History
In 1901, the company began operations as the first overseas branch of the Gramophone Company (later EMI from 1931), by recording the first song in India.[5][6] It was incorporated in Calcutta (now Kolkata) as The Gramophone and Typewriter Ltd. The following year, Fred Gaisberg, assistant to gramophone record inventor Emile Berliner, arrived in India “on a mission to capture [its] music”. On 5 January 1902, Gauhar Jaan became the first Indian artist to be recorded. In 1907, a record manufacturing facility was established in Dum Dum, Calcutta — the first of its kind outside the United Kingdom.[7]
On 13 August 1946, the company was incorporated as a private limited entity under the name The Gramophone Co. (India) Limited. It was converted into a public limited company on 28 October 1968, following which its name was changed to The Gramophone Company of India Limited.[8]
From 1909 to 2003, the company retailed its music products—records, cassettes, and compact discs—under the His Master's Voice (HMV) brand, using the iconic logo of a dog named Nipper listening to a gramophone.[9] Even after EMI sold the company to the RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group in 1985, Saregama continued to use the HMV name and symbol under a licensing agreement. This arrangement ended in 2003, when EMI divested the rights to the HMV trademark to the British retailer of the same name.
Saregama owns a music repertoire that spans film and non-film music, including Carnatic, Hindustani classical, devotional, folk, and other genres, in over 23 Indian languages.[10] The first song recorded in India—by Gauhar Jaan in 1902—and the soundtrack of the first Indian talkie film, Alam Ara (1931), were released under the label.[11][12]
The company holds the rights to a growing number of films and over 6,000 hours of television content. It continues to expand its catalogue through new acquisitions across Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Bhojpuri, Gujarati, Punjabi, and other regional languages.[10] Its music is distributed on music streaming services including Spotify, Gaana, YouTube Music, Hungama, Apple Music, and others; on over-the-top (OTT) video platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, JioHotstar, and ZEE5; and on social media platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook.[13][10]
As of 2024, Saregama's catalogue includes over 150,000 tracks.[10] The company also holds the rights to the complete catalogue of M. S. Subbulakshmi, the first vocalist to receive the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour.[14] Its catalogue includes devotional music across multiple faiths—such as Hindu, Sikh, Islamic, and Christian—as well as a diverse collection of regional folk music.[10]
In 2023, the company launched Saregama Talent, a vertical focused on artist management and promotion.[15][10] That same year, it acquired a majority stake in Pocket Aces Pictures Pvt. Ltd., a digital content and influencer marketing company behind brands like FilterCopy and Dice Media.[16][10] Saregama also announced a plan to invest ₹1,000 crore over three years to acquire music content across multiple Indian languages.[17][10]
