PARIS: After selling shares in his future earnings on auction website eBay, Indian-born singer Shayan Italia believes he is about to hit the big time and shake up the music industry in the process.
The 28-year-old unknown is set to release his first album, produced and marketed with his investors' money and without the help of a major record label, in his adopted country Britain next month.
If his sugary blend of power ballads and soft rock proves popular, the young crooner, who cites Elton John as an influence, will blaze a trail as a new type of artist-entrepreneur. "If I manage to do it, I'll make millions and I could write a book because I'll be the first to do it in the industry," he said.
Other artists already run and own their own record labels, which enables them to keep control and increase their financial gains, but usually only once they are established.
Italia began by auctioning off shares in his future earnings on eBay, bringing in 9,000 pounds ($24,000) from three investors in London, New York and Toronto. They paid 3,000 pounds each for 0.25 percent of his future music income. Since then, he says he has raised a million dollars by selling off 40 percent of his future earnings to about 11 different investors through private deals.
He declines to name them, saying they are 'very successful and powerful people', but his brother is a director at India-branded beer group Cobra, giving him contacts in the mega-wealthy world of London finance. For 1.0 percent of his future earnings, each investor has stumped up 12,000 pounds -- a punt on his potential based on nothing more than a belief in the 150 pop songs he claims to have written.
"I'd sold hundreds of items on eBay and I understood the music industry model -- that record labels invest in you to get a future royalty," he said. "I never went to a major (record label). As soon as the eBay thing happened I realised there were people who were ready to invest and I thought 'why can't we just do this?'" One investor stumped up 100,000 pounds after seeing him play a small concert at a venue in London, he says.
Italia's album, titled 'Shayan Italia', is to be released digitally in November and in hard copy in December. His only relationship with a record label is for distribution, which is being overseen by MX3 Records.
MX3 owner Nigel Haywood, a music industry veteran and former commercial director in Britain of the major label Universal, says he decided to work with Italia in the belief that 'there's a place in the market for a singer and songwriter'.
"Potentially, if it all goes right, and he's played on the radio, there's no reason that he can't sell a million albums," he says. Although the figures for his fundraising cannot be independently verified, a slick music video and an arranged marketing blitz in the run up to Christmas are evidence that Italia has serious financial backers.
"If I sell 100,000 albums, then I will probably start making money back," he says. "From then on, I start making cash. The return my investors will get is phenomenal."
His music is piano and guitar-led pop with strong melodies and clear vocals. In style, he is a wannabe James Blunt and he is clearly bidding for the same teenage female listeners as the hit British singer. Despite occasional amateurish lapses with his lyrics, the songs available on his MySpace site are professional in quality.
And in an age when personality sells records almost as much as song-writing, his personal life is rich in stories. He began writing songs after the death of both his parents at the age of 20 and left his middle-class roots in hometown Hyderabad in India to set up in London eight years ago.
What's more, he's a Zoroastrian, an obscure ancient Persian religion that follows the teachings of a prophet Zoroaster who proclaimed the authority of a God, Ahura Mazda, credited with being the utimate creator of the universe. Italia aims to be the second-biggest Zoroastrian in the music business -- after the deceased Queen star Freddie Mercury.
Despite his origins, India figures very little in his songwriting. There are no identifiably Indian sounds in his pop, but he says he tries to incorporate the basics of music from his homeland: 'Crystal clear vocals, poetic lyrics and simple arrangements'.
Once he's made it in Britain, he plans to return to conquer India, which he claims will be receptive to 'an icon that is one of theirs but went away'. Italia is fiercely determined, occasionally boastful and intent on prove to the record labels that his model for developing and financing his career can work. Matching his business acumen with popular acclaim is the next step.
