MUMBAI: In an effort to strengthen its roots in the regional non-film genre, music label EMI India has acquired the Charsur label's entire classical Carnatic music catalogue. The 5-year deal has helped EMI add more than 250 albums to its kitty.

Speaking about the newly acquired catalogue,  EMI Music India general manager and country head T Suresh said, "Charsur is a high-end label and very focused on its catalogue. It has a vast collection of authentic classical Carnatic music. Charsur's library also includes recordings of major concerts in Chennai. In addition, they also have deals in place with the families of several legendary musicians to acquire rare archival material that is yet unreleased. In fact, we have just released a recording of M S Subbulaxmi from way back in the '60s.

EMI India is also in talks with several other labels to expand its library with catalogues from other states such as Maharashtra and Bengal.

Leading music labels have been making regional forays to expand their markets – of late, in the South. As was reported on Radioandmusic.com,  Sony Music Entertainment, which has been on an acquisition spree, had acquired the music rights to seven Tamil and Telugu films to be released by end-December 2010. Other music labels too have ventured down south acquiring both, film- and non-film music  in Tamil and Telugu, as well as Kannada. Of the three, the last is the smallest contributor to the total music pie of the South.