Singers And The Royalty Debate

'Royalty' is one of the most debatable topics in the world of music. Royalty is the 'payment to an owner for the use of property, especially patents, copyrighted works, franchises or natural resources.'¹ Whenever any Bollywood song becomes popular, it is known popularly in the name of its Singers/Singer. But whenever it comes about paying royalty the song suddenly becomes the intellectual property of its composer. The question remains is this fair? However, as they say change is the law of nature, things are changing for singers as well. Recently, around 700 singers have got their rightfully earned royalty.

In the words of Aditi Singh Sharma, the Indian singer famous for songs like 'Sooraj Dooba Hai', 'Oye Oye' etc., 'If I'm not entitled to a song I've sung, what am I left with? Similarly, a hit track is called a Ranbir-Deepika song. No one calls it the Vishal Dadlani-Shalmali Kholgade song. As long as the issue of royalty remains unresolved, singers will