Keshav Dhar

He adds that Ek's views are also problematic because you can't put a timeline on an individual's creativity, unless it's a commissioned project. If it's an album that artistes are making for themselves, they have to start from a blank canvas on which they paint their musical expressions, instead of simply making a quick meme. There will be a glaring lack of integrity otherwise, which is a viewpoint that Mumbai-based musician Donn Bhat also endorses. Bhat tells us, "There's a reason why songs that were made 50, 30, 20 or even 10 years ago are still relevant. It's because people took their time in paving the way for what's happening now. But Ek is cheapening music to the sort of 30-second attention span that social media encourages. It's the stuff that marketing and PR managers talk about. Tell me, can you imagine Pink Floyd going up to a publicist and saying, 'Hey, we have made this album called The Wall. What do you think of it?' I mean, Ek has basically turned musicians into monkeys in a circus who are supposed to perform new tricks every day."

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Donn Bhat

That's a harsh metaphor, but it's in line with the inference that the music community has drawn from the CEO's words. Both Dhar and Bhat hope that he takes a leaf out of his rival Bandcamp's books, which they feel does a much better job of compensating artistes. Meanwhile, Ek hasn't yet come out with a statement clarifying, or even justifying, what he said. But even the world's best PR people will struggle to reduce the resultant negative publicity. So, really, do spare a thought for the ones who manage him.

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