Latest CDs

I managed to buy the following first edition CDs of A.R. Rahman:

• Mr. Romeo - Time Audio - TFCD 089 - 11/1997 - Hindi
• 1947-Earth - T-Series - SFCD 1/499 - 7/1999 - Hindi
• Bombay/Indira - Pyramid - CD PYR 8311 - 1995 - Tamil 

The "1947-Earth" CD is housed in a red jewel case with picture disc - interesting packaging from T-Series.

Next, I have my sights to buy the first edition CD of "Thakshak" which was first released in 1999. 

I missed out on buying the Pyramid LP releases of "Gentleman" (PA001), and "Kizhakku Cheemaielea" (PA002) because someone managed to outbid me at the very last second!!! The "Gentleman" Pyramid LP sold for US$61 while the "Kizhakku Cheemaielea" Pyramid LP sold for US$76. I guess I underestimated the tenacity of some A.R. Rahman fans out there. 

One man's rubbish is another man's treasure

I visted a local audio shop in KL, and started to talk with the sales lady, and I told her how rare it is to find A.R. Rahman's CDs nowadays. I told her the story of how I managed to find a copy of the "Thiruda Thiruda" Magnasound CD from a fleamarket. She told that her shop had ordered 15 copies of that CD combo with "Puthiya Mugam" back in 1995 when"Chor Chor" was released. They managed to sell 5 copies but they still had the remaining 10 copies until 2012 when they destroyed the CDs when they relocated their shop as they focused primarily on Hindi audio, and video. Oh my Kadavul!!! Why did the owner of the shop did that? I visited the shop a few times in 2012, and I never thought to ask about old Tamil CDs of A.R. Rahman as they only sold Bollywood collections. 

Such a missed opportunity - I told the sales lady - your boss could have made lots of money by selling his old collection on the Internet especially for A.R. Rahman CDs.

May Maadham & Musical Extravaganza

I managed to get the Pyramid CD of "May Maadham & Musical Extravaganza" - CD PYR 8218 for RM19.90 this week from a local audio shop. The sound quality is so much sharper, and clearer than the Aditya CD of "May Maadham". The instrumental tracks are the jewel of the CD. With this CD - I only need to complete 7 more of the Pyramid CDs of A.R. Rahman's releases:

• Roja
• Kizhakku Cheemaielea
• Fantasy
• Vandi Solai Chinraasu
• Kaadhalan
• Bombay
• Indira

A.R. Rahman Collection Inventory

My first purchase of A.R. Rahman's music was a cassette of "Bombay" released by Mani Osai in Malaysia in 1994 around Deepavali. I still remember I just finished my high school final exams (S.P.M.), and was on a long break waiting for the results that was released on 7th March 1995 (the day that A.R. Rahman was in Malaysia for the launching of the "Indira" soundtrack in Kuala Lumpur). I bought the "Bombay" cassette from the Hema shop in SS5, Kelana Jaya for RM5. Ever since then, I try my best to buy A.R. Rahman's cassettes, and CDs. The thing I regret is not to start my collection of the Pyramid CDs in the 1990s. By the time I started, the Pyramid CDs became very rare, and sought after among the millions of A.R. Rahman's fans across the world.

I've only started to compile the inventory of my small collection of A.R. Rahman's releases. Of course, with Internet, I'm able to collect the CDs I've wanted for a long time such as the Time Audio CD of "Rangeela" originally released in 1995. The link below contains the partial inventory of my current collection which I will continue to update whenever I could.

A.R. Rahman Inventory as of 20 April 2014

If your wishlist CD is in the list, and you would like to purchase it - please do let me know. I might be willing to let a CD go if another fan really wants it. I believe that all of us are only temporary passengers in this world, and I very well know the feeling when we find what we have been looking for such a long time - it's better for us fans to share what we can among ourselves.

And A.R. Rahman will be here live in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 26th April 2014... To be continued...

