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For decades, the company was a colonial conduit, pressing records for the British officers stationed in Shimla. But in the 1930s, it discovered its true purpose: Bollywood. By the time it rebranded to "Saregama" (named after the musical notes Sa, Re, Ga, Ma) in the early 2000s, it had swallowed up the back catalogs of HMV, Times Music, and a dozen defunct regional labels.
Saregama is not just a record label. It is India's collective auditory memory—and it is charging rent for you to live inside it.
Today, Saregama doesn’t produce new hits; it owns the hits that refuse to die . In an era of "fast music," why does a Gen Z listener in Delhi queue up Chaudhvin Ka Chand Ho ? The answer is algorithmic serendipity, but the reason is emotional permanence. saregama
Consider the When a Bollywood film flops, its music disappears from the charts. But the Saregama catalog grows every year. A child born in 2020 discovering Sholay in 2030 will stream "Mehbooba Mehbooba." Saregama gets paid for that. Every time a politician uses "Mere Desh Ki Dharti" at a rally, Saregama gets paid.
Furthermore, Saregama has finally embraced the remix culture it once despised. Recognizing that a bad remix of a classic brings attention back to the original, the label now licenses its stems to EDM producers in Mumbai and Los Angeles. It is a delicate dance: preserve the heritage, but cash the check. Walking through the Saregama office is a disorienting experience. In one corner, a 24-year-old social media manager is creating a "Lofi Beats to Study to" playlist featuring 1950s jazz. In the other, a preservationist is manually cleaning a master tape of a Pankaj Mullick song from 1939. For decades, the company was a colonial conduit,
This is Saregama. It is older than the gramophone. It is older than Hollywood. At 120 years old, it is the oldest music label in the world—a title it wears with the weary pride of a librarian watching the library burn.
And it sold millions.
In 2023 and 2024, Saregama made headlines by pulling its entire catalog from platforms like Spotify and Wynk during royalty disputes. This is the nuclear option. When Saregama withdraws its music, Spotify loses the "Old Hindi" genre entirely. Suddenly, users realize that their "Golden Era" playlist is empty.
