood Bubble, “Earlier, there was a system that come, take money according to your rate, and sing a song. We accepted it and sang songs. Later, they (music companies) started doing business with that song. They sold cassettes and CDs and earned big money. Even then, singers didn’t object. But then they went a step ahead and started asking for money from the radio for playing their songs.”

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This is when the singers stepped in to take what they considered was their “right”. Sanu continued, “When they started doing this, then we were like, we are also there in the queue. So, if music directors, lyricists and music companies are benefitting from it, why not the singers? That is when we made an association and fought for royalty. Our ask was not unfair. We are not saying give us more, but give us something. We have some rights to take some money from the collections happening worldwide.”

As per the Copyright Act 1957, singers can claim royalties from all radio stations, digital platforms, television channels and from all the sectors that use their songs for commercial purposes.