It may be miniscule right now, but the market for classical music in India is growing at a steady clip, the dominance of Bollywood music notwithstanding. www.radioandmusic.com's Shalabh discovers that more music companies are tapping newer genres within the classical space to get the cash registers ringing.

The good news - Indian classical music sales are picking up, slowly but steadily.

The bad news - there isn't any, really. Music companies in India have for the last year been discovering that there are several ways in which classical music can be tapped - new age, spiritual, religious…the possibilities are many.

Every label involved in the genre has recorded a growth of around ten per cent, even though the classical music segment (including Carnatic music) commanded barely Rs 200 million in the Rs 9000 million Indian music industry, in 2006-07. Spiritual music too is the second largest segment after film music and the 2006-07 industry estimate is around Rs 1250 million. New Age music is growing fast too, at a rate of 30 per cent, but on a very small base - the 2006-07 industry estimate for this segment was Rs 70 million.

For the past few years, only Music Today, Times Music and Saregama have been pushing the classical genre. Inarguably, high costs and low profit margins were cited as the primary reasons that kept the rest of the labels away from the genre. Now, however, every label wants a slice of the classical pie.

Saregama itself has big plans for the year ahead. Saregama's GM North-business, Mukul Kansal, says, "It is a profitable business and the popularity of this genre is increasing. We anticipate a 50 per cent growth in this segment in the coming couple of years."

The label is planning to re-launch Saregama's huge collection of old classical catalogues this year.

Contrary to popular perception, spiritual, new age and other forms of non-film music have not dented the market for classical music, and have managed to create their own market without cutting into the classical music market. "There is some overlap, but nothing significant. They don't pose a threat to classical genre," stresses Kansal.

Music Today's MD, Gurmeet Singh, feels, "The set of people who are hardcore listeners of classical music will be always there. With the world becoming more and more busy and materialistic, classical music is here to stay. The other forms of music have a separate market altogether." New age music in the year 2006-07 expanded to grab a 30 per cent share of the Music Today business, but its base is very small and the segment accounted for just Rs 70 million. Music Today's classical business amounted to Rs 200 million last year. The company says it is registering a healthy 25 per cent growth in classical music sales. Clearly the brand's persistence and full hearted loyalty to its positioning proved fruitful.
Another player, Tips, has been following another strategy. "We have shifted from classical music and doing more of spiritual. Film music accounts for more than 70 per cent of the market and that remains our focus," says Tips' sales manager Harish Asrani. Most other brands have steered clear of the classical genre for the same reason for so long.

Rhythm House, one of the oldest music retail stores in Mumbai has observed a growth of three to five per cent in the sales of CDs and cassettes of classical music. According to store sources, young people too buy CDs of performances by classical artistes. "How can we have a new title launching every week if the genre wasn't doing well?" asks a store manager. Rhythm House itself witnesses collections around Rs 40,000 to Rs 50,000 in this segment per day.

The smaller labels have been hard at work promoting the genre for long too. Ninaad Records is a music brand which is religiously promoting and packaging classical music since 1997. Their offshoot, Banyan Tree, organises events and concerts of classical artistes. Says Ninaad Music's senior manager, PR, Anand Lalwani, "Classical music as a segment is growing. The mushrooming of events and concerts and the occupied seats clearly show its demand. It is a beautiful feeling to see crowds gathering in such huge numbers at such events. The industry is progressing at around four per cent annually."

"Fusion music has not sprung up recently. We have been listening to fusion music since we were kids from people like George Harrison. The present form is defined as new age music by the experts. It is a new genre completely and has no harm to do to classical music," he adds.

Music Plus is one more brand that thrives on classical and spiritual music. The brand doesn't have any retail outlet, which takes orders online and ships the records by post. B Shankarnarayan, owner of Music Plus, based in Pune, tells Radio and Music that the market is growing at a steady clip every year.

The company receives orders from second and third tier cities as well (like Hubli, Siliguri, Anand and Guwhati), and the demand from overseas is substantial as well.