Aayushman Sinha, founder of India-based management company REPRESENT, aims to change the economics of the Indian publishing business by introducing a strong publisher and protecting rights for writers. He grew up in Mumbai and started his music career as a nightlife promoter and manager, eventually becoming a manager with DJ Chetas. They put on a national TV and radio show together and booked Sinha to play at some of the coolest parties in the country. This led to a huge revenue jump in the form of royalties, sync, and licensing deals.
Sinha’s artists make around 40% of their money from live events, another 30-40% from music, and the rest through branded projects. Last year, REPRESENT reached 11 billion+ streams and views, 500+ live shows, and 250+ brand deals. The company has also changed the thought process for the industry by allowing artists to release songs that could become commercial hits without being synced into a film or part of a film soundtrack.
The idea of Outwrite came from the need to help Indian songwriters no longer need to invest in expensive music videos. The industry has always been a video market, and YouTube is massive. Sinha believes that this has changed the way people perceive music and the overall economics of the industry.
On the publisher side, almost 99% of Indian songwriters are unpublished, and labels end up acquiring 100% of the publishing when they do song deals without offering any kind of advance. This leads to hundreds of adaptations of songs being made without going in for approval, and songwriters never seeing the revenue from those.
Outwrite aims to help these labels have stronger representation to have conversations about the right way to structure these deals. The company is better suited to be able to do that.
Represent is focused on making India a superpower in soft power, similar to Korea’s success with K-pop and K-Culture. They are deep into pop culture, including creators and D2C products, and will be at the forefront of pop culture in India and exporting it internationally.
