Sony Music fights piracy by asking listeners to pay for 'When Harry Met Sejal' new tr

Sony Music has announced that it will get listeners to pay for the new Bollywood song ‘Phurr’ from the movie ‘Jab Harry Met Sejal’ featuring American DJ Diplo and Shah Rukh Khan. It is being said that this is the first time in the industry that that consumers will have to pay to listen to the music first, as it is a 24/48 hours embargo. It will be available at Rs. 99 on Android enabled devices, Rs. 120 on iOS for monthly subscription or single song purchase on iTunes at Rs. 15.

This decision came after much deliberation with key partners and stakeholders including audio streaming platforms such as Saavn, Gaana and Hungama. The song is expected to go live on Tuesday, August 2, across all digital platforms and the consumers will have access to the song on YouTube. However, the length of the song is less than half of the one available on the aforementioned platforms.

They believe that ideally, the song would reach approx. 20 million streams in India across platforms on day one and with this decision, that number will drop significantly.

According to the IFPI 2016 report, the global music market achieved a key milestone in 2015 when digital became the primary revenue stream for recorded music, overtaking sales of physical formats for the first time. Streaming remains the industry's fastest-growing revenue source which would explain this move by Sony Music.