Now Playing: Sheila on vinyl

If you have missed that ritual — flipping through the stack to look for a particular LP,admiring its artwork,slipping the cover off,feeling the record tremble under your fingertips,placing it on the gramophone and later the turntable — you can relive it,for the LP is back. And this time it is not about old classics,even the latest films are on the LP list.

Gone are the days of haggling with touts in chor bazaars. Now,the raunchy lyrics of Sheila ki jawani will play on the gramophones and turntables that once played Pyar kiya to darna kya from a Mughal-e-Azam LP.

“We thought of doing this about five months ago. LPs are a rage abroad but we were not sure if the Indian audience will buy these again,since they cost way more than a CD. But the customer feedback convinced us. Anything of any scale is already being put out into the market,” says Adarsh Gupta,Business Head, Sa Re Ga Ma,which has come out with LPs for recent films such as Jhootha Hi Sahi,Mohabbatein and Hum Aapke Hai Kaun,apart from the classics like Silsila,Pakeezah and Kabhi Kabhi. T-Series is out with the Tees Maar Khan LP. So,it seems we have to wait only a few months before the punch-packed DK Bose will play on the turntable. And well,we only hope the clarity is not jarring.

As for the target audience, Arjun Sankalia,Director,International Repertoire and Special Products,Sony Music,says,“It is largely the music aficionados and collectors.” Sony music has brought out LPs of films that include Lagaan,Rang De Basanti and Jodhaa Akbar,apart from AC/DC’s Highway to Hell,an album by Kings of Leon.

Gupta says,“The demographics are changing. Most of our customers are in the metros,but people from smaller cities are also beginning to buy LPs.” Sa Re Ga Ma is also selling turntables on its website. The Lenco turntables,a German brand,are being sold at Rs 8,000 onwards.

But the credit of bringing the LPs to India goes to EMI. The company brought out 78 rpms of Pink Floyd,The Eagles,The Beatles and Led Zeppelin and stacked them in the music stores. Anand Srinivasan,label manager,EMI,says that vinyl records have a future in India. “Lately,the West proved to be a good market. Now,people in Hyderabad and Bangalore are buying LPs.” The company had shut down its only LP manufacturing unit in Kolkata in 1988.

But it is not just the market,there is also the nostalgia factor. Apart from Pink Floyd and Co — the ones associated with the golden age of LPs — there will also be vinyls from the iTunes generation that include Norah Jones and Arctic Monkeys.

“The quality in the analog format is better than the digitised version of a CD. For now,we have selective customers as LPs are expensive. But the market is opening up,” says Sunil Mishra,owner of the Mercury Audio Video in Khan Market.

Delhi-based DJ Jazzy Joe,who owns http://www.record.com,has taken up the difficult task of sourcing the records from reluctant private collectors. His collection also includes dialogues from the classics. “I sell originals. The young generation needs to understand what LPs are and what its beautiful music is all about,” says Joe.

Another good thing is that LPs come with merchandise — posters,stickers and cards,of course,with a price tag. The LPs are priced between Rs 495 and Rs 5,000. So,gone are the days when the old laquer discs were sold away to the raddiwala. Vinyl is here to stay and we are all set to tune in.