Saregama goes mobile, plans music app

Saregama India has announced the launch of its mobile portal wap.saregama.com, through which users can access a database of over 50,000 songs in 10 languages. In conversation with Telecom Yatra, PK Prasannan, chief manager, new media, Saregama, revealed that the company is working on a mobile application that will soon be launched.
He further informed us that the link for the beta version has been live on WAP sites of Airtel and Vodafone for about six months now and that the response has been very good. The site registers 40,000 to 50,000 downloads per day.
The songs available include those sung by Lata, Rafi, Asha, Kishore and M S Subbulakshmi among others, in many genres such as Hindi film music, ghazals, devotional and regional music in ten languages.
Prasannan added, “The WAP site is accessible to all mobile GPRS users. However, DRM (digital rights management) free MP3 full song download is available with select operators like Airtel, Vodafone, Aircel and Loop. Saregama is currently in talks with Reliance Communications and Idea Cellular for this service. Subscribers using services of other network service providers will get access to MP3 and polyphonic ringtones.”
One full song download takes less than two minutes on a 2G network and since the songs are DRM free, a user can keep songs forever and also transfer them to their PCs or other handsets via Bluetooth. Download charges are operator dependent.
Saregama’s mobile App will allow users to download lyrics along with a song downloaded onto a compatible handset.
Saregama India, formerly known as The Gramophone Company of India, is one of the largest and best known music companies with a library of over 3 million tracks. As per the company, Saregama owns the largest music archives in India, which are among the biggest in the world.