The Indian Music Industry (IMI) is a trust that represents the
recording industry distributors in
India. It was founded on February 28, 1936, as Indian Phonographic Industry (IPI). It is the 2nd oldest
music industry organization in the world that was involved in protecting
copyrights of
music producers and supporting growth of music
entertainment industry. In 1994, it was renamed as Indian Music Industry (IMI) and represented India at the
International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). It is also registered with the West Bengal Societies Registration Act. All major music labels in India are part of this association.
IMI has its registered office in
Kolkata and Administrative office in
Mumbai. It also has offices in
New Delhi,
Chennai,
Bangalore,
Hyderabad and other major Indian cities working on the protection of rights of music producers and preventing
music piracy. It has also been instrumental in launching the IMMIES music awards in collaboration with
MTV.
The industry was dominated by
cassette tapes in the 1980s and 1990s.[1] In 1990, India had annual cassette sales of 180million units, including both legitimate and pirate sales. This made it the world's second largest cassette market, after the United States.[5] By 1998, the industry had annual earnings of ₹12 billion[6] ($291 million).[7]
In the early 2000s, 49million cassettes (including 16million pirate tapes) were sold every month.[8] Later in the 2000s, the industry transitioned to
online streaming, bypassing
CD and
digital downloads.[1]
Criteria of certification levels
The Indian Music Industry has constituted different, awards to encourage and promote music. The approved scheme of gold/platinum disc standards effective for sound recordings of member companies released in one calendar year is as below:
Sales of all types of carriers, whether vinyl records, audio cassettes, compact discs, MP3 compact discs, music videos (i.e. excluding home videos) or any other existing or future type of carrier is considered on the basis of one unit.
If a sound recording contains a combination of two program, any program over half of its total duration can be weighted at 50%, of the sales of the sound recording of that program. Any program comprising less than half of the total duration of the sound recording will not be counted for the purpose of certification.
Sales in domestic markets only will be considered for the calculation of sales of sound recording.
The time-limit for achieving above sales in any category is one year from the release of the recording in India.
Applications should be accompanied by a copy certified by the member's chartered accountant stating the date of release & the number of units sold, along with a letter from the managing director or CEO.
IMI launched International Top 20 Singles chart, the first official music industry recognised
record chart in India, on 21 June 2021. It ranks best-performing international singles in India based on streaming data from
Amazon Music,
Apple Music, and
Spotify. The data is collected and aggregated by BMAT Music Innovators and chart is reviewed by IMI Charts committee.[9][10] The first number-one song for the chart dated 21 June 2021, was "
Butter" by
BTS.[11]
Certification levels
India has separate scales for
music recording certifications. Certifications are usually based on sales, like some other Asian countries. Like many other Asian countries, domestic repertoire accounts for the majority of the Indian music market. Like many other countries, sales requirements of music recording in India reduced due to music piracy, declining sales, and the rise of
online streaming.
Current
The following are the current certification levels, as of 2019.[12]
Single and album units are measured in terms of Track Equivalent (TE) and Album Equivalent (AE) units, respectively, which are equivalent to the following media units.[12]
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ab"Sûrya India". Sûrya India. 3 (2). A. Anand.: 61 1979. Sholay' is stilt going strong. Polydor records has won a platinum disc for the sale of the 'Sholay' record