Bombay CD... Bombay CD... Every Where But Not an Original to Buy

I went to Lebuh Ampang today on one of my way regular visits to the audio shops there during the weekend. As I reached the Melody shop, I noticed that they put up a discount booth selling Hindi CDs. Naturally, I was curious, maybe they are selling A.R. Rahman CDs. As I was browsing through the stack of CDs, I noticed that almost all the CDs were pirated copies but I noticed the U.K. edition of Music India/PolyGram's "Bombay" CD among the stack of CDs - not only 1 copy but 7 of them. I remembered the catalogue number for this CD to be CDF 136 - which matches exactly the number on the CDs on sale there. The condition of the CD booklet, and the tray insert for the "Bombay" CDs was poor - the papers stuck to the jewel case due to moisture. By removing the inserts, I would be definitely be tearing the inserts. 

There was also the pirated CD copy of "Swades" with catalogue number SHCD 1/3574 - of which I already have a copy of (I bought the copy accidentally in 2004 or 2005). I knew the "Swades" CD was pirated but the "Bombay" CD looked original. I did not bother to open the jewel case to check the CD. The audio shop seller was selling 15 CDs for RM10 (around RM0.67 per CD). I thought to myself - that's a great bargain even for what might or might not be original "Bombay" CDs (I really thought they were original CDs - they looked original to my naked eyes). 

I bought all the 7 copies of the "Bombay" CDs, 2 copies of "Swades" CDs, and 6 other Hindi CDs (including a Pyramid Hindi CD). Once I reached home, I removed all the "Bombay" discs from the jewel cases, and placed them on separate DVD keep cases. One of the jewel case did not have the disc - so I had 6 "Bombay" discs. From my first impression, the disc appeared to be original - the print design on the disc was the same as I remembered from the original "Bombay" CD that I had but the print color of the logo on the disc is of orange color rather than red.

At this point, my suspicion was aroused. I quickly compared the insert, and disc to the original ones I had. The pirates have done an extremely good job of reproducing the CD. An average buyer will not notice the minute details of the original copy of "Bombay" CD that are missing on the pirated copy.

Just imagine the care, and detail the pirates took to reproduce the original "Bombay" CD painstakingly to cheat the average buyer. I guess the fake CDs were produced in 1995 when "Bombay" was released to exploit the success of both the movie, and the soundtrack. I will scan a copy of the pirated copy of the "Bombay" CD very soon.

Audio Sales of A.R. Rahman Releases

I have always wondered what were the audio sales figures of the soundtracks released by A.R. Rahman. The site below previously had published audio sales figures for Hindi movie soundtracks from 1990 onwards but the site never mentioned from where it had obtained the figures.

http://www.boxofficeindia.com

I have extracted the audio sales figures for movies with music by A.R. Rahman. The biggest selling soundtrack for each year is also included to compare with the sales performance of releases from A.R. Rahman. 

1993

Dilwale - 5,500,000

Roja - 2,800,000

1994

Hum Aapke Hain Kaun - 10,000,000

The Gentleman - 3,000,000

1995 

Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge - 9,000,000

Rangeela - 3,200,000

Bombay - 3,000,000

Hum Se Hai Muqabla - 2,500,000

1996

Raja Hindustani - 11,000,000

Hindustani - 1,800,000

1997

Dil To Pagal Hai - 12,500,000

Sapnay - 2,500,000

Daud - 2,000,000

1998

Kuch Kuch Hota Hai - 8,000,000

Dil Se - 4,500,000

Jeans - 1,800,000

1999

Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai - 9,000,000

Taal - 4,000,000

2000

Mohabbatein - 5,000,000

Fiza - 2,500,000

2001

Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham - 3,500,000

Lagaan - 2,800,000

Nayak - 1,400,000

2002

Humraaz - 2,200,000

Saathiya - 2,000,000

2004

Veer Zaara - 3,000,000

Swades - 1,300,000

Kisna - 1,200,000

2005 

Aashiq Banaye Aapne - 2,000,000

Rang De Basanti - 1,900,000

The biggest selling soundtrack from A.R. Rahman in Hindi is "Dil Se" released in 1998 with estimated sales of 4.5 million units. The overall sales began to plummet from the high of 12.5 million units for "Dil To Pagal Hai" in 1997 to a low of 3.5 million units in 2001 for "Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham". I still remember when I was studying in university in 2000, I was already downloading songs from the Internet. From LPs to cassettes to CDs to digital downloads - how we listen to music has evolved with downloads dominating the music industry in recent years.

