EMI – hitting two birds with one stone

The record label launches its children division and website with legitimate music streaming.

KARACHI:

The lion is finally out of the den as EMI Pakistan, the oldest record label of the country, finally launched its much awaited website emipakistan.com. The website, which was launched at the Marriott hotel in Karachi on Friday evening, was accompanied by the opening of EMI’s children’s division; a section entirely dedicated to children’s edutainment. It was a good day for music in general, as renowned actor Khalid Anam addressed the press conference with his popular rhymes for kids, serving as the ideal background score for the event.

EMI website

“This will be the first online portal of legitimate music in Pakistan,” stated Zeeshan Chaudhry, the general manager of marketing, sales and strategy of EMI. Starting as ‘the gramophone company’ of Pakistan, EMI came into being under its current name in 1972. EMI’s archive contains some of the greatest names in Pakistani music like Noor Jehan, Mehdi Hassan, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Ghulam Ali, Iqbal Bano, Farida Khanam, Ghulam Farid Sabri, Alam Lohar and many others.

Ameed Riaz, one of the executive directors of EMI Pakistan, took charge of the company in 1992. It was an uphill task for him to promote Pakistani music when 95 per cent of sales belonged to Indian film music. However things have changed with time as Ayaz stresses, “Forget about the physical medium because it’s time to go digital.”

The new version of the website is already established and with archives ranging from Awaz to Iqbal Bano, it is the perfect place to be for all music lovers. Some of the archives are still filling up and a few artists are missing but Amin Rammal, the CEO of The Brand Crew (web developers of the website) clarifies that it’s a beta (not final) version right now and the site will continue to improve.

The EMI Pakistan website gives visitors the chance to create their own playlists out of EMI’s music and share it online through personalised EMI accounts. If websites like these are well received in Pakistan and labels manage to fight copyright infringement then it would prove to be a blessing for a number of musicians.

Zarb al Misl and Ray Sae Chali Rail mark the launch of EMI’s Children’s Division

EMI’s Children Division will focus on creating quality entertainment for children both for the purpose of fun and education. One person who has tirelessly dedicated his life as a singer and performer to children’s entertainment is none other than Khalid Anam. Two of his works, Zarb al Misl and Ray Sae Chali Rail, will be the first releases of the children’s division. Zarb al Misl is a collection of four tales containing examples from everyday life aiming to educate children, narrated by Khaled and his alter ego ‘Aaloo Mian’. Ray Sae Chali Railcontains music tailor made for children and as soon as you hear songs like “Daant Saaf” and “Magar Mach” you are taken back to the days of ‘cassette kahani’. “It saddens me when I find children preferring English over Urdu as a medium of communication and my music is a small attempt to change that,” said Anam at the press conference. “The songs are for children between the ages of 8-80,” smiled Anam as he shared more details about his latest release. “If children can listen to ‘Baa Baa Black Sheep’ than they should also listen to Aloo Miyan.”

Published in The Express Tribune, November 10^th, 2011.