For the record

While this bit of historical evidence is lost, the rest is being recorded. Several generations in India have been brought up on the familiar picture of the dog peering into the gramaphone speaker of His Master8217;s Voice HMV.

From Gauhar Jaan to Sunidhi Chauhan, from Alam Ara to Dhoom, from 78 rpm records to digital downloads, EMI and HMV8217;s transition to the present day Saregama has been eventful.

KEEPING track of its past is something the company is taking seriously. The archiving process, once complete, is expected to end in a noteworthy museum. EMI may have left India but it has left behind a legacy that is being nurtured by Saregama.

After Gauhar Jan, Gaisburg recorded about 500 tracks during his three-six month stay in India, China, Thailand, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Nepal. The discs were then sent to Hanover and converted into records. In 1907 EMI set up its first production base outside England at Kolkata, well before it ventured into Australia, China and Turkey. The unit also served as a base to cater to the Australian market with EMI8217;s original English tracks.

Today Saregama India Ltd8212;as the company is known after its takeover by the R P Goenka group in 19858212;has to its credit about four lakh selections of music. The old catalogue makes up about 60-70 per cent of this, says Dilip R Mehta, managing director of Saregama. This includes old Hindi film music contributing 40-50 per cent and regional catalogues in Bengali, Tamil, Telugu and Marathi.

This sway of the old comes at a time with the country8217;s music industry is riding more on new music. The Rs 500-550 crore legitimate industry averages about 40 per cent of its sales from old music, while new music fetches the bulk 60 per cent of its earnings, says V J Lazarus of Universal Music India and president of the Indian Music Industry IMI.

With Saregama8217;s heavy tilt towards its old catalogue, bonding with its past makes good sense. 8216;8216;After RPG took over, we spent about six months copying about 4,000 old tracks recorded between 1902 and 1911, from EMI,8217;8217; says J K Maitra, Chief Technical Manager, who is leading the archiving initiative at Saregama. Its archive includes music from China, Thailand, Burma and Nepal.

THE documentation initiative goes beyond music. There8217;s an effort to track down the first production unit of EMI at 139, Beleghata Main Road. Since the plant has been burnt down, pinpointing the exact location is tough.

In 1927, EMI switched to its current premises in Dum Dum which was once Lord Robert Clive8217;s Hospital. The Manchester boilers that were used to press records in the early days are intact.

The company made the transition from 78 rpm records to LPs in 1959 with the film Mother India. In 1978 it graduated to cassettes and the first compact disk came in 1986. Digital downloads have come as recently as 2004.

There were other big HMV moments. The first multi-track 16-track recording was flagged off by the movie Silsila in 1979. The machine used is now a museum piece on display at Saregama8217;s archives.

EMI gave India its first taste of disco with Nazia Hassan8217;s Disco Diwane in 1980. It sold one lakh records on the first day of its release. The last LP came in as late as 2000.

Choosing to exit India, EMI entered into a 25 year agreement with RPG for continuing to use the HMV brand on Indian shores. 8216;8216;We have another 18 years to go before we lose the HMV brand,8217;8217; Mehta says. But he says the growth of the indigenous branding Saregama will ensure that the final farewell to HMV will be painless.

Perhaps what has been more painful has been the company8217;s loss of monopoly in the Indian music market. The first hint of competition came when Polydor came with Sholay. Then came the all time low-priced T-series. In the mid-1990s came the multinationals such as Sony, Universal which took over Polydor, BMG and Crescendo.

Clearly, Saregama has been losing ground in the new music business. But its biggest sustenance has been its exclusive rights over the old music of the country. From a market share of about 60 per cent some 50 years ago, the company finds itself nursing a stake of 20 per cent in the legitimate music market of the country.