Writer | Rida Majid
The late 1980s and mid 2000s were the time period of birth and growth of rock bands in Pakistan. This band culture included the famous pop groups Vital Signs, Junoon and Strings. At the time, traditional media like TV and radio, and record labels were the main source of distributing the music. Since the past decade, the music industry of Pakistan has been in a continuous decline mainly because of the dramatic shift from traditional to digital media. The record labels around the world have adapted to digital/online platforms for distribution of music but the ones in Pakistan for some reason chose not to. This has made the artists go into self-publishing or force them to give out their music for free. So a musician has to go through a constant dilemma of passion versus profit in the music industry of Pakistan.
“We are facing challenges on a different level. If we release anything, TV channels are not willing to run our videos because they want to use that as an arm-twisting measure against us since we’re asking for royalties,” says Zeeshan Chaudhry, general manager of EMI Records. He continues:
“Similar is the case with radio stations. To this day, 8XM is violating Pemra regulations by playing foreign music. They do play a little Pakistani music but they’re also asking for Rs20,000 per airing of any video.”
To understand the barriers a Pakistani musician has to face in the current day, our team interviewed the famous and talented rock band based in Islamabad, Aarish. The band talked about their journey from playing music as a hobby to reaching the finals of Pepsi Battle of the Bands in 2019. Speaking to us, Nosherwan, the vocalist of Aarish, pointed out that the music industry of Pakistan over the years has weakened in some areas such as the process of post-production and distribution of music.
(Source: Image 1 - Aarish | Image 2 - Medianaama)
“Pakistan Music industry lacks music promoters and record labels which is very essential to promote and express talent.” he elaborated. “Many external factors contributed to the decline of concerts including security reasons but now we do see a revival in the music industry.”
(Source: OrangeInk)
Haziq, the guitarist of Aarish, shared a very important point regarding the mass media coverage of music.
“Mass media coverage is lacking in Pakistan because of a disrupted creative economy. Media needs to represent the music talent for the entire Pakistan to see”
“Due to Pepsi we had our faces on television for 6 months constant which was epic and that is why people know us. If music does not receive mass coverage it would not reach the masses, it’s very plain and simple.”, he adds.
(Source: Image 1 - OrangeInk | Image 2 - Medianaama)
The band further talked about how there is no local music channel which plays Pakistani music, 8xm being the top music channel of the country prefers to air foreign music. The local radio channels are always reluctant to play Pakistani music when in fact they should be the one demanding artists for their music.
For a more in depth understanding of the issue and to learn about Aarish’s journey of passion and music, watch the full interview here:
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