More and more Indians groove to digital music Tuesday September 25 2007 00:00 IST Business & Economy News Bureau MUMBAI: Music in India seems to be a huge thrill and it doesn't really take an Indian Idol contestant to go gaga about the latest tunes floating around. With the onset of gadgets like MP3 players, iPods, mobile phones with such players, it's obvious that this catching on to music has become a habit. A single glance around you while walking on the street and you would lose count of the number of youngsters, teens and even adults whistling away with their ears plugged with mobile headphones grooving to music. Right enough, there are even facts to prove it as the Cellular Operators Association of India estimate the mobile music industry to be worth around USD115 million and will zoom up to a whopping USD 170 million by the end of the year. This is also proved by the evident fall in the sales of physical forms of music like cassettes, CD's and the likes. Facts prove the same as a survey by Synovate Music Matters revealed that nearly 49 percent of our music listeners play music on their MP3 players and an impressive 33 percent downloaded music on to their phones. In fact phones do have a major role to play in this trend. Vigorous campaigning by mobile handset giants like Nokia and Sony Ericsson promoting digital music thanks to the players that are programmed in to their fancy handset models. Moreover many handsets today are also Bluetooth-enabled which helps in easy transference of songs and tones. While this certainly does go to prove that our music audiences have become largely internet savy preferring digital formats for their music because of its clarity as well as ease in transference, this doesn't exactly mean good news for music companies. On the contrary music companies fear massive losses as more and more of their customers resort to free downloads available on the net instead of purchasing authentic music. But these players would not sit back and let the doomsday reach them. Joining the internet band wagon, many players have created their own websites to scoop back what they can from Internet downloads. On charging a particular fee, users are offered vast download options of their favourite songs right from the site itself. To name a few Planet M, Saregama Music and Yash Rai Films have been on the act. Others who have been in the arena like Sony BMG Music and Unilever Music India have since long made their music content available online on sites like iTunes, Napster.com and the likes. Steve Guggenheimer, General Manager - Application Development and Platform Marketing, Microsoft Corporation says, “The availability of song video downloads from Yash Raj Films DRM platform marks a new era in Bollywood's use of technology to connect better with its audiences. We are very excited about this association, as it has not only given us an opportunity to work with one of India's most respected production houses, but also enabled us to improve the online experience for lovers of Indian movies.” With the music companies doing their bit to hold on to their rightful sales, they are hopeful that music lovers would eventually become aware of the importance of purchasing music from authentic sources and joining hand in their war against piracy.