SAREGAMA industries Ltd

Saregama India Ltd. is an Indian music label and content producer for Indian television.

About Saregama India Ltd

Saregama India was incorporated on August 13, 1946. The company is a subsidiary of the Gramophone Company, England (parent company). The parent company established its Indian branch in 1901 and set up a factory in Calcutta to manufacture records and gramophones in 1907. The factory at Dum Dum, Calcutta was established in 1928.

The products manufactured were marketed under the trade marks His Master's Voice and Columbia.  The parent company carried on the business in India until July 1, 1964 and from that date, the company purchased and acquired appropriate assets of the parent company's branch in India as a going concern. The parent company is itself a subsidiary of Electric and Musical Industries, England, known as EMI throughout the world.

The company's factory is situated at Dum Dum, Calcutta, where the parent company's factory was situated. The company's factory is most up-to-date in all manufacturing techniques (especially in the field of gramophone records) and is largely air conditioned.

Business area of the company

• The company engaged in manufacturing, selling and dealing of gramophone records, radio receivers, radiograms, record players, record producers, pick-up cartridges, components and accessories thereof and other allied products.

• The company primarily operates in three business verticals: music, TV serials and films, and publications. 

• In more than 18 languages, Saregama has the most diverse catalog, including film and non-film songs, devotional music, classical, ghazals, folk, and indie-pop. 

• The company owns IP rights to over 1.30 lakh songs, 6,000+ hours of television serials, and 59+ movies. It has the best Indian music distribution network in India and worldwide, with over 29,000 retailers. 

• Saregama’s Carvaan, a digital audio player, aims to provide entertaining content for people of all ages. 

• The company uses its media presence, including digital media, to reach out to current and prospective audiences in a fun and engaging way. Under the banner of Yoodlee Films, the company creates award-winning thematic films primarily for digital audiences. 

Saregama partners with Dharma Productions - 19 Nov 2021

Saregama has partnered with Dharma Productions for Karan Johar’s Next - Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani. Saregama has been signed as the official music label for the film.

Dharma and Saregama go back a long way and have collaborated in the past where Saregama was the music label for some major films from the Dharma stable. Coming on-board as the official music partner for Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani, cements the relationship strategically.

Saregama India engaged in manufacturing, selling and dealing of gramophone records, radio receivers, radiograms, record players, record producers, pick-up cartridges, components and accessories thereof and other allied products.

 

Introduction: Its music catalogue consists of more than 117,000 songs in 14 languages built over a period of more than 100 years. It has daily and weekly TV shows currently on air with television networks in India. Saregama ’s head office is located in Mumbai, with other offices in Kolkata, Delhi and Chennai. It is listed on the NSE and BSE.

History: SAREGAMA was founded in 1901. It produced the first song recorded in India and later moved into the production of cinema and television content, digital retailing, aggregation, radio programming and events. In 1901,operations started as the first overseas branch of Electrical & Musical Industries Limited, EMI London. The company was incorporated on 13 August 1946 with the name of ‘The Gramophone Co.(India) Limited’. The name of the SAREGAMA Company was subsequently changed to ‘The Gramophone Co. of India Limited’ effective 1 April 1956.

It was converted into a public company on 28 October 1968 and consequently the name of the company was changed to ‘The Gramophone Company of India Limited’. RPG Group took over the company in 1985 from EMI. SAREGAMA. The name of the company was then changed from“The Gramophone Company of India  Limited” to ‘Saregama India Limited’ on November 3, 2000. In 2005, the remaining EMI stake was sold off to the parent company.

HMV SAREGAMA : Gramophone Company is better known as HMV (His Master’s Voice) : in India.RPG Group has been using the brand under license from the former parent company, EMI. On 3 November 2000, RPG Group changed the company’s name to SAREGAMA India Limited, and introduced a music label of the same name. Main studio was at DUMUM, KOLKATA. 

The Recording Studio and the entire Dum Dum establishment of SAREGAMA India Limited was built in 1928. It is one of the oldest studios in Southeast Asia. Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore had recorded his songs and poems in his own voice at this studio. Rebel poet Kazi Nazrul Islam’s voice was also recorded here. Artistes who have recorded at this studio include Asha Bhonsle, SD BURMAN,RD BURMAN, Kishore Kumar, K.C.Dey, Hemanta Mukherjee, Sandhya Mukherjee, Manna Dey, Amit Kumar, Suchitra Mitra, Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Pandit Ravi Shankar, and Ustad Bismillah Khan.
This famous studio is now closed permanently and it's very near to KOLKATA international airport Dumdum. Film director Satyajit Ray preferred to record his musical scores for his films at Dum Dum studio. RD BURMAN preferred this Studio of all. Television shows such as Dadagiri, Didi No. 1, Dance Bangla Dance and Saregamapa Lil Champs have been shot at the studio.

Business Segments: Music Licensing (46% of sales), Carvaan Product Platform (40% of sales) Film & TV Segment (13% of sales), and Publication- "OPEN" Magazine (1% of sales) as of FY20.

Portfolio Monetization: The company has Intellectual Property (IP) rights of 1.3Lakh songs, 6K+ hours of Tamil television serials (content made for SunTV), 60 movies. SAREGAMA has a presence in film music across all Indian languages,with 31% of the music portfolio of SAREGAMA acquired in the last 20 years. Through digital licensing agreements across global OTT platforms, social media, TV & radio stations, etc. company is monetizing the music portfolio across 7Billion+ per month song touchpoints. 2Billion+ youtube channel views in Q3FY21.

Carvaan Product Platform : "Carvaan: Digital Music Player" is a product with 5000 preloaded songs, easy UI n high-quality speakers including ones from Harman Kardon. These are being sold by a distribution network of 30K retailers.

Film production business: Yoodlee Films is Saregama ’s production house producing digital thematic films for the youth, with revenue primarily from licensing to digital OTT platforms. It has released 15 movies on Netflix Disney Hotstar ZEE5 in the last 3 yrs. The business model is unique and management belongs to the same of CESC and ATK football club, Kolkata. 

The Road Ahead

• Licensing revenue increased by 20% YoY (on an adjusted basis) in FY21. The management reiterated its guidance for 22-25% growth in licensing revenue (B2B), which will be aided by new content acquisition. They also stated that they hope to capture 20-25% of the new music market. Monetization of existing IPs via digital platforms and new music acquisition will aid growth in B2B (licensing) music sales. Minimal marketing spends have benefited the company’s margins, and the company has forecasted low marketing expenses for the next few quarters.

 

• Revenue growth in film and television was aided by strong traction in inventory monetization on both TV and YouTube. The management anticipates that Yoodlee films will generate 100 crores in revenue within three to five years

 

• The monetization push driven by digital consumption via streaming and social media platforms, combined with consistent cost discipline, has been really quite surprising. A key metric will be the acquisition and monetization of new music, as well as the pull of older content. The management is also keeping an eye on the strategy for converting Caravan into a platform and monetizing it in the coming months.
  

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