Tata group gets into online music selling

Durgesh Gupta - Televisionpoint.com | Mumbai
The Tata group plans to get into a business it has hitherto stayed out of and re-enter in a big way another it quit a while ago - music selling and book publishing. The company wants to cash in on the growing spends of urban Indians on music and books.

The company will retail music online and is in talks with companies, both Indian and global, for copy rights to their library of recorded music. Music will be sold in custom singles, through a new online venture under the group's book retailing arm, Landmark.

"The consumer will be able to choose the track he wants, pay for it and download it to any MP3 device or a CD. We will function as an aggregator of music content, giving the consumer the option to buy only the tracks he wants." a top Tata official overseeing the project said to Televisionpoint.com.

The service is expected to be up and running this year. Before that, the group aims at signing up around 60-70 per cent of music publishers in India. According to the Tata official, music companies are apprehensive. They fear that sales of their CDs will take a hit if tracks are unbundled and sold as singles.

"We are trying to convince them that the march of technology cannot be stopped and it's better to provide a legal alternative that they can benefit from," he said.

The Tata group has assured music publishers of technology that ensures all downloads are correctly accounted for. Rampant piracy of music sold on CDs denies most record companies their legitimate share of revenues.

The online system will have an audio sampler that lets a customer listen to 20second clips to decide which track he wants to buy. Besides, the firm is working on technology that will allow a customer with a slow internet connection to resume an interrupted download. Landmark stores will also have facilities to burn CDs with tracks purchased by a customer.

Earlier this year, the group exited the the book publishing business when they sold their stake in Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company to McGraw-Hill.

The Tata-controlled Westland Ltd will publish titles of all genres. Wholly owned by Trent, Westland is a listed company that hopes to be among the top five book publishers in India in three years.

"We have lots of new titles under way, both fiction and non-fiction. Westland will publish them. Over the past 12 months, we have built up a pipeline of up to 100 titles." said the official.

"Westland will also reprint international titles. We have also acquired the licence in India for the Chicken Soup series and had two print runs for a customised Chicken Soup for the Indian Soul series." adds the official.

To complete the entertainment experience, the group intends to add MP3 and gaming devices and software at Landmark stores, beginning with Bangalore. The full-fledged tech section will also stock digital cameras and computer peripherals.