Saregama
One of the oldest music level company in India is Saregama India Ltd. It is an Indian music record label and content company. It's headquarter is in Calcutta (now Kolkata), West Bengal. The company was established in 1901 as the Indian branch of the British Gramophone Company. Later on it became a part of EMI and used the His Master's Voice (HMV) trademark on its releases for several decades. The first Indian artist was Gauhar Jaan, who was recorded on 5th January, 1902. In 1907, a record manufacturing facility was established in Dum Dum, Calcutta (now Kolkata), West Bengal, India.
Under the name The Gramophone Co. (India) Limited, the business was incorporated as a private limited company on August 13, 1946. On October 28, 1968, it became a public limited company, and its name was changed to The Gramophone Company of India Limited.
The RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group purchased the business in 1985. The licensing deal with EMI expired in 2003, however the HMV trademark was still in use until then. During this time, Saregama also handled the distribution of EMI's foreign releases in India. The company holds the rights to a growing number of films and over 6,000 hours of television content. It's music is distributed on music streaming services, over-the-top (OTT) and on social media. Saregama's catalogue includes over 150,000 tracks as of 2024.
The film production division of Saregama India called Yoodlee Films launched in 2017 in Mumbai. Yoodlee Films is Saregama’s production house focused on creating content for theatrical releases and 3rd party digital platforms & TV. We are also the leading TV serial producer for Sun TV. Yoodlee Films has produced 30 films, several of which have been released on platforms such as Netflix, JioHotstar, and ZEE5.
In 2017, Saregama launched a portable digital music player called Saregama Carvaan. It has 5,000 pre-loaded Hindi film songs, classical music, and devotional tracks from the company’s catalogue. It also supports Bluetooth connectivity, USB, and FM/AM. Carvaan GO, is pre-loaded with 3000 hindi songs and Carvaan Mini Shrimad Bhagavad Gita includes audio recitations of the 700 verses of the Bhagavad Gita along with devotional bhajans. Carvaan Karaoke, which allows users to sing along with synchronised lyrics on screen launched in 2020.
Saregama is listed on the NSE and the BSE. Besides its head office in Kolkata, it has regional offices in Mumbai, Chennai, and Delhi.
Did you know? Saregama released India's first-ever studio-recorded song in 1992. The first song was recorded in India—by Gauhar Jaan.
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