This popular Pakistani musician is reviving the music industry through tech

Haroon Rashid

Musician, artist, and songwriter Haroon Rashid is a household name for most Pakistani families. Born in London to a Kiwi mother and Pakistani father, Haroon embarked on his singing career in the early 1990s, and burst onto the scene with his band Awaaz. The band went on to record and produce three critically-acclaimed albums, selling millions of CDs and performing in front of sold-out crowds in Pakistan and across the world.

One of the key reasons behind Awaaz’s success was its promotion of social messages within the band’s music. Some of their most successful titles brought attention to the vast corruption and nepotism plaguing Pakistani society – an unfortunate reality even today. They weren’t afraid of composing hard-hitting lyrics, questioning how individuals could afford lavish and luxurious lifestyles while the rest of the country remained mired in poverty. But the band eventually split up, and Haroon moved his focus towards his solo career.

In the early 2000s, Haroon released his first solo album and continued to tour the world, performing for packed crowds. However, his activist roots didn’t wither away. He remained concerned about the general state of the music industry back home, with the hope that it would continue to grow.

Decay sets in

Unfortunately by the mid-2000s, the Pakistani music industry had started to enter a state of morbid decline. Most of the major record labels – EMI, Sonic, Soundmaster, etc. – had gone bankrupt in Pakistan and shut down. Lax implementation of copyright and intellectual property laws meant most of the content was pirated: consumers could easily purchase CDs and cassettes for a fraction of their true value. Furthermore, television channels and radio stations refused to share any royalties with the artists whose content they were constantly airing. Antiquated contracts meant there was little artists could do on an individual basis. The music industry started to die.

“In any industry, you need the cycle to turn,” Haroon tells Tech in Asia. “Money needs to flow from broadcast mediums such as television and radio back to the artists so there are financial incentives for them to continue producing great music. While these guys [television and radio channels] made millions of dollars in advertising revenue, they didn’t give even one cent back [to the artists].”

Whilst popular names still managed to generate revenue by touring across the globe, it started to become impossible for up-and-coming musicians to make any sort of mark. They couldn’t earn any money as they were too unknown to have a legion of fans beyond Pakistan’s borders, and the domestic market had stagnated significantly.

“70 percent of the industry simply shrugged their shoulders and gave up,” explains Haroon. “They’d invest two to three years producing and recording an album but saw zero returns [on their investment]. Their families questioned their decision to pursue music as a professional career and exhorted them to get a job. The music scene started drying up.”

What made matters worse was that traditionally, all the capital required to record and produce music albums was arranged by the artist or band themselves. Same for music videos. Record labels acted mainly as distribution agents for a band’s CDs and didn’t help with the costs.

This model worked until the internet came around. Television and radio channels were offered the content for free as they would help promote the album, eventually driving up sales volume. Piracy wasn’t as much of an issue in the early and mid-1990s as record labels used their clout to ensure such content remained off the shelves. Unfortunately, as Pakistan slowly started to enter the digital age, piracy levels spiked. Users started ripping CDs and uploading content online. Consumers saw they could access songs for free and no longer needed to purchase it. Record labels were helpless as this was a new medium they didn’t know much about and they couldn’t find a way to stop it. One by one they went bankrupt, creating a vacuum in the market, that further fuelled the growth of pirated discs.

Sprung into action

Building new mediums