But Saregama is not a museum. It is a sleeping giant that woke up to find itself the most powerful player in a $2.5 billion Indian music streaming war. How did a company that sold physical records of Bhakti hymns survive the cassette, the CD, the MP3, and the pandemic? The answer lies in the peculiar economics of nostalgia and the "R.D. Burman Tax." To understand Saregama, you have to erase the modern understanding of music piracy. In 1902, when the Gramophone Company of India set up shop, piracy meant a rival label physically stamping your disc. The company’s first major coup was convincing Gauhar Jaan, a legendary courtesan of Calcutta, to sing into a horn. That recording—"Jogiya"—became the first commercial record in South Asia.
Saregama’s CEO, Vikram Mehra, has played this game masterfully. He understands that for a global streamer, Old Hindi music is not a niche—it is the second most streamed genre behind current Bollywood. Without Saregama, Spotify is just a podcast app. saregama
To the tech world, Carvaan looked like a joke: a bulky, plastic portable speaker with no Bluetooth (initially) and no screen. It had just one function: play 5,000 pre-loaded Saregama songs. You couldn't change the playlist. You couldn't skip the sad songs if you wanted to. It was the anti-Spotify. But Saregama is not a museum
In 2023 and 2024, Saregama made headlines by pulling its entire catalog from platforms like Spotify and Wynk during royalty disputes. This is the nuclear option. When Saregama withdraws its music, Spotify loses the "Old Hindi" genre entirely. Suddenly, users realize that their "Golden Era" playlist is empty. The answer lies in the peculiar economics of
But the smarter move is leaning into (synchronization licensing). You can't hear a period film set in the 1970s without a Saregama track bleeding through the radio. You can't watch a Netflix documentary about the India-Pakistan war without "Aye Watan" playing in the background.
Saregama’s crown jewel is its catalog. They own the rights to the works of Kishore Kumar, R.D. Burman, Manna Dey, and a massive chunk of Lata Mangeshkar’s vocal cords. While new labels like T-Series fight over the remix rights to a Punjabi pop song that will die in six months, Saregama plays the long game.