Written by: KAIZAN KABRAJEE
3 min readMumbaiJun 28, 2026 05:23 AM IST
First published on: Jun 28, 2026 at 05:23 AM IST
When Abdul Razzak opened Royal Music Collection in Mumbai’s Fort area in 1979, vinyl records were the dominant way Indians listened to music. Then came cassettes, CDs and streaming, pushing records to the margins.
Nearly five decades later, many of the customers walking into his shop belong to a generation that never grew up with vinyl at all. “I’ve been running this store since 1979, and I’ve seen the entire journey of vinyl in India,” says Razzak. “Vinyl records were popular for decades, but around 1990, production largely stopped. Then, around 2010, we started seeing a revival.”
The resurgence is reflected in the numbers. According to market research firm IMARC, the Indian vinyl record market was valued at $62.1 million in 2024 and is projected to reach $112.5 million by 2033.
For Razzak, the revival is most visible in the customers walking through his doors. “A lot of young people are buying vinyl records now. They’ve grown up with CDs and online music, but many are looking for something more physical they can get their hands on.”
While vinyl’s revival is often framed as a generational shift, record store owners say the bigger change may be in what listeners are buying.
At Delhi Record Shop in Hauz Khas, owner Bachitter Singh says demand for electronic genres such as house, EDM and UK garage has grown significantly in recent years. “Traditionally, vinyl in India was associated with Bollywood, jazz and the music older generations grew up with,” says Singh. “We’re now seeing interest in a much wider range of genres.”
For 17-year-old collector Netra Sonchhatra, the journey began not with nostalgia but with one of the world’s biggest pop stars.
“I usually discover music through the suggested playlists on apps like Spotify,” she says. “If an artist announces a tour, I’ll also listen to their opening acts. That’s how I found the band Inhaler when they opened for Arctic Monkeys, and now I have one of their records on vinyl.”
For Sonchhatra, streaming and vinyl serve different purposes. “Streaming platforms famously don’t pay artists very much, especially smaller ones,” she says. “Vinyl is a completely different experience. You actually own the music, the records look beautiful, and there’s something fascinating about the technology behind them.”
Pramod Sipamihalani, partner at Pyramid Productions, and performer under the stage name Sindhi Curry, has witnessed the shift through his vinyl-focused event series, Wax On Wax Off.
“Initially, it was about the novelty of seeing a vinyl DJ perform, but now they’re going deeper. They want to know about the artists, the history behind the music and where the records come from. I think we’re all suffering from digital overload. We’re constantly staring at screens. Vinyl offers something physical in a very digital world,” he says.
Comparing digital and vinyl Sipamihalani says, “It’s like the difference between reading a book and watching the movie adaptation,” he says. “Both tell the story, but one requires you to invest more of yourself in the experience.”
Comparing digital and vinyl Sipamihalani says, “It's like the difference between reading a book and watching the movie adaptation," he says. "Both tell the story, but one requires you to invest more of yourself in the experience.”
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