In the article Audio tape producers ride crest of Bollywood's music boom, composers become stars published on 30 November 1993:

Perhaps the slickest and most innovative marketing strategy belongs to Ghanshyam Hemdev of Pyramid Audio in Madras. Convinced that consumer products should be marketed with a Unique Selling Strategy (USS), Hemdev decided to push the tape of Gentleman, the Tamil industry's latest talking point. They set targets for dealers and those who met them were given free tickets to Singapore; newspapers were swamped with advertisements; and free tapes were distributed to tea shops and at marriage halls.

The result: at the first show of the movie, the audience were humming the tunes as if they'd heard them for ages, and Gentleman, became the highest selling tape in recent times, with a sale of three lakh copies.

In the article A.R. Rahman makes history with record breaking audio cassette sales of his debut film 'Roja' published on 15 January 1994:

After all, the youngest music director to hit the Tamil screen has made history recently with the record breaking audio cassette sales of his debut film, Roja, with over two lakh tapes sold in Tamil alone.

Though he has only five films to his name, two of which are still unreleased, Rahman's name sells. He was paid Rs.7 lakh for his last film, while Ilayaraja, the brilliant composer for 500 films, gets only Rs.3 lakh more. 

Today, any Rahman composition is expected to sell one and a half lakh tapes. Ghanshyam Hemdev, the head of Pyramid Audios, calls him "the phenomenon that changed the face of the industry". 

In the article King Rehman's USP diminishes with a new, synth-savvy bunch published on 15 September 1997, it's highlighted that Pyramid's Ghanshyam Hemdev bought the audio rights for "Iruvar" for Rs 60 lakh, and spent Rs 4.97 lakh promoting it.

In the article Last of big music deals: Devdas sells for Rs 11 cr published on 4 July 2002:

Gone are the days of yore when Yaadein was sold to Tips Industries for Rs 9.15 crore; or when Sony Music snapped up K3G and Lagaan rights for Rs 10 crore and Rs 8 crore, respectively.

In the article A R Rahman: Composing a winning score published on 21 September 2002:

And, last year, when there were only very few hits on the Indian scene, Rahman's score for Lagaan topped the charts, selling over 3.5 million copies.

That outdid the year's other big hits like Gadar, which sold 2 million copies and it equalled Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham.

The music maestro also notched up a record of sorts when the music for Bombay - a bilingual film in Hindi and Tamil - sold a massive 12 million copies in both languages.

In India too, the Bombay Dreams score has turned into a chart-topper, hitting the number one spot for five continuous weeks on MTV India World Chart Express - the list includes top albums from the US and Australia. 

And Sony Music, which has the rights to the music, says it has a hit on its hands and has already sold 150,000 copies - despite the fact that it is priced at a premium like other international numbers and is in English. 

His parade of hits has turned him into the country's most expensive music director. Industry sources say Rahman demands around Rs 1.5-2 crore (Rs 12-20 million) - and gets it.

In the article Film producers float their own music firms published on 15 April 2003:

So, while 2000's superhit Kaho Na Pyar Hai sold close to one crore copies, a comparatively less successful film like Saathiya sold only around two million copies. According to Taurani, music companies are exercising extreme caution while acquiring music rights since they have burnt their fingers several times.

In the article Singing a different tune published on 3 July 2003:

Some years back, Rahman-Shankar's "Indian" cassette sold six lakh units in cassette and CD. Today, Star Music, the audio rights owners of "Boys", has orders for only 60,000 cassettes and CDs! The audio rights of "Boys" had no takers and was finally sold to Star Music at almost one third the price which was given to the combo's previous hit "Muthalvan". Said Poonam Choudhary of Star Music: "In the good old days we would have sold a lakh of cassettes on the first day of a Rahman-Shanker audio release. Today I will consider myself lucky if I can sell the initial 60,000 in a month's time. A few hours after the "Boys" audio (Rs. 45) hit the market, pirated audios of the film were available for Rs. 15!"

