The market for online and mobile music is set to grow exponentially in India as broadband finds increasing traction. Wait, that’s a no-brainer. Everybody knows that. Let’s start again. The market for online music is going to grow humongously in the coming years, thanks to broadband. And to the availability of secure platforms which will enable consumers to download digital music, by paying for the tracks. AirTel has just announced a musical initiative with its Easy Music, in which Bharti’s pre-and post-paid customers can download songs from AirTel’s outlets around the country, either as a HelloTune or a ringtone.
While downloading of music and ringtones has caught on like wildfire as Indians’ enduring love affair with the mobile phone and film music compels them to pay for the service, industry players say that it will be the downloading of digital music online which will a huge business. "When Apple Computer launched the iPod in 2003, and offered legal downloads of music, it created a whole new marketing channel for music marketed," says Sudhanshu Sarronwala, CEO of Soundbuzz, a firm which hopes to do in India what Apple did in the United States.
How does Soundbuzz’s model work? "We have license arrangements with 60 labels, which gives us the right to offer the music for downloading," says Mr Sarronwala, who, in an earlier avatar, helped set up and give the initial buzz to a channel called MTV in India. "And we have tied up with Tata-VSNL and Bharti broadband, which will enable their customers to download music from our website." The technology for downloading the music and, more importantly, ensuring that digital rights are not violated, is based on Microsoft’s .NET platform.
"Digital rights management is very important for online music sales because the software, by Microsoft, and other vendors, ensures that songs legally dowloaded cannot be sent out on the Internet by customers to their friends and relatives. The legally downloaded tracks can be burnt into a CD, though, and played on an MP3 player, or the PC," Mr
Sarronwala said in a telephonic interview from Bangalore on Tuesday.Soundbuzz, which Mr Sarronwala claims is the only company in India, so far, to offer a music download service, will be tying up with other broadband providers to make the service more broadbased. "Downloading of digital music is going to be huge because it is relatively inexpensive to download a song from the Internet, and with the use of broadband on the rise, it could be a phenomenon," he said.