New Delhi: In a video released Friday, 15 lyricists from the Hindi film industry came together demanding they be credited properly for their work on music streaming platforms and YouTube channels.
In a track titled ‘Credit De Do Yaar’ (also called the Lyrics Writers’ Anthem), the lyricists address music streaming platforms and sing: “You forgot us altogether, words are the epitome of songs, stop this injustice.”
The video has got more than 23,000 views so far.
The track ‘Credit De Do Yaar’ has been penned by lyricists Kausar Munir, Varun Grover and Swanand Kirkire. Besides them, some of the other prominent lyricists in the clip are Amitabh Bhattacharya, Neelesh Misra, Anvita Dutt and Abhiruchi Chand.
Grover had won the National Film Award for best lyrics in 2016 for the song ‘Moh Moh Ke Dhaage’ from the movie Dum Laage Ke Haisha, featuring Ayushmann Khurrana and Bhumi Pednekar.
Kirkire has written songs for movies such as Kai Po Che, 3 Idiots and PK. Bhattacharya has penned songs such as ‘Kabira‘ and ‘Balam Pichkari’ from Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani and ‘Channa Mereya’ from Ae Dil Hai Mushkil.
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No music platform has algorithm to display credits
In the YouTube description of the song, the lyricists have said how no music platform at present has algorithm to prominently display credits for lyrics.
“Dear music streaming apps/platforms & the official YouTube channels of various music companies, please properly credit lyrics writers when you stream/play songs. Currently, no music streaming apps/platforms have any algorithm of prominently displaying lyrics credits or making a song searchable by the lyrics writer’s name,” read their YouTube description.
They also said that across all YouTube channels of most big music companies several songs were either incorrectly credited or not at all. This was the case not only for newer lyric writers, they added, but also for “legends” such as Sahir Ludhianvi, Gulzar and Javed Akhtar.
This isn’t the first time that the issue has been raised.
In an earlier interview featuring scriptwriters on Film Companion in 2018, Grover had raised a similar point, saying music company Eros’ YouTube channel did not credit Irshad Kamil for his work.
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