In the article Tuning in to better times? tune published on 9 July 2003:

"Yes, there has been a steep fall in the sales graph now compared to what it was two years ago," admits Jaishankar Subramanium of Landmark. Sentiments echoed by S.K. Chowdhury of Music World. "Whenever an A.R. Rahman album ("Jeans", for example) was released in the past, we would sell above 400 cassettes a week. But "Boys", the hottest selling album today, has sold just over 200 pieces in the same time span," says Chowdhury.

In the article Sivaji audio – first week report – with statistics published on 11 April 2007:

AVM CEO Mr. S.C.Babu while talking to Behindwoods correspondent in the US, revealed that the audio of Sivaji which opened up on April 2nd is seeing one of biggest sales of recent times. There was a pre-order of about 105,000 CDs and 90,000 cassettes, before the release. Repeat orders were received even by the close of the first day and many retail outlets reported stock outs. As on date, the total CD sales has notched up to about 140,000 and cassettes have touched 108,000. Orders are continuing to come in from all parts of Tamilnadu. On the overseas front, the sales of CDs in Malaysia and Singapore are reportedly setting new records.

In the article Digital music sales up, but labels continue making CDs to publicise films published on 11 November 2011:

At the time of the audio launch of Mudhalvan, boasting the potent combo of Shankar and A R Rahman, Five Star Audio, the label that bagged the rights, had a confirmed order for three lakh cassettes on day one. The year was 1999. Cut to a decade later, to the time of the audio launch of Endhiran, featuring the same director-composer combo and also Superstar Rajinikanth, in 2010. The number of CDs produced was 25,000.

Audio labels are seeing decreased physical sales but continue to release film music on CDs. The ratio of digital to physical sales for film music, industry insiders say, is 70:30 and veering towards 80:20.

Tamil Audio Sales
Roja - 200,000 units
Gentleman - 300,000 units
Indian - 600,000 units
Mudhalvan - 300,000 units
Boys - 60,000 units
Sivaji - 248,000 units
Endhiran - 25,000 units

Hindi Audio Sales
Lagaan - 3,500,00 units
Saathiya - 2,000,000 units

Tamil/Hindi Audio Sales
Bombay - 12,000,000 units

Telugu Audio Sales
Komaram Puli - 300,000 units to 760,000 units

International Audio Sales (India)
Bombay Dreams - 150,000 units

Audio Rights
Iruvar - INR 6 million (marketing/promotion INR 497,000) - Pyramid Audio
Lagaan - INR 80 million - Sony Music
Komaram Puli - INR 20 million - Sony Music

Hindustani

I had recently purchased a "Canon CanoScan LiDE 210" scanner in December 2013. I wanted to archive all the CD covers of my collection. I did not realize that scanning CD covers will be one of the most tiresome, and complex chores I had ever gotten myself into. The following terms will come back to haunt me:

descreen
moire patterns
gaussian blur
despeckle

fourier transform

unsharp mask

The first time I scanned the CD cover of the 1996 TIPS release of "Hindustani" - the scan was horrible filled with fine dots viewed at resolution of 1200 dpi. Only later after going the Internet, I realized the "moire patterns" that will appear when we scan CD covers due to they way they are printed (i.e. half-tone prints). It was frustrating experimenting with the various methods available online to minimize the "moire patterns" from the scans of the CD covers. I actually downloaded the trial version of "Adobe Photoshop Elements 12" to try out the recommended methods.

As a rule of thumb, scan CD covers at a resolution of 300 dpi with the "descreen", and "unsharp mask" settings on the scanner enabled to reduce the effects of the "moire patterns", and save the image in "TIFF" format. 

The cover of "Hindustandi" CD above was scanned at a resolution of 150 dpi for image display on the web with the "descreen" setting on the scanner enabled, and saved in "JPEG" format. It's not perfect but I will accept the scan quality for the moment.