Warner Music India has signed a joint venture deal with Sky Digital, the Indian Punjabi music content consortium and aggregator.
The companies agreed a strategic partnership in 2021, but have now entered into a new phase of collaboration. Under the terms of the expanded partnership, they will jointly develop and manage a roster, with Warner Music India upstreaming some of the artists.
Sky Digital India is home to some of the country’s biggest Punjabi music stars including Bir, Harnoor, Kaka, Mankirt Aulakh, Navan Sandhu and Sunanda Sharma (pictured).
The company also manages premium Punjabi content-based YouTube channels with more than 50 million subscribers and aggregates releases from more than 50 Punjabi labels, as well as two leading mainstream independent Hindi labels.
Alfonso Perez-Soto, president, emerging markets, Recorded Music, WMG, said: “This is a strategic partnership with a hybrid model that enables us to help develop artists’ careers directly. This approach will be hugely beneficial to Sky Digital’s artists who have the potential to be truly global stars. It’s also part of our mission to take culturally vibrant Punjabi music to a worldwide audience.”
Jay Mehta, managing director, Warner Music India, added: “The popularity of Punjabi music around the world has soared in recent years, amplified by a widespread diaspora and starting to cross over into the mainstream in several markets. This partnership creates a great platform for more artists to take their music global and have Punjabi music dominate global charts.”
Gurkaran Dhaliwal, MD, Sky Digital India, said: “This deal takes our collaboration to a new and a more dynamic level. Our synergistic relationship with Warner Music Group has already helped us expand our market share in India and significantly graced our artists with popularity among a wider audience. This joint venture allows music and homegrown talent to scale to the zenith of success by becoming globally loved and acclaimed stars.”
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