G-Series: Not ready to give up just yet

The first audio cassette came into the market during the early eighties, it was an album by M A Shoaib. The early recording labels included Elvis, Sruti-Abhisruti, Sound Garden, and Sargam. Gradually, the business grew. 

By the 1990s a split came between new Dhaka and old Dhaka labels. G-Series, Ektar, Laser Vision were recording labels from new Dhaka. G-Series has released more than 30,000 songs by more than 2,000 artists so far.

"If you notice two things, you will understand that Bangladeshi music is different from music around the world. Firstly, music was a major pivot in our Liberation War and secondly, there is a wide variety of genres. There are over hundreds of Rabindra Sangeet artists. It is the same for Nazrul Geeti.

Many only sing folk music. It is the same thing with country music too. Lalon is a way of life. The number of genres in such a small space is really amazing. There is so much variety but our music industry is doing poorly. We have to find a reason for this," said Khademul Jahan, CEO, G-Series, and guitarist of Black.

Gitanjali: The precursor to G-Series

Presently G-Series has its own five storey office at Elephant Road. However, their journey began as a music shop called Gitanjali. 

Gitanjali was an audio cassette shop. It was a corner shop on Elephant Road. Nazmul Haque Bhuiyan, better known as Khaled, was its founder. He named the shop after Rabindranath's Gitanjali. 

The year was 1983. Music entered the era of audio cassettes and LPs were coming to an end. Shops in the country played music to passersby. It often encouraged people to buy them.

As Jahan explained, in the year of 2000, there were more than 20,000 music shops in the country, and less than 500 record labels. An album by an artist would sell in lakhs 

Artists Momtaz and Asif Akbar are on that list. Other popular artists included Tapan Chowdhury, Kumar Bishwajit, Dolly Sayantani, Shakila Zafar, Baby Nazneen, Shubhra Dev, Monir Khan, Imran, Bari Siddiqui and others. 

Surprisingly, original albums by Runa Laila, Sabina Yasmin and Andrew Kishore were not released much, their movie soundtracks were much more popular.

A format accessible to the masses

"Not many could afford the LP, but it reigned for a long time. In the LP era, most albums were movie soundtracks. There were some notable exceptions though – 'O Ki Gariyal Bhai', 'Ramjaner Oi Rojar Sheshe' or 'Bondhu Tin Din Tor Barite Gelam', etc. 

These were not soundtracks but gained popularity through LP records. The turntable is an elite medium of listening to music. It was only after the advent of audio cassettes that made music accessible to the masses.

During the 1980s, many people who migrated abroad for work used to bring back with them cassette players. Another advantage of cassettes was that you could easily record them," said Jahan.

Presses in Paltan started printing cassette album covers. Large groups of songwriters, composers, artists, recordists, producers flocked to the labels. 

Dhar Razakar's first cassette

"Sangeeta and Soundtech did relatively better in the cassette business. Cassette maintained its reign for more than three decades. CDs became the standard in '92 or '93. 

Cassettes, however, were relevant until 2010. The cassette era was the golden age of the music business. In the mid-90s, each recording label employed 30-40 people in the marketing department. 

They used to go out in the morning with a bag full of cassettes. Some days they would work late into the night. Two or three times a month they would go on district tours. 

Retailers played newly released albums. Advertisements of new cassettes were published in newspapers. Posters were also printed. During Eid, shops were packed with people. Fans came from far and wide to buy cassettes. 

The profit from each cassette was Tk six," said Jahan.

G-Series began releasing cassettes of poetry in 1999, the first albums were 'Rajakar Rajakar' and 'Hridoye Janmabhoomi'. Later Nima Rahman and Anjan Dutt released a poetry cassette called 'Hello Bangladesh'. 

Mila's music video CD 'Jatrabala' was the most popular G-Series album – it sold about 3 million copies. Black's debut album 'Amar Prithibi' also sold three lakh copies.

CDs became obsolete quickly

"Many said that the CD's reign would be long. Since 2000, the music industry has boomed. New technologies had to be adapted in order to survive. Those who could not keep up lost the game. 

G-Series, however, reinvested profits into the industry. Therefore, over time, Agnibeena, G-Technologies, NewG24.com, bikroybaba.com and G-Prime emerged as partners of G-Series," said Jahan.

The era of band music

Initially the music industry in Bangladesh was apprehensive of the band scene since it primarily appealed to audiences from urban areas. Labels feared low sales. But G-Series welcomed it from the very beginning. 

The label was passionate about innovation and introducing new genres to the masses. They invited bands with open arms. In addition to solo albums, they also released mixed albums. 

The advantage of mixed albums was that music by popular bands could be released alongside up-and-coming artists. As a result, the listeners were introduced to a variety of genres including soft rock, hard rock, hip-hop, soul, metal, rock and roll and pop.

