Is tax killing the live music star?

In 1960, four young boys sang their hearts out at clubs and bars. What’s so special about that? It was in Liverpool and the boys — John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr went on to make it big in the following years.

Any metropolis with a vibrant culture can encourage budding musicians irrespective of the genre they play. But Mumbai may never ‘discover’ the next Beatles. The government’s decision to increase the entertainment tax especially at places which serve alcohol has hit the most live musicians.

Being an artist in India is not easy; you can’t send a demo to some record producer and expect to cut an album. Many popular Indian acts that have made it big like Euphoria, Indian Ocean, Pentagram, Raghu Dixit, Junk Yard Groove etc have depended on live performances to win over their audiences.

Artists need that kind of exposure to get noticed. “Independent artists need space to grow and a platform to perform, but the move is going to kill the new budding talent,” says Fay Barretto, the founder of a charter ‘Scream for a Dream’.

Barretto along with Trevor Munroe and many others had organised the event, Scream for a Dream, last weekend wherein various artists performed to make everyone aware of how this tax can affect our ever evolving music culture.

Barretto along with other artists has also started Independent Artists’ Association. It will aim at bringing artists from different genres to come together to make people aware of how listening to them is vital too.

Making music your fulltime career is not easy. You have to run to pillar to post to make ends meet. The few who have decided to earn their daily bread by making music will be affected the most.

“Such taxes will take away our livelihood. Where will we go if we won’t have a place to perform?” asks Barretto.

Rishi Bradoo, guitarist and vocalist of a band called Blech, performed at the event and says, “There are very few venues for independent artists and musicians to perform. The tax is only going to add to our woes.”  He complains, “Berlin is half the size of our city, but it has almost 300 venues where artists like us can perform. So, why can’t our government do anything to encourage us?”

The city can boast of quite a few places like Hard Rock Cafe, Blue Frog, Firangi Paani where live acts are enjoyed by many. Ruhi Bhatia, a 20-year-old media intern, is a regular at Blue frog and feels that these places not only encourage new talent, but also give the audience a break from the run-of-the-mill recorded music.

“I prefer listening to live music because it’s a completely different sonic experience. You get to see the music being created right in front of you, and that can really help you unwind in a totally different way. You can feel the vibe of the artist, what s/he is feeling and thinking, and that can be amazing.”

The government’s move will literally draw the carpet from under the feet of amateur artists as the additional taxes will make the tickets/entry passes to such events expensive.

The cost will have to be passed to the customer and audiences will be apprehensive about paying such a huge sum for someone unknown. “With taxes going up, the venues too will now think twice before calling an upcoming band. They will go in for popular and established artists so that they can too recover money,” says Bradoo.

Bratin Roy, a 25-year-old account manager, feels that the government instead of increasing entertainment tax on live music at venues that served alcohol should increase the prices of liquor.

“Live music for any genre has a very niche audience as most people prefer popular Bollywood numbers or pop songs that can be mixed by DJs. This move will kill audiences for live music.”
Bhatia agrees and adds, “It threatens the only platform that a lot of genuine and upcoming artists rely on, especially in a country like India where the music industry knows nothing beyond Hindi film songs because of the lack of exposure. It will also completely isolate India from international musicians as people will stop bringing in little known artists from abroad due to higher costs.”

Dr Suvarnalata Rao, head programming (Indian music) at National Center for Performing Arts (NCPA) adds, “When we organise a performance, say by an international artist, we have to calculate the proceeds and pay 25% of it in advance to the government before the show. Apart from this we need to take a lot of permissions which adds to our expenses. How can we going to fend for ourselves like this?”

She along with other musically-inclined individuals like Luke Kenny feel that the procedure to get permissions which cost a bomb will act as a deterrent and will disillusion young budding talent.

“A young musician, who depends on his acts for livelihood, will be hurt the most. Musicians are bearing the brunt of the move,” says Kenny.

Who would know better than Abhinay Khoparzi, a 26-year-old electronic musician? “I used to play along with my friends in a band called 3rd Thought Collective, but shortage of platforms to perform made us give up this dream and return to daily grind.”

He adds, “There are enough and more people who want to listen to live music or perform. However, the shortage along with the tax has the potential to kill small musicians like us.”

The artists and music lovers want the government to encourage talent and not kill it. The NH7 music festival that happened earlier in the month gave the city a miss and was instead held in Pune.

Mumbai missed many seasoned acts and had no doubt has enough venues that could have reached to a larger audience.  “The NH7 music festival would have happened in the city rather than in Pune if only the taxes and procedure wasn’t so troublesome,” says Baretto.

Politicians have been talking turning the city into Sanghai or a leading metropolis of the world. Infrastructure is the pre-requisite for such an ambitious move, but you to encourage vibrant art and culture to breath life into Mumbai — so that it is more than just a concrete jungle. Musicians and their fans have requested the authorities to let the talent grow and not tax it. The entertainment tax has been there, but the increase will be a death for amateur musicians.

We just hope the government ‘listens’ to them.