Samir D Khandwala,Founder & CEO, iMusti.com

Samir D Khandwala is the founder & CEO of iMusti.com and is based in Fremont, California. iMusti.com is a premium music portal that offers 24 different genres of audio and video. iMusti began with an invitation from a group of music enthusiasts to make available quality music to everyone. One of the key objectives of iMusti is to bring together the exclusive, exceptional and niche content and make it accessible to everyone and anyone across the globe. The website offers non-pirated content and a collection of music that is exceptional. In a chat with Dataquest, Khandwala shared his views on online piracy and the trends being witnessed in the digital music industry. Excerpts

What are the trends and the challenges in the digital music industry?

The era of digital music has already started and it is expected to dominate the coming years. The music industry and artists will release/launch their music on cloud and the web which will be available in digital formats. Go Green Music' would be preferred by the customers and they would prefer to buy legal music through web and restrict the use of CDs/DVDs, etc, and this would also help to curb piracy.

Online/digital music is also expected to go more social this year. With the integration of the two, there will be a more interactive experience amongst the users and the artists. New devices including smartphones and tablets will be preferred devices for digital audio and video music. Faster internet will make video streaming better, television sets are now connected with internet but higher speed is required and it will be one more year till high percentage households will have 3 Mbps or higher speed internet. Such high speed is essential for high-quality video streaming.

Internet speed will play a key role in further penetration, 3G speed and Wi-Fi enabled homes/offices will generate even more popularity. Government and private sectors need to provide faster internet in all parts of the country so users can enjoy these services. Combination of devices and faster internet will fuel growth in this industry. Another trend in users' preference would be for streaming. Customers nowadays do not like to download a lot of tracks because it is not easy to manage them once they have a large volume of data. It is also not easy to transfer files from one device (for example, computer to mobile). Hence, we expect streaming to be more commonly used compared to downloading.

One of the key challenges is sourcing right content for customers on a regular basis. Also digital music is dependent on high-speed internet. One of the major hurdles is to fight piracy. Globally, only 5-10% of the online music downloads are legal. iMusti.com will continue to spread awareness for using licensed music and work towards bringing the high-quality legal content for its users.

How would you describe online piracy and the measures required to curb the same?

In the recent past, internet piracy or file sharing of copyrighted material has gained much popularity. The economic cost to content owners of digital piracy is not established, but many studies have estimated it to be substantial. It is very hard to obtain accurate statistics on counterfeiting because it is a clandestine activity. According to IFPI/Nielsen statistics, one in four internet users worldwide are still illegally accessing music via unauthorized websites.

We believe there is a strong need to address online piracy. The genesis of piracy problem lies in the failure of legal markets to provide access to goods at prices that are affordable in terms of local incomes. High prices for media goods, low incomes, and cheap digital technologies are the main ingredients of global media piracy. Consumer education is incredibly important. There are likely to be various levels at which the education needs to be affected and thus different type of approach is required for different groups. We believe that the war against piracy can be won by consumer awareness, better product offerings, efficient distribution and high-quality original products.

How would you describe streaming, the new trend in the digital world?

Streaming is an optimum way/method of accessing premium content, and many companies including iMusti have demonstrated that combination of technology and content will work successfully. Hence, we see streaming to be more commonly used over downloading. We definitely believe that streaming is going to be extensively used and would overtake downloading in the next few years. According to IFPI, the number of users connected to the streaming services in 2011 grew by 64% and amounted to 13.4 mn people.

Highlight the focus of iMusti for the Indian market.

We aim to expand content library at all times. We will continue to identify rare, popular and high-quality content in all genres and make it available to our subscribers across India as well as other parts of the world. We will constantly maintain and stay with technology curve so that our subscribers can access it on all possible platforms. We will continue to improve functionality of our applications with new and exciting features. We will also bring more improvizations in streaming technology.

Our goal is to make it a highly entertaining application so subscribers use it at all times. iMusti aims to sign partnership agreements with large corporations in all parts of the world to make the content more accessible, affordable and entertaining. We also plan to work very closely with the artist community who follow Indian music and promote their work to their fans in all parts of the world. iMusti is also setting up partnerships with telecommunication companies, ISPs, media companies, etc, to use their technology for delivery and distribution.