In 2001, the first mixed band album was released in coordination with Isha Khan Dur. Then 'Projonmo' was published with the coordination of Guru Azam Khan. Since then, the label has released many new singles, one after the other. 

In 2007, Vulcano's songs were released in an album. 

Vulcano The BD Band, a Facebook page, posted, "Some people still remember our first album, Vulcano. Although very small, these achievements." 

A commenter named Roknuzzaman Rakesh commented, "I still sing your song 'Amulok Bhalobasha'. Vulcano is my teenage love. Please keep singing," said Jahan.

Then in 2017, newspapers were writing about band music. 

"Is there no freedom in this life?" Youths were asking this question through their music. 

A band called Chitkar then joined this movement. They expressed love, anger and hatred through sound, and dreamt of changing the world through their music. 

Ayub Bachchu's last song was also released by G-Series in a mixed album titled Chayashariri. The song created a lot of buzz during Eid-ul-Fitr in 2016.

G-Series releasing Maksud's album 'Nishiddho' was a bold move by the label. The album railed against political unrest, corruption, extremism and a fragile education system. The song 'Geeti Bhashan' from the album was banned.

Sargam was another label who was a patron of band music. They released albums by Obscure, Souls, Chime, Ark, Warfaze, Nova, Renaissance, Prometheus, Miles, LRB, Winning, Feelings and many others.

Eventually, band music transcended the urban audiences and began appealing to the masses. Jahan attributed this accomplishment to three people – Biplob, Hasan and Ayub Bachchu. Their songs were popular throughout the country, and were played in villages and markets. 

Since the 1990s, G-Series has released albums by Gene Split, Air & Air, Poison Green, Artcell, Nemesis, Meaningless, Legend, Satanic, Scarecrow, Warfaze, Rock Strata, Black, Cryptic Fate, Untitled, Meghdal, Underground Peace Lovers, etc.

MP3 and piracy

Worldcom began releasing CDs in the late 90's. Art of Noise, Music Man, Pro Mix, etc, were among a few labels who followed. The new medium also became more accessible to listening with the popularity of portable CD players and Walkmans.

In 2007/2008, with the arrival of the MP3, the music business spiralled out of control. Collecting and sharing music became easier than ever before. People easily shared their music with one another and it spelled disaster for the entire audio and video industry. 

"At the time, an artist's discography could be released in two or three CDs. Piracy was at an all time high and producers, distributors and artists lost control over their music. 

This spell lasted for about four to five years. By then, however, the Music Industry Owners Association was formed. They tried to stop piracy with the help of the authorities. Music shops were monitored and the sale of pirated albums stopped as a result.

Agreements with artists were made verbally in the past. The Royalty system came into operation in 2005. Before that, artists used to get lump sums from labels for their music. 

It was a big deal for some artists to get a cassette out. They didn't talk much about finances and that was the custom," said Jahan.

"G-Series saw its best time in 2009 because by then the audio industry bounced back up due to the end of piracy. 

Post-pandemic times were also important since we were able to overcome the shock. But the two years before that were bad for business. Earnings were at an all time low. Artists had to make a living through performing for Ringback Tones (RBT) on mobile phones.

During the heyday of FM radio, musicians and the music industry – around 2010 – got a massive boost. But that did not last long. Technology is constantly changing, nothing lasts for too long. 

I remember when the iPod became popular in our country in 2005. More people started listening to music. Today, people mostly listen to music through apps. Music is accessible from YouTube, Facebook, Netflix or Spotify; to watch and listen to all kinds of audio or video. 

These platforms are not good mediums for the industry. But people prefer them. Income from these apps are not very high. Suppose a song gets three to five million views, it earns about $400 to $500. 

If you calculate how much is spent on recording the audio, filming music videos, artists artist royalties and the marketing, you will realise it is becoming increasingly difficult trying to run an office. 

Changing with the times, G-Series recently launched G Prime, a platform for users to stream music, dramas, movies, etc," said Jahan.

Still hoping on…

The digital era has changed the entire music industry. G-Series still has hundreds of employees, but most of the original staff are now gone. New recruits specialise in IT and spend a lot of time on social media. 

Marketing has also entered the digital age and it operates in a new ecosystem.

G-Series also has hired app developers to keep up with the times. Many of the older major recording labels could not keep up with the new waves of technology, and they pivoted towards garments or real estate. As a result, the music industry is no longer as big as it used to be in Bangladesh. Labels upload old tracks digitally, and seldom record new ones.

Jahan, however, is still optimistic. He said, "Our latest production 'Bebshar Poristhiti' has brought in almost 20 million views in a matter of three weeks. The numbers are far better than the ones we've had in the past.So it can be said that not only have people not lost their interest in music, they are listening in greater numbers. Those of us who work in the industry need to be mindful of the present demands."