Web wave takes Punjabi music industry higher

Chandigarh: Riding the Internet boom, the Punjabi music industry is making a big splash in the global entertainment arena as online music is helping it break international frontiers.

The industry has shown tremendous growth in the last  decade and its biggest testimony is the recent demand for Punjabi songs in Bollywood. The industry today is worth Rs 500 crore.

From shooting in small studious to beautiful offshore locales, the rise of Punjabi music industry has baffled everyone.

Apart from a growing pool of talented singers, the popularity of Punjabi music industry is also being attributed to the arrival of online music.

The internet has helped Punjabi music industry grow as now it very easy to reach out audience anywhere in the world instantly. The result of growing audience has improved the quality of production of Punjabi songs, with shooting in overseas locations and hiring of top models and swelling budgets of music videos.

Unlike the past when Punjabi singers were discovered or introduced on Jallandhar Punjabi DD channel, as was the case of Gurdass Maan, who appeared on the horizon of Punjabi music with his famous song Mamla Gadbad hai, the present day Punjabi singers have internet to reach audience.

The new-age singing stars are made overnight on YouTube with millions of views. The recent example is a Punjabi song Prada, sung by new singer Jass Manak in June this year, that has garnered 310 million views on YouTube.

Such is the popularity of Punjabi music that singers like Daljit Dosanjh and Gippy Grewal has even acted and sung in Bollywood movies.  Dosanj is now the brand ambassador of Coca-Cola and Flipkart in Punjab, he is estimated to earn Rs 30 crore in fees and endorsements per year.  Many Singers like Gippy Grewal are starting their own music companies. Singer Guru Randhawa has collaborated with American rapper Pitbull Pitbull for an international single “Slowly Slowly”.

Punjab has a long tradition of song and dance and it has always produced many worthy folk singers from time to time. However, these singers were not known outside the state like the present crop of singers who have fans across the globe.

The Punjabi diaspora has a very important role in the rise of Punjabi music as Indian-origin music lovers settled in England, Canada and other European countries invite many singers from Punjab to perform at their events.

Famous Punjabi lyricist Shamsher Sandhu said that NRI Punjabi’s who want to connect with their roots through music started the trend of inviting singers abroad which resulted in the popularity of Punjabi music and its fusion.

Top Punjabi singers  charge anything between Rs 10 lakh to 30 lakh to perform at NRI weddings. “Earlier in the 1980s when top singer like Kuldeep Manak used to charge Rs 11,000, people used to get scandalized by the amount… when Gurdass Mann started charging Rs 25,000 for a show everyone was baffled,” said Mr Sandhu. who claimed even his Bengali friends play Punjabi music at their functions.