MusicWorld - Redefining Indian Music Retailing

In the mid-1990s, when GCIL was making efforts to come out of the BIFR's purview, the Indian music market was not faring well in terms of volume off-take. While a majority of Hindi film soundtracks were flopping, business in the non-movie music area had fallen below expectations. The company realized that the intellectual property base under the HMV brand could be leveraged for great advantages. GCIL owned 50% of all Indian music ever recorded, with over 45,000 albums and 0.165 million songs in 12 different languages in its portfolio...

Inspired by MusicWorld's growing popularity, many other players were planning to enter the music retailing business. Commenting on how the lack of organized retailing had affected the Indian music industry in the past, Ramesh Taurani of Tips Industries (one of the leading players) said, "The market was not going up because the depth of a company's catalogue is not reflected in the display. If I have about 5,000 titles, where will they be displayed? The paanwala (betel-leaf seller) also sells cassettes. Bookshops and greeting card shops have about 100-200 sq. ft. of display space...