At a time when music labels are trying to diversify into films, Essel group company Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL) has launched a music label called Zee Music Company (ZMC), with plans to acquire music rights of over 20 major motion pictures in this financial year. It has already acquired the rights for Akshay Kumar's upcoming movie Holiday which is jointly produced by Reliance Big Entertainment, Sunshine Pictures and Hari Om Entertainment Company. It has also partnered with Fox Star Studios and will handle the music of five of its Hindi releases for the year, including the Saif Ali Khan and Riteish Deshmukh starrer ‘Humshakals’, Hrithik Roshan and Katrina Kaif starrer Bang Bang and Ranbir Kapoor and Anushka Sharma starrer Bombay Velvet. The company is working for similar deals with Dharma Productions, Excel Entertainment and other top studios as well, it says. This is still likely to be one of ZEEL's smaller plays. Saregama, a leading player in this space, reported revenues of Rs 174.69 crore in FY13, and a profit of Rs 10.88 crore Why this matters 1. This is a significant development, particularly because ZEEL comes into the business with two key things: Firstly, it has the financial resources to shake things up, and can afford to make losses for a couple of years to gain marketshare away from T-Series without getting particularly worried. ZEEL reported revenues of Rs 850.38 crore and net profit of Rs 158.37 crore; for the last financial year alone, it reported revenues for Rs…
