Saregama is one of India’s oldest music labels, formerly known as HMV. The label’s catalogue contains some unforgettable gems of the Indian music industry mostly from Bollywood. The company is one of the largest global owners of sound recording and publishing copyrights of Indian music, across 14 different languages.
Saregama has been a witness to the industry’s transition from physical copies to digital sales, though riding that tide was rough.
Helming the operations at Saregama since October 2014 is the quintessential music label man, Vikram Mehra. Under his leadership, the label has diversified into selling unique music devices under its brand SaregamaCarvaan and producing movies through Yoodlee Films.
For our ‘Interview with the Game Changers’, we spoke to Mr. Mehra about the label’s journey under him, the success of SaregamaCarvaan, and social media’s impact on music consumption and more.
The journey of brand Saregama from an orthodox label to a vibrant innovative brand is incredible. How did you make it happen?
Saregama, the erstwhile HMV, has always been the custodian of the Indian music legacy. As a company we are proud of our role of not only introducing the newer generations to our musical culture, but also working towards building the artiste’s community. After all, there is no Music without the Artiste.
Brands are created when they promise something that their potential customers find relevant, and then more importantly live up to that promise. In order to introduce our musical legacy to younger generations, we have digitised 130k songs over the last few years, and launched them on every major streaming and short video sharing app. We have invested in systems and processes that ensure rightful contractual royalties are paid to all film producers and artistes, whose music we have acquired. Saregama in fact paid Rs61cr towards music royalties in FY20.
We have also started acquiring new film and non-film music across all major languages now.
All the above helped in customers and partners to start believing in us again. More importantly it helped us in believing in ourselves again. And that’s when the magic started happening, be it Carvaan, Yoodlee Films, Saregama Originals, Karaoke etc.
What were the game changing moments at Saregama India Ltd. under your leadership?
No company can ever be successful based on an individual. The current Saregama management team comprises of extremely driven individuals who protect each other’s backs, and are mentored by a Board that believes that Failure is an important ingredient of Success. For every game changing move at Saregama, there have been enough number of false starts too. The biggest change at Saregama over the last few years has been our ability to take risks and accept failures that come along. Carvaan, acknowledged as a master move now, was a very big risk in 2017. Similarly Saregama’s move into production of thematic films was a big risk, but today it has positioned the company as the biggest movie player in the digital space. Under the Yoodlee brand name, Saregama has licensed 15 films to Netflix, Disney Hotstar and Zee5 over the last 3 years. The company has also won 3 National film awards.
Nostalgia has great emotional connect. Was this the thought behind SaregamaCarvaan?
Was it driven by consumer insights and what were the learnings from the study?
Like I always say, innovation comes from Anthropology and not Technology. There were multiple ways to consume music already. What differentiated Carvaan was the fact that it brought out the simplest way to consume it. People of that generation struggled to use apps and other tech ways, while Carvaan got them everything at just press of a button. Carvaan valued Convenience over Control.
Nostalgia was a cherry on the cake. Nostalgia works like a magic. Simplicity and Nostalgia sums up Carvaan.
How has social media and music streaming services influenced music consumption in India? Do number of views, likes and shares matter? Do you think consumers are now aware of manipulated numbers on the same, and is that ethical?
Social Media/Music streaming plays a huge role today in the popularity of any content. But we should be aware of the fact that finally consumer is the king. Nothing can become big with any sort of push if the content is not genuinely appealing. Likes, shares or comments are only ways and means to distribute the content or increase its reach but finally it’s the power of the content that works. Nothing can manipulate a consumer’s mind.
The Indian music consumer doesn’t really want to pay to stream music, which is evident with the minuscule percentage of premium users. Can the streaming platforms survive on advertising revenues alone? Or will paid streaming be the way of life in India soon?
The recent success of video OTT players like Netflix, Disney Hotstar, Amazon Prime etc says a lot about how the mindset towards paying for streaming services is changing in India. I am a firm believer that, as audio OTT players move their focus from valuation (higher user base driven through free content) to profitability (content behind a pay-wall), the Indian music market will also move towards a paid economy. Remember audio OTT apps have 450M+ paid subscriptions world over, including in China. No reason to believe that India will be any different.
Recently there have been a number of new music labels that have entered the industry and many of them are already invisible. What do you think is the secret behind the success of a record label?
A record label has to be consistent, persistent and observant. There would be tracks that would work and some that won’t, as there is no fixed recipe of creating record breaking tracks. And that’s ok.
Understanding the listener’s pulse and trends is very important.
What will be your advice for a newcomer wanting to build a music label?
Get into the space only if your heart is into it.
